My husband and I saw a documentary on the building and refurbishment of Grand Central Station over the weekend. I can’t tell you how many trains I’ve taken to and from there over the years.
When I was encouraged to take a car service from my office two blocks from Grand Central I knew we’d encounter horrific traffic downtown so preferred the 4 or 5 express subway train. It saved so much time and no-one saw me drive up in the car anyway.
After meetings, I’d return on the subway and back then there was a bar upstairs off Lexington. I’d sit at a table and sip a cup of Earl Grey Tea before going back to the office while watching people on the main floor. One of my favorite movie moments is in The Fisher King where Grand Central’s main floor becomes a ballroom and everyone is dancing.
There is an historic restaurant I wanted my husband to see a few years back while we were visiting NYC. He was working, I was working my way through the Met, MOMA, the Cloisters and more. He was new to NYC and felt like a groundhog popping up from a subway station for any destination I’d planned for him to see, so we decided to meet for lunch.
I showed up a few minutes early, thinking they’d have me wait until my husband showed up to seat us. No, I was taken up on a dais and seated at a fine table, way better than sitting at the counter when I was single.
Ten minutes later my husband showed up. On my right was an “escort” with her date. On my left was a gal in the lower echelons with her date. The restaurant host thought I was a girl of questionable repute and that my husband was my date for the afternoon. Go figure.
All y’all who know me know I do not dress provocatively. So “I’m meeting my husband for lunch” is code and we were all on display.
My husband suggested moving tables. I said no. This is too good. No-one knows us and we can eat and overhear conversations, high and low. We spoke little as we ate our lunch and after we left, confirmed the fact that it was good to be married for several years and living a good life.
The moral of the story is to look around, see how other people are living, and thank goodness for the life you live. Years ago I once gave my gloves to a homeless man sitting on Lexington Avenue. He said “I only need a left one. Save the other to give to someone else.” I returned to my hotel in tears.
You never know who you’ll meet or overhear, or be seated by in NYC. I remedied the groundhog effect by taking my husband up to the top of the Empire State Building at night and pointing out the rivers, NJ, Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. He got the picture but I had to tell you this funny story anyway. Have a great day! Dee
ps Oh, and the oysters were good, the ceilings and ambiance magnificent.
Cooking with Dee 
Ha, I remember you telling me that story…
Nonetheless, I was mortified a couple of wks ago, when P peeled off some 20’s for me to pay housekeeper at nice Italian joint! I was prob flattering myself, but it just looked “wrong” in that setting ;-)
An old boyfriend told me I could work for “pin money.” One time I insisted on paying for lunch and he made me slide the money under the table. I waited a couple of decades for the right one….. Catholic, he said he had to sit on the right in church so God would know he was conservative. I asked “What if God is looking from the altar and sees you’re on the Left? That was the beginning of the end.
ps I DO have the right one. the last story was of many years ago. Thanks, Val. I’m sure those 20’s were used wisely.