Chronicles from NYC

Susie in NYC cont. September 20,2012

Today was a great day and because I am filled with enthusiasm and good feelings for the first time in many months. I realized that after two weeks of being in the City, I am becoming more comfortable with the bustle of the city and thus, more confident. I still don't like the noise (especially the ubiquitous assholes who honk their horns in the late afternoon traffic) and have to sleep with earplugs but I am becoming more comfortable with being alone, with the subway system and walking/exploring everywhere.

Soho, where Sierra lives is really convenient and there is lots of interesting places within walking distance which I am only just beginning to find out about (more on that later in today's chronicle).

The other cool aspect of the city is that old coin, all roads lead to Rome, is so true. My cousin Jeanne and her husband George arrived yesterday for a couple of days on their way to the Cape. Met them for dinner last night along with Omar and EJ. We went to Recette, a very foodie place in the West Village that my Paly friend Mary Brown recommended. It was delicious with all kinds of combinations and different ways of cooking familiar foods. For example (this is for all you food fans out there) I had corn chowder and squash blossom soup. The soup was blended, cold, extremely creamy and with great fanfare was poured over my freshly fried squash blossom. And, the meal went from there lubricated with good wine.

From here is gets better.....This morning I met Jeanne and George and we walked the Highline. I was actually able to find it (thanks again to Mary who showed me the way the first week I was here). For those of you who don't know the Highline is an urban garden built along a decommissioned raised track line. In addition to being able to botanize and get a sense of the natural world ( do miss that) the views of the city and Hudson River are pretty spectacular. From there we found our way to a subway and went to the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side, with a stop for a Lobster Roll at a nearby cafe.

I had NO idea what we were walking into other than the NYTimes review that said it was one of the best museums in the city. It is an experiential museum. In fact, one can only go in on a tour. We took the Garment Worker tour because it focused on the wave of Jewish immigrants at the end of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. It was like walking into the history of Mom's side of the family – the precursor to our family's book, The Mispucah. Even the photos looked like they could have come from our family albums. More important, and as you probably know, the lower East Side tenements were where the various waves of immigrants came to after being processed at Ellis Island. They said at time it was the the highest concentration of people in one place in the world. It is stunning to see the conditions people lived in. It is one thing to intellectually know the living conditions were squalid, it is another thing to see what immigrants had to endure. 325Sq ft apartments with no water or plumbing to start with, 6 garment workers plus a family with a bunch of kids, coal heat all the time (yes even in the awful NY summer) because they had to heat the irons to press the clothes. 100 dresses in 10 days (one of which was a Saturday, the Sabbath). It really stuck a cord for Jeanne and I – seeing the mementos and photos– in that it reminded us so of our family. What struck me the most is that the anti-immigrant noise we hear today is nothing new (different ethnic group/issue) along with how brave my ancestors were to have done what have done. Not unlike the immigrants of today. As we walked out all three of us looked at each other and said the GOP candidate, Mitt, needs to pay a visit to this museum to understand something about the origins of this country.

I am reminded here than Ian had a homily or a joke for every event. He would have loved Mitt's continual foot in mouth problems. I wish I could remember his saying – something like he must love the taste of his shoe leather because when he takes one foot out he puts the other in. Oh I do miss his wit and irony at times like this.

So one more thing before I close. I walked back toward the Lower East Side to check out a recommended spa after leaving Jeanne and George. What thrilled me is that as I left Soho and all the trendy shops, I came to Little Italy where there was a carnival on the street. I stuffed a freshly made cannoli in my mouth as I looked at all the hundreds of people speaking Italian, women with dyed black hair, men with fancy shoes, carny types who operated the rides and best of all, jugglers – all in celebration of San Gennaro who I had never heard of before but I now know is the patron saint of Naples. Little did I know that this week is the 86th Annual Feast of San Gennaro and takes place in Little Italy for 11 days. They even have a cannoli eating contest!!!They say it is the oldest biggest religious street festival in the city. I don't know about biggest because last Saturday I was in Harlem with Oms and EJ and it was Africa Day and lemme tell ya, noisy and big too.

And, then, would you believe it, two blocks later I found Chinatown but more on that in another missive.

I feel like Alice....