Hi everybody! Well, I’m back. Sorry for the break in the production, but I’ve been taking a couple of awesome trips prior to the busy summer travel season. And am I excited to tell you about them!
You know, at my age, you start to tell yourself that the time has come to do the things that you’ve always wanted to do, see the places that you’ve always wanted to see. With that in mind, some buddies and I made a baseball pilgrimage to Cooperstown and Yankee Stadium, two cathedrals of our national pastime. Now, just so you know, if you haven’t picked up on this in my prior postings, I am a huge sports fan. The thing is, I enjoy all of the major sports and was quite the amateur athlete in my younger days. As a kid, I wanted to either play pro basketball or pro baseball. I wasn’t beefy enough for serious football consideration although I played a ton of sandlot football (unsupervised mayhem!). Baseball’s intellectual side (on field strategy) also greatly appealed to me as well as the execution of the game. No other sport requires some thinking and subtleties on each play. Needless to say, I love the game.
I also love racing, especially open wheel Indy car racing. For the second year in a row I attended the Indy 500 in Indianapolis. All I can say is WOW! In this, the blend of speed, guts, strategy and technology knock me out! I love everything about the IRL series and may catch another race live later this season. Just to be fair, I also love NASCAR for many of the same reasons. I will also catch a couple of their races in person each year. So there you have it, I’m a huge racing nut!
But hey, I’m getting off track. What I really want to talk about today is what I experienced on the East Coast. Please keep in mind that I was in New York City about twenty-five years ago. I spent several weeks there before and came to know the city and it’s people pretty well. Of course, that experience was all pre 9-11. So I hope you understand that I’m not just another mesmerized tourist seduced by NYC’s charms and importance. I have a lengthy prior experience there and something more profound to make my comparisons with.
To put it simply, things in New York City have definitely changed. And, I would say, for the better. Let me explain. The two biggest changes were in the demeanor of the New Yorkers themselves and in the feel on the streets. The average New Yorker was so much warmer and friendlier than I remember. I constantly made eye contact with all types of people, on the street, in the subway cars, in restaurants, obviously wherever we were and exchanged heartfelt salutations. This occurred constantly. Retail employees everywhere we shopped and service workers that we came in contact with were to a person genuinely nice and friendly. This was a definite departure from what I remembered years ago. I am a friendly guy by nature so obviously I enjoy the chance to interact and greet people, especially when I am the visitor. A couple of my intrepid travel partners, while out on their own one day, even got rescued by someone kind enough to recognize them as out-of-towners and sent them off in the right direction. Now that may not have happened years ago, at least without losing your wallet in the process.
That brings me to my second point. The crime rate in NYC is way, way down. This is something else that you can feel on the street and is also very different from my first visit there. At no time during our visit did I feel that anyone was checking us out to possibly rip us off, do a snatch and run, or pull any type of weapon. I never felt any kind of personal threat anywhere I went. Initially I warned my buddies to stay alert for street crimes, watch their wallets, all of the usual personal security tips that would apply. We quickly went about our travels freely and mixed in with the locals.
I’m not sure how to completely explain what I saw. In general, people all seemed to have a purpose to their day. The adult population was commuting to work, maybe doing a little shopping, getting here and there. They were nicely dressed, either for work or leisure. I didn’t see people whose clothing would identify them as “transient”. Next, the kids all seemed to be neatly dressed and groomed, many wearing some type of school uniform. On the subways, the kids buried their heads in school books (with the close of the school year at hand) and didn’t cause any commotion. Many of them had their personal computers and were having fun with their friends listening to music or playing games. Generally, they stayed out of everyone else’s hair and acted like very decent kids. Here’s a real weird comparison: I saw a lot fewer tats and piercings on the New York kids than I see on L.A. kids.
The overall sense was that the New Yorkers have more of an air of class about them than people here in L.A. I know that statement will cause some ire here at home but I believe it’s true. What could be the reason that this difference is largely detectable, especially out in public, and why the change over the years?
