AT the risk of sounding too nostalgic: (I've had a few, and god knows THAT doesn't help...)...This morning I got up early, and took a walk along the river...(I am broke right now, so I gots to find ways to enjoy this town on the cheap..)
I love walking along this stretch of river....There are so many things that, to the alert eye, make you aware that this place, like the rest of this gol-darn town, has a history...Should you be inclined to DIG for it...
There is a certain stretch along the water, that is constantly eroding, giving up chunks of rock displaying the layers of fire and compression eeeked out over millions of years...(SORRY, I have a geologist for father...PLUS I have read that fascinating book,, about the "father of geology, William Smith...(the name eludes my right now)...you never see rocks the same after either of these occurences...), plus the bits of ceramics, or other found objects that the ground has given up-I think this area was land-filled at some point...
There are all sorts of odd architectural features as well...slowly smoothed over by the elements...hinting at one of NYC's previous incarnations...
One this particular morning, it was still too early for the NYC sanitation folks to come and clean up after the revelries of this past weekend (TONS of families BBQing, setting off fireworks, etc.....NOT that it would matter, because after coming from Seattle, a very progressive, environmental community (even though they did overturn the monorail bill 3+ TIMES!!!)...witnessing NYC's attention to sanitation, and recycling is like leaping head first back in a time machine to before even sentient beings walked this earth...Guilliani got rid of recycling for a while because it wasn't cost-effective (!!!!), or some such bullshit....(Sorry, I just cannot believe the ineptness of such a "cutting-edge" city on a concept that has been around for at least 6 DECADES!!!) So, skirting the main trashed area, I wandered up towards the George Washington Bridge...
Anyways, (ahem)...underneath expressway overpass...Jersey benignly glinting across the way....I looked here and there...noting architechtural features...overgrown with greenery and time....I found out later that day on a return up to the Heights along this route with friend CARE-BEAR that this part of Manhattan used to be "the country"...where people came to relax...all along the Hudson were farms....and green...In fact there is a farm house somewhere up near Inwood, still standing, so I am informed....
There is something about this area...because you aren't distracted so much by all the noise and craziness of the city proper....You can feel it has been thru many lifetimes....Has seen much living...
I came home much recharged...and ate a hearty breakfast....
3 comments:
it's like
taking a
virtual walk
with you.
i love that hand
clasping
the duster
(i have an
affinity
for dusters)
or whatever
it is.
i sure hope
you picked it up
and
took
it
home.
FUNNY...I thought it was more some piece of an incan action figure-type thang...No, I didn't take it...One must restrain oneself from becoming a pack-rat...But I can see if it's lying around when next I saunter up that direction...if YOU wannit....?
Oh man you didn't take that hand home? I thought it was part of a cigar store indian. You should go find it and mail it to me :)
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