After my immersion in Concord, Massachusetts, Walden Pond and Henry David Thoreau, I drove through Boston but the city did not interest me much. The drivers were the worst I have ever seen and all the cars were banged up and rusted out.

I headed south to Rhode Island.  The only thing I knew about Rhode Island were the 1963 and 1964 Newport Folk Festival where Bob Dylan and Joan Baez sang. I remember there was some sort of a controversy about Dylan’s music but I did not understand it.

Rhode Island was pretty especially along the coast. There was really nothing to see at the Newport Folk Festival grounds so I continued driving south passing through Mystic, Connecticut heading toward the state of New York and Times Square.

Traffic got significantly heavier as I approached New York City – lots of bridges and tunnels. Once on the island of Manhattan, traffic crawled. I was heading for Times Square by dead reckoning. Once I got to Times Square, there was no mistaking it: a mass of huge flashing neon lights and marques. Given the traffic, there was no point driving around. I found a garage near Times Square and drove into a labyrinth. I parked my filthy 56 VW Bug.

Grabbing my suitcase, I emerged into fading daylight and pulsing neon. I found a cheap hotel, checked into my room and dumped my stuff. I was wearing light blue Wrangler jeans, a t-shirt and a blue parka. I was California tan and my hair was almost bleached white. I stood out like a sore thumb.

The sidewalks were 10 deep. Wall to wall pawn shops and tourist trap stores. To make some progress I took to walking in the street as I saw fast walking New Yorkers do. I had never seen such massive advertisements multi-stories tall – all blinking in multi-colored neon.

Asking around, I got directed toward the Empire State building which was about 10 blocks away on 34th street. As I left the Times Square area, the crowds thinned and I could walk faster. Once I arrived at the Empire State building, the tallest building in the world, I bought a ticket to the 102nd floor – the Top Deck. The lobby was an overwhelming mass of elevators. Once I found the right one, I was whooshed to the Top Deck in less than a minute.

I stepped out to a wrap-around, floor to ceiling windows, a vast 360 degree  panoramic sea of night lights all the way to the horizon. It was pretty awesome for a 20 year old kid in New York City for the first time all by himself. I was gob smacked, as the saying goes. Mouth agape, I wandered around the circular view noticing many brightly lit skyscrapers. One particularly stunning building stood out from all the others. The sparkling modernistic looking building turned out to be the Chrysler Building. It was love at first sight.

After my awesome Top Deck experience, I headed back to Times Square. When I came to 42nd street, I noticed a ton of movie theaters with older titles I recognized. These theaters apparently ran older movies 24 hours a day. Tickets were 25 cents. I picked Giant which I had heard of but never scene. The theater was mostly empty. There were multiple balconies. I climbed up and settled in. I had the entire row to myself. James Dean’s performance was riveting. I lost all sense of time. When Giant ended, another movie started up immediately. I wasn’t really interested in the next movie and I realized I really had to go to the bathroom and that I was starved.

Back on the street in Times Square, it was just as busy and crowded, if not more so. It was then the realization struck me. This city does not sleep. It is open 24 hours a day.

I found a deli and ordered 2 pastrami sandwiches – which turned out to be huge – 6 bottles of ice cold Orange drink. I headed back to my hotel, put my 6 bottles of orange drink in my trash can, packed it with ice from the ice machine, and settled in and turned on the TV. Black and white, there seemed to be a million channels. As I wolfed down the first delicious pastrami sandwich and sucked down an icy cold orange drink, I clicked through the channels: lots of old, classic movies. As the food hit my system, I noticed the light outside was beginning to change. It was dawn. What a first day or night in New York City. I crashed and went out like a light.

It was early afternoon when I woke up. I turned on the TV, ate the other pastrami sandwich, and washed it down with a still cold orange drink. Then I headed out. I re-entered the torrent of humanity packing the sidewalks amid the concrete canyons. I got a map of Manhattan and started walking north.

I reached Central Park and kept walking north. The building that stopped me in my tracks turned out to be the Guggenheim Museum of Art – Frank Lloyd Wright’s revolutionary spiral architectural structure. Getting close to closing time, a bought a ticket and stepped inside. I don’t know which was more dramatic: the swirling exterior or the upward vortex interior. It was the most spectacular interior space I had ever been in.

I took the elevator to the top floor and then walked down hill on the spiral walkway as Frank Lloyd Wright had so cleverly designed. Because the museum was closing, I had to hurry. There was an Ellsworth Kelly show of primary colors and basic shapes. It was beautiful. I was hooked and would be back for more.

Already I had decided that New York City was the most interesting and dynamic city I had ever been in. New York was a whole new world. I had never seen art like this before and I loved it. The Ellsworth Kelly graphic primary colors leaped off the curved walls spiraling down. I found a dramatically modern museum and bright new art incredibly stimulating, beautiful and fun. Modern art was a world I wanted to learn more about.

Only my second night in New York City and I already had a kind of routine: deli, 2 pastrami sandwiches, and 6 ice cold orange drinks. I walk back to my hotel. Pack my orange drinks in ice in my trash can. Settle in. TV on. Inhale the first pastrami (delicious) sandwich while channel surfing almost unlimited old movies, sipping deliciously icy orange drinks. I was a kind of kid heaven. No curfew. Unlimited TV. Fun food.

I wish you and your family the very best of health and a better diet than pastrami sandwiches and sugary orange drinks.

Joe