We asked many New Yorkers that very question. To a person, we were told that things changed after the tragedy of 9-11. That may sound too fundamental but think about it for a minute (or longer!) New Yorkers have survived the shock and unspeakable horror of living through the worst modern day tragedy imaginable. They have witnessed the slaughter of almost three thousand innocent people from over thirty different countries who had just started another typical New York day. They have attended the hundreds of funerals for over three hundred and fifty heroic firefighters and almost sixty heroic police officers who did their sworn duty and gave their lives to try to rescue and protect their fellow New Yorkers.
These people, my friends, have laid it on the line and paid a terrible price, personally and as a community. Americans everywhere should be standing shoulder to shoulder with them each and every day. They have served as our proverbial tip of the spear in the new world reality. And they have survived and appear to be prospering again. New Yorkers truly personify that indomitable American spirit that nuthin’ is gonna beat them! They are truly tough people and I salute them for that!
As I stood at Ground Zero, looking up into a warm Saturday afternoon sky, I tried to visualize the Twin Towers as I remember them. They were there, I could see them. But at that moment, I wanted to cry. Cry for each and every one of the victims who leapt to their deaths as the buildings burned, or were crushed as the upper floors pancaked onto the lower ones. And I imagined the streets filled with fire rigs, police cars and ambulances, many of their occupants already inside of the two towers. The rage I felt inside almost made me scream. I kept my sunglasses on and stayed apart from my buddies so they wouldn’t see me with tears in my eyes. It was a very powerful, overwhelming moment.
Today, it’s been almost seven years since we were attacked. The site looks like a massive constructive site. An adjacent skyscraper on the south rim is still being slowly torn down due to collateral damage. If you had been hiding under a rock for the past ten years or so, and just emerged, you would say “wow, what a big construction project!” But if you were ever there before, and had dined at the top of the north tower in the past as I did, you knew what was missing. What has replaced those buildings is a new spirit, kinship and sense of survival among New Yorkers and those of us lucky to be in their presence.
As if feeling all of the above was not enough, allow me to tell you about another highly emotional moment that I experienced while checking out Monument Park in the Yankee Stadium outfield. Everyone is very familiar with the famous NY logo that adorns the Yankee uniform shirt and cap. To many of us, especially baseball fans, we have come to strongly dislike (see, I didn’t say “hate”!) that logo out of jealousy for twenty-six World Series Championships and all of the winning down through the years. Their seemingly endless list of baseball immortals, both then and now also inspires envy. The Yankee franchise is truly the flagship American sports franchise. I don’t care what anybody else says. With that, when you see some kid walking down a street in your town wearing a Yankee cap, or some gansta’ rapper wearing it all askew in a video, you might be generally turned off and feel some disgust.
Well, here’s a fact about the creation of that logo that I have learned and it makes me unspeakably proud to wear it myself. And I’ll bet almost none of you know this! This information comes from a plaque on the ground in Monument Park adjacent to the NY logo. This interlocking insignia of New York City was created in 1877 by Louis Tiffany of the famous Tiffany and Co. jewelers. It was designed and struck for a medal of honor awarded posthumously to New York Police Officer John McDowell, one of the city’s first officers shot in the line of duty. Bill Devery, a former city police chief and owner of the Yankees progenitors, the Highlanders, selected the insignia as the franchise logo. So a very strong tie was forged between the premier sports franchise in America and it’s law enforcement heroes over a hundred years ago. Remember this, my friends, when you see that logo and you will see something very different next time.
I want to give a resounding shout out to all of New York’s finest, both cops and firefighters, for the unbelievably heroic job that they’ve done and continue to do. You are truly the best and I hope that I may use the term “friends” when referring to you. Each and every one of you has my undying love and respect. For those of you whom I met personally, look for my e-mails and please let me know how you are doing.
To my readers, thanks for coming along on this short trip, and to everybody I wish all the best!
I’ll be back soon, Tim