Page 203 - People & Places In Time

The City From A New Perspective
I was no longer alone in exploring New York. I had a companion and guide to places I could never have been to on my own . . . such as picking up her daughters from their ballet class at Julliard. I certainly would never have gone backstage at the New York City Ballet following a performance in Lincoln Center. I began to feel as if I lived in New York, I was no longer just a visitor. We had Saturday afternoon lunch at Bergdorf Goodman on 5th Avenue and late dinner at Sardi’s, across from the Shubert Theater, following the Broadway musi- cal, Cabaret. To paraphrase Dorothy; “I wasn’t in Fresno anymore”.
One evening after work we took a taxi to her apartment. We went the long way up the east side on Franklin Roosevelt Drive, because she wanted to show me her favorate view in the City. Rounding a bend near the 14th Street bridge the view ahead toward midtown and the Empire State Building is unex- pected and indeed, beautiful . . . that was our first kiss in the cab that night.
Judith was a tall for a ballet dancer attractive Jewish girl with long black hair; think of Fran Drescher but softer, gentler. One day during a break from class, I was in the men’s restroom and overheard a conversation between several guys in our group. Jimmy Venetos was Jewish himself and had been hired in the same office as Judith and certainly new her well enough. In the course
of the conversation he made reference to her as a ‘JAP’. I didn’t understand the context of his reference and though it bothered me, I didn’t comment. Later when I asked Judith what this comment could have been about; she laughed
talk about being out of my element. She explained; A ‘JAP’ as it was used, and not as a complement, referred to a “Jewish American Princes”, a well taken care of Jewish girl, which of course she was. She wasn’t particularly bothered.
Five weeks into our training, on one cold Saturday morning in February, our class met with others from all around New York at New York University’s downtown annex. We were all there to take the Series-7 licensing test, it was expected the test would to take most all of this day.
Judith and I walked outside about 3:00 that afternoon. It had been snowing much of the time we were inside and everywhere was covered to at least two or three inches. We were just down and across from the World Trade Center Towers. As we walked in the snow toward the towers we came upon a large flat plaza spread out before us in front of the two buildings; a broad canvas of white, punctuated only by a large sculpture at the center of a pool and foun- tain. Ours became the first footprints as we approached the entrance to one of the towers. We were on our way up to the “Windows on The World” restaurant at the top of the one tower, for an “I’m glad that’s over drink”, though neither of us held to any idea as to whether we had passed or not. Looking back to this quiet scene the image of our solitary footsteps describing a path in the snow lead- ing toward the entrance to these magnificent towers standing before us, extend- ing up into the falling snow disappearing through the clouds above this will forever remain my indelible memory of what was taken on 9-11.
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