Hey Friends! Welcome to my SongBlog. It could also be called a story blog, as I hope you will begin and feel free to share your stories here.
Here's a little one for ya...
Nate and I went to New York this past year. We wanted to visit my friend Ashley, see the sites, and drink coffee in local places. You know, Seinfeld style. (As long as I looked, I could never find the soup nazi). Anyway, I believe the New York transit authority created the subway system not only to transport folks from A to B (stopping at C - D -E-F -and let's not forget G in between), but also to make some extra cash. If you've been to NYC, you know what I mean. A college degree cannot help you unlock the key to the subway. They'll give you a few "easy-to-figure-out" stops as freebies. However, most stops are not so simple. I think the ideology behind it is this: if they can confuse people enough to make them ride the train to what they think is their destination, only to get off and realize it's not, then they will have to pay to get back on. You'd think it'd be easy, but the signs could almost be posted in Sanskrit and it wouldn't make a difference. I think New Yorkers may just memorize their stops. :')
Anyway, Nate and I were headed somewhere in a hurry (can't recall where now), but the maps and signs seemed to be opposing one another. Two of us couldn't figure it out! We jumped on a train (let's say the C train), and stewed over our map. A local man came over to help us decipher where we needed to get off, then another local woman did. The man sat with his eyes closed on his afternoon train back home, only opening them at each stop to tell us, "Don't get off here...not yet". I could swear he was asleep in between the stops! He woke up a final time and said, "This is your stop. You two have a good day." In all my life, I've heard stories of New Yorkers being cold, rude, and hateful - NOT the case in our experience. This man didn't have to help us, and the lady at Walgreens didn't have to search in the back of the store to look for a less expensive umbrella for us when the monsoon began to fall and she thought the ones they had at the counter were too expensive. We met friendly New Yorkers, willing to help and give great tips. I hold a different opinion in my head now, and I love that city.
It reminds me of a song that my friend Jeff recently reminded me of.
Radney Foster's "The Kindness of Strangers."
You can read the lyrics here: http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-kindness-of-strangers-lyrics-foster-radney.html
Wow.
Morgan :')
Morgan's SongBlog - As an artist & songwriter, nothing would be worth saying if it weren't true, didn't happen, or wasn't felt. Welcome to the window to my world, let's trade stories.
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ReplyDeleteI made a whole list of memorable times in NYC when I moved this year, but here is one that you might enjoy. We hosted youth groups each summer to participate in volunteer work around the city, and each team had one or two young girls that never took us seriously when we warned them to stay hydrated. So one night we are in the ER in Brooklyn at 3 in the morning waiting for the doctors to release the young girl we had to bring in. It is really interesting who you will see in an ER in New York City in the middle of the night. All of a sudden a young guy comes rushing through the entrance, hunched over and literally collapsing onto the sign in counter. Not too unordinary for an ER except that he was dressed in nothing but boxers and socks! As he panted his pain to the nurse behind the counter, a young girl comes in the door next, carrying his jeans, shirt, and shoes. We all tried to stifle our laughter as the young guy got dressed in the waiting room, still a little hunched over in pain. I guess when you gotta go, you gotta go!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of unfamiliar places and things we do in and out of our comfort zone . . .
ReplyDeleteMy father was military and we travelled the world. My parents grew up in the south and taught us manners based on their childhood experiences. We were often teased by neighbors and friends because our southern accents gave away the location of our family of origin and the tell-tale sign . . . 'yes ma'am, no ma'am, yes sir, and no sir.'
One long distance travel was without our dad. He had gone before us by six months. When we boarded the plane in California for Japan we connected with another mother and her son, also traveling to the same destination.
High above the Pacific Ocean during an evening flight we were served a Fried Chicken dinner with Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Green Beans and Iced Tea. My brother, absolutely a feisty little guy, needed more supervision than his big sister, who prided herself as a perfectionist at an early age. Mom leaned towards her son with quiet instructions of how to eat this meal with manners. The potential for disaster was looming like a black cloud in the expected storm. Her final instruction informed her little man what a 'finger bowl' is used for in this setting. It was certain to take the rest of the flight if everyone went to the bathroom sink to wash hands!
As my brother finished his meal, he 'bathed' head to toes from the finger bowl. (Sure to be expected!) When he finished, he was licking his fingers when my mother reminded him that the finger bowls were used to prevent the inappropriateness of finger licking!
Our traveling companions were sitting in the next row to our back. As my brother finished his 'bathing ritual' and our mother finished one more of her on-going redirections, the other mother could be overheard telling her young preschooler to finish the apple juice from his tray. YEP - My mother had informed us the 'apple juice' was actually a finger bowl. Once again we caught the attention of strangers in an attempt to be 'the proper southern children' we had been trained to be!
Priceless, Ashley, when you gotta go, you gotta go. I just wonder what that guys was doing when he got caught with his pants off! haha
ReplyDeleteFinger bowls...they would come in "handy" pretty often around here after Addi's finished detroying her food. This morning, she looked like a baby vampire when I turned to her and gasped when I found reddish purple juice all over her face and mouth. Then, I realized it was a blackberry I'd give her. Can't just eat it...has to destroy it first!
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