After a few days of riding trains, walking crowded sidewalks, and listening to late night jazz, Shaggy Hair Boy and I went to Central Park. He’d seen it on the map, that big green rectangle, and he kept exclaiming about it. “There’s all these buildings, crowded together, and then this big-ass park right in the middle of it all.”
We started at the southern edge of the park, with the plan to just wander north until we came to the Museum of Natural History.
“It feels good to just stretch out,” said Shaggy Hair Boy. “Everything in the city is so cramped.” We’d eaten bagels and soup at a deli earlier that afternoon. To fit at the small table that was shoved up against the window, we’d had to move pull our chairs out one at a time and then slide in sideways. I don’t notice those things because I’m small, but my son has long arms and legs.
The afternoon sun was warm. We walked past ball fields covered in snow and a big pond filled with ice. Every once in a while a horse and carriage would clip clop past. A group of kids were throwing a Frisbee disk on one lawn. Trees curved their branches over our heads as we crunched over the icy paths. “It’s so funny to find this whole park here,” Shaggy Hair said again, looking around. “Trees and everything. What a good idea.”
5 comments:
Is that the lamp in the forest in Narnia? :o)
I love love love Elaine's comment!!
Was this the first time he went to NYC? I forgot to ask this before.
And I'll never forget the first time I went to Central Park either! It was magical! My boys have already been there three of four times. They LOVE the playgrounds. There are some really good ones, including one on the East Side (is the East side where the museums are? I think so) that has a slide carved out on a rock. You go down it with a piece of cardboard, and wearing basketball clothes (or any synthetic ones) is even better! (that's what my eldest son was wearing on that day they ended up climbing the Empire State building without me -- they spent the afternoon at the playground while our friend went sightseeing).
Sigh... I can't wait to go back to NYC with my family!! Next summer, I swear!
Wait, was this his first time to NYC? That's surprising.
These posts have helped me understand why people like the city. I never really understood it before.
The last time Shaggy Hair Boy visited the city was in June of 2001, and he was a just a little kid. He says he can remember sitting on the steps of the World Trade Center.
Again, you're making me homesick
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