#2 - A Small Bite of The Big Apple

My first few years in Nashville I worked for a Christian music company. Occasionally, I would be invited to attend a trade show which made me feel very corporate chic. I visited Chicago, Indianapolis & Dallas during my time there but most trips involved more work than play and lasted only a day or two. In 1995, however, I was asked to attend the Toy Fair in New York City with my boss and one of our marketing guys. One would think that I would have been ecstatic over the invitation but I’ll confess I wasn’t. Handiman and I hadn’t been married very long and I couldn’t bear to think of spending 4 days away from him. The thought of that now sends me into side-splitting hysteria. I clearly needed to get a life.

I guess my boss, a woman named Jackie, knew I was apprehensive. I’ll admit that having Jackie as my traveling partner was one reason I wasn’t digging it so much. She was known in office circles as "Wacky Jackie" because she tended to be a little ditsy. Turns out she was also very sweet. She knew that I hadn’t traveled very much so she went out of her way to make the trip enticing. My co-workers were greatly amused that I would be trapped with Wacky Jackie for 4 days with no way out. It just so happened the laugh was on them. She bought us tickets to a Broadway show and promised we’d do a little sightseeing while we were there. Wacky Jackie and I ended up having a perfectly wonderful time.

The only cab ride I had ever taken prior to this trip was in Chicago from the airport to my hotel. My time in New York was the first time I had ever been completely reliant on the taxi system to get around. I had a rather unpleasant subway experience in London and wasn't very keen on trying it again. Also, our company was paying the bills so what the heck?! We ate at great restaurants and took taxis everywhere we went. Of course, WJ and I continually annoyed cabbies by giving them street numbers instead of block numbers. We didn’t have the “47th and 28th” thing down at all. Also our method of hailing cabs looked like more of a polite suggestion than a fervent demand. It’s wonder we got around at all. Each and every time we got in a taxi I felt like I was on an episode of Seinfeld. As a matter of fact, as a pop culture addict I was on sensory overload the entire time.

I don’t remember anything about the trade show but I do remember the city. I never expected to love it so much. The people were surprisingly friendly and helpful. I think they liked our accents and prolonged their assitance to get a little more of the twang. We probably laid it on a bit thicker than necessary to get sympathy. They would ineviatably try it out themselves. There is nothing funnier in the wide world than a New Yorker trying to say ya'll. It's pathetic really.

WJ took me to see The Empire State Building, Wall Street, Radio City Music Hall, Trump Tower and Rockefeller Center. We went shopping at Macy’s and Saks 5th Avenue and ate the best cheesecake in the Western Hemisphere. I also had the most expensive chicken sandwich of my lifetime. I think it cost about $25 dollars. No kidding. I was a long, long way from the Steak Pit. There was plenty we didn’t get to see for lack of time but I didn’t mind. I had 2 experiences that went beyond my wildest dreams and they were both thanks to Wacky Jackie.

The first was "Beauty and The Beast" on Broadway. The biggest dream of my little girl heart was always to be a Broadway musical star. I was raised on My Fair Lady, The Music Man and Oklahoma. As much as I loved the movies I never thought for one second I might actually get to attend a stage show in New York. But there I was thanks to Wacky Jackie. And that wasn’t all. Since she bought the tickets at the last minute our seats weren’t together so she inquired at the front desk where each seat was located. One was in the upper balcony and one was 3rd row center. She graciously handed the 3rd row ticket to me. I will never forget that feeling for as long as I live. It was the most spectacular thing I had ever seen and let me just tell you that when the Beast turned back into the Prince right in front of my 3rd row center eyes, I gasped and cried and clapped like I was 6 years old.

While the show satisfied my girlish dreams, our tour of NBC Studios at Rockefeller Center rocked my celebrity-obsessed world. At the beginning of the tour as we were waiting to go up, Al Roker himself came over to say hello. Our official tour started in a replica of an old radio newsroom where they invited 2 people to “read the news” into the microphones. Little old “never talks to strangers” shot my hand up in the air and was given the copy to read. It turned out I had the last line which read “Live from New York It’s Saturday Night!” Oh. I was in pop culture utopia. Later, as we were walking through the newsroom of The Today Show, Matt Lauer nearly bumped into me on his way down the hall. Then we got to see the set of Saturday Night Live. As we were leaving the gift shop, where I purchased my official Seinfeld mug, we were asked if we’d like some free tickets to a TV taping. We had our choice of Donahue or some new guy named Conan O’Brien. We didn’t know who he was but we knew employees of Brentwood Music need not been spotted in the audience of Phil Donahue so we opted for Conan. It was a complete hoot and knowing what I know now, I feel very much like a trendsetter.

The most surreal experience was our walk through Time Square one night. If you’ve never been there it’s impossible to imagine what it’s like. "Electric" is the only word that comes to mind. The lights are brighter than any I’ve seen and there are people everywhere walking and pushing and talking. And then there are the car horns. That’s one thing I didn’t expect. It is a continuous stream of horn honking and it is maddening. While we were taking our leisurely stroll we happened upon a rather large group of men gathered to watch a boisterous African American gentleman. He was standing on a table and shouting very emphatically and his audience seemed energetic and in complete agreement with whatever he was saying. I thought he was a street preacher until WJ grabbed my arms and said “Let’s get out of here!”. That’s when I noticed the signs that read “Nation of Islam.” Yeah. He was a disciple of Louis Farrakhan and we were not his target audience. We high-tailed it to Sardi’s for coffee and dessert.

Handiman has never been to New York and it’s been his lifelong dream to attend the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade before he dies. We’ve tried a couple of times to plan a trip but we haven’t made it yet. We will though and I can’t wait. Here are some photos circa 1995:




This is me inside the Empire State Building. Yes, all I was thinking about was "Sleepless in Seattle". It's who I am and I make no apologies for it.




Here I am post NBC tour experience holding my gift shop bag. It had been the greatest day of my life if you didn't count my wedding. I'm pretty sure that day I wasn't counting it.