I guess I'll just go East or North as the lights change until I hit Lexington and 41st John thinks as he heads up 34th Street. Ooo 'Macy's...the World's largest Store' John reads as he goes to cross 34th St. Look the Empire State Building is past those buildings and a yellow taxi screeching to a stop and a cab driver yelling, breaking me out of my daydream.
Cabbie
'Fucking zombie'
John
''Zombies don't fuck. They eat. It's an eating disorder. Like someone said 'eat me' and the Zombies were like 'k'.'
Cabbie
'Zombie'
John
'Word'
Cabbie drives on and John crosses the street to Macy's, Macy's, Macy's! What cool windows..such a sense of place or feeling.. Looks like people walking in an autumn wood... is that real leaves?
Reminds me of last weekend, speeding down the Garden State Parkway with my buddy Don -at like 100 miles per hour. Of course, John recalls, we hit a speed trap and get pulled over.
NJ State Trooper
"I've been waiting for an asshole like you all day.'
Don
"I got here as fast as I could."
.
Only Don could get off for being a wise-ass, John thought as he reached Herald Square.
The Empire State Building. Gold and black accents. Jazz Age excessiveness even the Depression couldn't stop in that building. Art Deco...my house is more art dicko John thinks. Plastic ornaments and string lights for every holiday. As John walks across from the Empire State Building, he thinks, I'm so glad they never built a bunch of buildings near it...can really see it. John looks up to the top, thinks wo that's high, makes me dizzy. You are dizzy John thinks as he hits 5th Avenue!
Why not walk up 5th? John thinks as he walks north and spots Lord & Taylor. Oh Lordy what troubles I've seen! Where the hell did that come from? Jimmy Johnson, 8th grade history. He got in trouble for saying that when we were studying the Civil War and slavery. Teacher said he wasn't taking his African American heritage seriously. Might be because his parents were from Aruba, John thinks. Enough of Memory Lane, you have to head towards Lexington.
That stranger who went out of his way to help me understand New York was great John smiled to himself. He was Hasidic Jewish. Now what did he say? Midtown...Avenues run north and south, streets run east and west with the numbers starting from 5th Avenue and getting bigger as they reach the East River or Hudson. That was nice of him. Don't know anything about that religion. None of my dad's Jewish friends dressed like that. When I was little, I thought all my dad's friends were Italian. Sol Zemmel...Italian. Milton Perlmutter...Italian. There was a meter to the way they told a joke...I could hear it from my bedroom John thinks when I was supposed to be sleeping- on a school night. Anyway, I'm officially on the East Side. Madison Avenue!
There's a peacefulness to the mix of brownstones and low-rise brick buildings as John enters Murry Hill. Little French restaurants, boutiques and spice stores. This feels like home, he thinks. How wierd. Walking a block past Madison, Park Avenue opens broad and wide -a grand avenue- and John can see the top of Grand Central as he nears Lexington Avenue. Look at all of those steps in front of that building. I'm gonna eat my lunch there. So open and sunny.
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