WALKING HOME TO 635 RIVERSIDE DRIVE

According to something I read a few months ago, New yorkers (no, I do not include myself in that catagory just yet...) have one, if not THE highest life expectancy of towns and cities in the US. This is apparently due to how much they walk everywhere, as well as climbing all those subway steps- a sort of forced aerobics routine.....

I love walking, especially in THIS town, as it is the best way to really get to know all its secret ins and outs....When I am feeling energetic after work at my restaurant job at Columbia, I love to walk home...especially as the sun is setting over Jersey, across the Hudson river...like some strange promised land....bathing everything in orange....

And there are interesting spots I like to pass along the way....






Like the tomb of THE AMIABLE CHILD....(I'm NOT kidding that is what it's called)...Some kid that died (fell off the cliffs here to the rocks of the Hudson below...) towards the end of the 1700s on some rich guy's land, possibly related to him...his father or uncle...and even after he sold the property, he included a stipulation that the site be maintained...). I am pretty sure Edward Gorey lived in NYC at one point....or nearby, and if you have ever read any of his illustrated books, you would swear that this was lifted straight out of one of them....It is tucked away in a shabby little corner of Riverside drive, collecting leaves...












Or this abandoned boatlanding, from when the Hudson river used to flow hundreds of feet higher in between its banks, and lower Manhattan was under water.... (just kidding, making sure you were paying attention..) But it could of been a bandstand or some other public space....There are hawks nest in the trees nearby that you only can see in winter...







And, of course, Grant's Tomb, where, as they say, Grant ain't buried ('cause he is interrred ABOVE ground, which makes it a mausoleum)...with wife in tow.....It's pretty spectacular, as tombs go, even if it ain't no TAJ MAJAL....Origionally there was to be a grand staircase down to a boat landing and train depot....which never came to fruition....The folks at the Manhattan School of Music come there to practice...it can be very odd when every corner you round reveals a hidden trombonist or tuba, being violently throttled....


It is afternoon here, and as I look out at the park, the people are gliding about at the ice rink nearby, the traffic drones along the water, and I can here the icy wind roaring, and think of all those homeless people who can't find shelter tonight....I hope they're all okay, and that you are too....Ciao-for-now.