On Monday, I was up at 8:00 a.m. and ate a snack in the Piccadilly Coffee Shop. While in the City I suppose, I must have spent at least $5.00 for just coffee and donuts each time I snacked, especially in the Coffee Shop on Times Sq. The food wasn’t that expensive; it was the tips. “To Ensure Promptness” did not actually exist. However, it wasn’t proper to leave without contributing something. I couldn’t figure out why the waiters left about 30¢ in tips on the counter. So, I asked one. He said most of their living was derived from tips and downtown New York was for tourists who didn’t know whether or not to tip. The money showed that they should tip. He also gave me a story of how, in his youth, he had observed his father tipping the grocer. Thus, the practice was established. He had his children tip too, since they knew their father made his money that way. In the coffee shops I observed New Yorkers. I found their accents very amusing. Did everyone come from Brooklyn and the Bronx?
Following breakfast, our group walked through the snow to Radio City. The underground corridors and shops and agencies were a tourist’s Mecca. We were to see a production in the Music Hall about noon. First, I had to grab a bite to eat. I did it the way a rushing New Yorker does – at a stand-up lunch counter. Here I tried to order a goose-liver sandwich like the guy next to me was eating. When the counterman could not understand my request, I had to point, like a foreigner, to my fellow-consumer, for here, goose-liver is liverwurst!
Once we arrived at Radio City Music Hall we were herded into the lounge with its indirect low lights, statues, and admonishment: “no flash pictures, please.” Then into the extra-large hall. I wondered how many it seats it held. Here we saw the movie Picnic and the Rockettes. Now that was precision dancing! Even they use black-light; it was really an extra-large KSU-Pork Barrel production.
In the afternoon we toured the NBC television studios where I saw color television. Upon leaving the studio, I found the Californian Restaurant and took advantage of a postcard meal, one ordered with a postcard. Then I wandered around the City – stopping in bookstores which I found fascinating – and browsing at the newsstands that were always open. New York by now was loaded with snow. I returned for a short time to the Hotel.
The Booth Theater was across from the Hotel. I picked up a ticket for Time Limit with Arthur Kennedy. The seat, I learned, was in the second row, center. What a place to see a Broadway Play! Of course I enjoyed it.
Later I dashed back to NBC to see the Tonight Show. I got there too late to sit downstairs. Instead, I was ushered up to the fifth balcony where I would have needed to watch everything on the monitor. This would never do; my philosophy was to do everything I could do only here in the City and not to do anything I could do at home. So, I ducked out a side-door and proceeded downwards.
I felt as if I were reaching the bottom of Dante’s Inferno. At last, I arrived on the main floor. There I saw a vacant seat next to Mrs. Shoot, the ATO housemother! I took it until it was claimed by another man. I moved to the back of the small studio and stood. A young usher asked me if I was connected with the show. I said, “not exactly” and did not move. Finally, he put me in the last row which is reserved for the sponsors. The show was about Fred Allen. I almost fell asleep several times. When it ended, I walked back to the Hotel, once more, completely exhausted.
On Tuesday, my last day in New York – the Bagdad on the Hudson, Gotham, Metropolis, whatever you prefer, we were put on buses and taken to the United Nations Building for a tour. Our guide was a cute Russian girl who gave a coy smile with an answer of “yes” to my question: “Is this the Council chamber from which Gromyko walked out?”
Down in the shops I purchased some postcards and UN stamps. On the way back, some from our group stopped off at the department stores, but upon my return to the Hotel, I took a Fifth Avenue bus to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This was probably the most ridiculous thing I attempted – to tour the Metropolitan in two hours!
About six o’clock we were given our final instructions in the lower lounge, our rendezvous site each day. Then the girls I had met on the train wanted to go someplace famous for our last meal in New York. Two other guys from the train and I accompanied them to Sardi’s for a hilarious meal. Since we had no reservations, we were directed upstairs, but it was Sardi’s!
The headmaster inquired about cocktails. One of the girls wanted a screwdriver! The shocked waiter complied. I had a conservative daiquiri. The girls had not eaten all day. None of us had. Everyone promptly got dizzy and hot. One of the guys drank almost a pitcher of water – to dilute the alcohol, he claimed. We had a great time laughing. I wonder what the people around us thought. Then came the check – for $ 32.20. The real fun began as we tried to tally what each one had bought. I finally paid $5.70 and left a dollar tip as each of the other guys did. On our way out we peeked into the downstairs and left, each to go to a different play.
I had chosen Tennessee William’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof which was by far the best play I saw while in New York. It dealt with a triangle of an alcoholic hero, an unwanted heroine wife, and a possible homosexual friend. Afterwards I overheard one Brooklyn woman say to another, “My Mother is very intellectual, but I’m sure she wouldn’t enjoy it.”
I dashed into an Automat, bought some sandwiches, got some donuts from the coffee shop, grabbed my bags and giving Times Sq. one last look, boarded the bus. We left the Island through the Hudson Tunnel. Once boarding the train, everyone was tired enough not to sing, but to recall in their dreams the pleasures of New York. In these four days I spent $100.00 but every cent was worth it.