Category: Just Because

Back in 2009 I saw the revival of SOUTH PACIFIC at Lincoln Center.  What a wonderful Rodgers & Hammerstein musical.  Those marvelous songs, “Younger Than Springtime”,”There’s Nothing Like A  Dame”, “Some Enchanted Evening”, but the song from the musical that has been repeating in my head since Charlottesville and Barcelona is, “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught”…

You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear
You’ve got to be taught from year to year
It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made
And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade
You’ve got to be carefully taught

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late
Before you are six or seven or eight
To hate all the people your relatives hate
You’ve got to be carefully taught

With love and with  the hope that in my  old age I will  live to see prejudices of all forms disappear from this country and this world.

Peace,
KAY 

Or… Easy, just follow  my  four  rules and become a suave sophisticated, “I know what I’m doing” with an attitude, rider.

It seems to me that taking a bus shouldn’t be intimidating, because pretty sure the odds are good that we all have taken buses at some point. We got on, we got off and ended up where we wanted to be.  Right?

Well, when I became a permanent resident here, the thought of riding a City bus was not only intimidating, but downright scary. Instead I took cabs and car services, a costly way to travel I quickly found out.

So I decided one night to stop being a wimp and just do it.  The next morning, after checking  the schedule, off I went with my “unused” reduced fare (senior)  Metro card safely in my wallet.   I took the M66 to Lincoln Center an easy trip across Central Park.  I can report now that nothing, absolutely nothing, happened to me. I got on the bus, I got off the bus and gave myself a high-five as I landed on the sidewalk.  However, I did begin to learn of the unwritten rules of riding a City bus which helped to reduce my angst from a 10 plus down to a “Hey, I’m a professional bus rider here, people!”

Following are my  lessons learned, but first a word of advice.  Ignore all the stuff that goes on around you, including the passenger who  not only hates the bus, the bus driver and everyone on the bus, but will also tell you why in words your mother told you never to say!

Rule 1
Always, and I mean always, allow extra time.  Because anything could and probably will  make you late.  Those huge delivery trucks seem to be dropping off all kinds of stuff just when your bus approaches and then there’s the ever -popular surprise detour for a myriad of reasons – it is New York you know. 

Rule 2
Have your Metro card or exact change in hand when you board.
Otherwise, those people behind you that were nice a few minutes ago will change in a NY second if you fumble – and if it’s raining?  Fuhgeddaboudit!

Rule 3
Hit the strip  “Stop Requested” after  the bus  leaves the stop before yours.  Otherwise, it doesn’t light up and  I learned this the hard way as I watched
wide- eyed my bus driving right by my stop.    

Rule 4
No seat available? Grab any strap, bar, back of seat, but never, ever a person.
Unless of course you’re about to fall which could result in bodily harm,  which will stop the bus, which nobody wants. Then I can almost promise that your fellow  passengers will  offer to let you hold on to one of  them so that their  bus will just keep on moving without any further ado…hopefully.

And not a rule, but just a kind act of civility is to thank the bus driver when you get off – these people have to put up with all of us.

Love this City and have come to love the buses! (I don’t take subways).
Happy Trails!

KAY’S NOTES: 

Important to know: Just visiting?  You can get a reduced fare card as a senior citizen or person with disabilities even if you’re not a resident of NYC.  Check out the website – all info you need is there
http://web.mta.info/nyct/fare/rfindex.htm

Or …as Jefferson sings in the musical Hamilton when he returns to America in the second act, “What’d I miss?”

 I don’t think I missed much even with all the chaos and craziness these days.  And I’m not just talking politics here. What about those Oscars?    Well, on second thought, I did miss Bonnie and Clyde cause I went to bed right before the end thinking, La La Land is a shoo-in.  I woke up the next morning and heard the news and the mixing of the envelopes and said a few choice words.  None of which I will repeat here.

Now the point of this short post is not to go on about what I missed or didn’t miss,  but to let you know I’m back and hope you will continue to read about my NYC adventures. New post is coming shortly.

Thank you for following kaysnycways and please  keep your comments coming.  I love reading them and always welcome your feedback.

Kay

Kaysnycways.com

Or…..is Feet a good theme for a family holiday  grab bag, I ask?

Or should it be, music, or books, or recipes, or “things that go bump in the night”, or handmade cards, or puzzles, or family photos, or signs of the Zodiac, or white elephants, or recipes, or “freebees” from somewhere, or magnets, or  socks?

Our family has done all of the above and more.  It started about 20 years ago when we thought,(I have 5 siblings with kids)   there are now over 50 people in our family,  let’s do a grab bag with a theme to make it more interesting.  A tradition begins!

Now, for some reason, I have become the designated “Oliver” Holiday Grab Bag Coordinator.  My responsibilites?  Get input from my brothers and sisters on a theme, write a very clever poem about the theme (at least I think so), figure out who gives to who, and lastly be sure addresses are correct. And then send it all out to the Oliver group.   A very big job!   Tradition!

