GOING BACK IN TIME

Recently I had a meeting in the Wall Street area and decided to take the train into the city, hop on a subway and do the dirty thing. I am not familiar with Wall Street or the area surrounding it, but in I went with a little apprehension. When I was young and had the energy to do it every day, I would commute into the Big Apple and work, things have not changed, the nut cases are still out there, just older.

Going through the subway system in the height of the summer is akin to attempted suicide. The humidity is so locked into the stations that you begin to suffocate the moment you enter, the dreaded heat overpowers you and makes you want to strip down! To make matters worst, I get off at Wall Street and I feel the heat is on! Yes, the same heat they use to heat you in the winter is on! I have to walk through the corridor from the tracks to the exit escalator, and the heat is causing me to sweat, profusely, looking like I showered in my clothes, just what I need before a meeting.

Cardinal rule Number 1, never look anyone in the eye on a subway car, not that you should be ashamed of yourself, or that you are hiding something, it’s that who you are looking at might not be who you want to meet. Following that rule as I entered the #2 Train at Penn Station, who do I come to meet is this gorgeous sexy young lady! Long black hair, short skirt and spikes, smelling like an angel and I wonder what she looks like as I avoid her eyes. She has a rather classic chest, sculpted by Rodin I think, but I will not look at her eyes! Her long bronze legs say so much to me like; keep you hands to yourself Joseph or; I hope Ellen isn’t getting any vibes or; is this a way for a grandfather to behave? I never looked into her eyes: OK I looked into her eyes. There goes rule Number 1.

But with all the trouble to get to the meeting, a meeting that invited people from the lower regions, the southeast regions of NY State to be exact, the train, the subway, the heat and humidity, the crowds, all for a 15 minute meeting, that covered nothing that I didn’t know about already!