Back to the Ancestral Homeland

Tomorrow Wifey, the Ds and I head to NYC. On account of Wifey's bad back of the past years, it'll be the first time we're all traveling there in several years.

I was born in Queens and raised on LI, and both of my parents are Bronx born. I've been to much of the world and think NYC is the best city there is --to visit, anyway. I couldn't imagine living among all those people, especially as I've gotten older and less friendly. The acre that separates me from even my wonderful neighbors feels about right.

My partner Paul's daughter Tracy fells otherwise. She's a Miami native, and she loves living in the city. She's an award winning teacher in what used to be called the NY City Sewer System. I think they call it the School System again, and we're leaving tomorrow for Tracy's wedding.

Usually wedding trips are sort of obligatory things, but I'm very excited about this one. Some of my closest friends, like Barry and Stuart, are going to be there, and we have some time reserved for a walk over to the Strand --the enormous bookstore on Broadway. I always try to hit the Strand when I go to NY --I find some rare, interesting book, and walk the few blocks to Washington Square Park to read it. Boy am I boring...

Anyway, the base hotel for the wedding is the Battery Park Ritz Carlton. Apparently the rooms have gorgeous views of the Statue of Liberty. The hotel is 5 star, of course, and we'll likely spend most of the time there. The wedding itself is at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and Paul's hired busses to take us across the Bridge.

I always think of my Dad in NYC. He worked his whole life for companies based there, the last a glassware firm called Toscany, on 5th Avenue.

To my Dad, NYC was a fascinating place, but not one he loved. When he was able to buy a house on LI, with actual grass and a backyard, he felt, like most of his WW II generation, he had really made it. To him, NY was a place you worked during the week, to be able to keep your family in the nicer, safer suburbs.

Of course, in the 70s and 80s, the City wasn't the most pleasant place. Although Dad took us to shows and the occasional museum, he always pointed out the slums and seedy neighborhoods, in contrast to the relatively pastoral life we led in Wantagh.

So, I wish my Dad could see me checking my family into a Ritz Carlton in Lower Manhattan. He knew the Lower East Side well --he was a dress cart "schlepper" there before he was drafted into the US Army a few months after Pearl Harbor. He used to tell me tales of singing as he rolled the carts, and once in awhile a cab driver would pull up and shout "Hey Mac --you're pretty good! You should be on the radio!"

Since I came along after my Dad had done pretty well, my childhood involved hotels that were nice, but not Ritz Carlton level. My Ds have sort of grown used to this level of place, as their later childhoods coincided with my great success as a Robin Hood lawyer.

My friend Todd is coming in for the wedding, too, from Colorado, the more hippie state he and his fellow native Miamian wife fled to a few years ago. He asked me last night to some travel suggestions.

I told him about the Tenement Museum, which Wifey and I visited about 5 years ago. They took an old walk up South of Mott Street, and restored it to 1900s authenticity. Some nice gay tour guides (I have no idea why, but they all are) show the tourists how my poor grandparents lived.

My Dad would have loved that place, too. I'm sure he never thought his childhood was history making. By the time he was born, he folks had "moved up" to the Bronx, but I'm sure he visited aunts and uncles on the Lower East Side.

So -- a lot has happened to my family in 3 generations, and NYC is our ancestral home.

I'll bore the Ds with stories they've heard over and over. They're looking forward to seeing D1's friend Chelsea, a recent Gator grad who's taking a Master's Program at NYU, and then shopping at some discount clothing stores.

I wonder if they'll buy any schmatas touched by the spirit of the man who delivered dresses in the same area 70 years ago.