I would like to say that we get 100% participation, but not so.  We average about 75%, but like in the Godfather, “just when you think you are out, they pull you back in again.”   Meaning once you hit the age of 18, you are in and there is never any “out”!  Tradition!

I used the name “Oliver”  before, let me explain.   Many, and I mean, many years ago, my then  very young brother and sister were arguing over a something or other, and one was saying, “It’s mine”  The other, “No, it’s all of ours” which through the heat of the argument became it’s “allivers”, one word.  I remember my mother and I looking at each other and saying, hysterical laughing, “Who’s Oliver?”   Hence, our designated famiy name, “The Olivers”    Tradition!

So here we are very close to Thanksgiving, and I just sent out this year’s Holiday Grab Bag to the Oliver’s.   Reflecting over the years, it’s not about getting a gift (our limit by the way is $15.00) it’s about family.  We live all up and down the east coast – and we try to get together for a family reunion every once in a while.   We did manage it this year thanks to my  nephew and wife’s cabin and grounds in upstate New York.

But until the next in person Oliver  reunion, this tradition keeps us close!  I wish everyone a great and safe Thanksgiving with family and friends.   Tradition!

KAY’S NOTES:

Here's the  poem for this year - can you guess the theme before the end?

“Here’s a very simple thing if you happen to get dirty

It can make you feel so clean and can make you smell so perty

It comes in all sizes, shapes and va-ri-e- ties  

Most often used in our so-called so- ci -e- ties

Now some like a pump and some  hold it in their hand

Choices are  everywhere  across  our ” franchised” land

Ernie and his Ducky are two of its supporters

As they take their daily bath in Sesame headquarters

By now, I think you’ve got it, at least that’s what we hope 

You’re right, you guessed… the theme is…. that ever-lovin’ soap!

TRADITION!

Or who, or what, besides a  baseball player, can score a  home run?

“All the news that’s fit to print”…did it for me!

I’m an avid fan of the NY Times for a lot of reasons and one is because every once in a while the paper has a good news article or op-ed or editorial that just hits me  with an “aha” moment.  Recently, it  published an op-ed column,“Retire to Manhattan, Live Long“.  Aha, aha, aha! For me, that was more than a base hit that was an over the wall, with the bases loaded, home run! It’s  going to be my new bumper sticker, “Retire in Manhattan, Live Long”, if I had a car that is, which I don’t, so instead I’ll print it out and hang it on the wall  in my apartment.

Reading the column made me stand up… literally!  And say, “Thank you, Willard!”  One of my friends, who doesn’t live here,  recently said to me,  he didn’t think the City had a sense of community. “It sure does,” I said. I  told him about my neighborhood, but Willard Spiegelman, who wrote the 0p-ed, said it the best.

“Conventional wisdom holds that New Yorkers, like Parisians, are snooty, too busy to be approachable. Walking with speed and determination, they cannot be stopped. I have never found the stereotypes accurate. Manhattan is a series of small villages. It replicates itself every five blocks or so. The shoemaker, neighborhood market, barber shop, dry cleaners, liquor store all become part of one’s daily drill. You make friends in the shops.”

Now, as you know, if you read my blog even  once in a while, I’m crazy about this city and everything it offers.  For many years, I’ve wanted to live here and always knew it would be a great place to retire.  This article just adds to why. (even though as Spiegelman says..”If one can afford it (a big if).”  True, but there are so many freebies almost everyday and experiences  that only cost the wear and tear on one’s feet (and knees), that simply enriches one’s life, I believe, at least for me.

As autumn arrives and baseball fans  battle, you might want to read Spiegelman’s column in-between cheering for your favorite team.   As I said, at the beginning, sometimes…something… just hits home!

“Chance encounters brighten the day. They’re like little love affairs without consequences. They keep you alert. This is what any senior citizen needs. To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, when a man is tired of Manhattan, he is tired of life.”

Love this City and Spiegelman for writing the column…bases loaded, out of the park, home run!

KAY’S NOTES: 

Important to know and good to know:

This  good news op-ed was written by Willard Spiegelman who has a new book, “Senior Moments: Looking back, Looking ahead”, the column, and the above quotes are excerpts from that book. He currently lives in Dallas, but according to his column moving to NYC full-time next year.

(Spiegelman’s column site below – apologies – unable to make it smaller font – no matter what I did without losing the link)

Spiegelman’s paraphrase from Samuel Johnson:  The original quote from Samuel Johnson in 1777  “…. when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life…” The ever witty Samuel Johnson was an essayist, biographer and cultural critic who was a prominent figure in 18th century England (Biography.com)

Babe Ruth Photo – courtesy of Wikipedia

Disclaimer: I try for correct information on my posts, but no guarantees people.

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