Page 201 - People & Places In Time

find out if I could make it pay off. Needless to say, for now I’m living in the heart of Manhattan and as I expanded my awareness of it’s surroundings, I find that I’m continually attracted to the architecture. The Seagram Building, one of the most beautiful buildings ever erected, it was designed by Mies Van Dero and Philip Johnson who also designed the AT&T building which was starting con- struction at the time I was there. I sometimes stood and watched as the caissons were being sunk to bedrock. The Chrysler building, the Guggenheim museum by Frank Lloyd Wright, and on and on. I could only scratch the surface of what could be a lifetime study.
I was here though, for another purpose. On Monday morning I had no difficulty finding my way through the maze of narrow streets that is “Wall Street”.
Drexel Burnham headquarters NYC
Coming up from the subway I was near Trinity Church, the burial place of Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe and many others from the past and present. I walked along Wall Street passing the New York Stock Exchange to Broad Street, then turned right onto Beaver and the head- quarters to Drexel Burnham Lambert.
I met my fellow trainees in a win- dowless non-descript conference room, and
I couldn’t guess on what floor. The next five weeks of training focused on all of us passing the Series-7 licensing test; after all there is no reason to be their if someone couldn’t pass. As the days became weeks, we all came to know each other better. Where we had come from and what had brought us together in New York City for three months. I was becoming familiar with and comfortable in the routine of living in a place I could not have imagined, given how my life had transpired in the previous few years.