The Views From Red Hook

The next thing I knew we were careening along the BQE.

On our quest to follow the sun, my friend seemed fine as she kept up with or dodged the trucks and cars, recovered from pothole slams, as she headed somewhere she wouldn't reveal to me. Me? I was getting nervous. As far as I was concerned, we were heading to the sketchy side of Brooklyn.

After we drove around the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to the other side of Brooklyn where street names were foreign to me, she said we were in Red Hook. Red Hook? When my grandmother lived down there decades ago, we weren't allowed to visit. Now I'm told you cannot touch the rents, and worse, are the price of homes and co-ops. When did this happen?

Amazingly, she found a parking spot close to the area she wanted me to see. Behind a Fairway supermarket there is a spectacular view from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Fairway has outdoor tables where you can enjoy the view while having a cup of coffee, or more. Roanoke should have something like this near River's Edge. We've got the scenery, the space, and with Carillion & downtown Roanoke so close, the patron numbers to support a Fairway, Trader Joes, or any other marketplace that could supply an outdoor dining area. Oh, and we also have trolleys.

Here's an old trolley that sits to the side of Fairway's outdoor cafe.

The sun had already set over the Verrazano,

and lingered a little longer over the Statue of Liberty.

Looking further east I could see Freedom Tower.

The sky changed by second.

 

 

The Lady's torch and base got brighter as the sunset dimmed.

 

 

Night fell quick on Manhattan.

 

My friend still wasn't through with the tour so we drove to Downtown Brooklyn. I've always called it the armpit, an area to avoid at all costs, but she said it's changed. The area is called DUMBO now, and it's become another "can't touch" neighborhood. Of course, there was nowhere to park, so I couldn't witness the phenomenal view I briefly glanced from the open SUV window. We then passed the Barclay Center. If you're going to see a show, there's nowhere to park so you'd have to take mass transit. Yeah, no. I don't care how much you tell me the area is changed. The subway stations there still suck.

 

 

And here's one of the last remaining bowling alleys in Brooklyn in Sunset Park, another neighborhood I've always feared. Looks inviting, doesn't it?

 

The night had to end as my friend had work in the morning, and finding a parking spot by her Bay Ridge apartment could take some time...seriously.

Views From the 69th Street Pier

On my quest to get a nice sunset shot -- Brooklyn has the best sunsets I've ever seen -- we chased the sun along the Belt Parkway and ended up in Bay Ridge near the 69th Street Pier. Of course, there was no parking to be found, so I had to jump out of my friend's SUV, run to the pier and start clicking away. Here are some shots I got from the pier...

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

I didn't want my friend to get a ticket, because that's all the NYPD seems capable of these days is giving tickets, so I rushed back to her SUV. I looked through the front windshield, saw she wasn't there, and wondered where she went. I opened the passenger door and panicked because I had left my pocketbook on the floor and it wasn't there either. I started fumbling around the floor looking for it. It wouldn't be like her to just leave with the doors open, so I got nervous that something had happened to her.

Suddenly I heard my name being called, "Elena! What the hell are you doing?!" I looked up from the inside of the SUV and saw my friend pulled up next to the SUV I was rummaging around in. Oh shit, this wasn't her SUV!!! I slammed the door, jumped into the right SUV and off we sped, laughing hysterically....

Lady Liberty

Today marks 125 years since the Statue of Liberty was unveiled.

According to the October 28, 1886 edition of the New York Times: “All day yesterday people came to the city in droves to participate in to-day’s celebration. Extra heavily loaded trains, much behind schedule time, were the rule on every railroad entering the city. Every hotel was crowded to its utmost capacity last night, and there was hardly one of the better known hotels which did not have to turn away hundreds of would be guests.”

She's always held a special place in my heart. Although I only visited her once, for most of my life I drove past her on my way into the city. If you look up from my parents' grave site there she stands.

Next May marks the 100th anniversary of my father's side of the family first arriving on Ellis Island. My grandfather was ten years old when he hit the shores of New York City. The first thing they did was change the "i" in his last name to an "e." Then they Americanized his first name from Gaetano to Tom.

My grandfather's first job was working in his parent's store. Then at 17 he became a chauffeur. For the rest of his life he worked for the MTA. When my father passed, I was going through papers and found my grandfather's past in a trunk. Besides all his unpatented inventions, unpublished short stories and screenplays, I found a letter of accommodation from the MTA.

My grandfather had saved someone's life by jumping from the platform onto the live subway tracks to rescue a man who had fallen. He never told me about his feat, but I do remember him telling me, "If you ever fall on the subway tracks make sure you lie flat in the middle of the two rails and face the direction of the oncoming train...if you don't, your clothes will billow from the wind and get stuck under the train and you will be dragged to your death." I would look at him like he was crazy, but the one time I almost fell onto the subway tracks after I passed out from the heat, that was the first thing that came into my mind.

For next year's 100th anniversary whoever is left from my father's side of the family plan to meet on Ellis Island. I want to be there.

"Lady Liberty, lend a hand to me..."