I had the pleasure last week of seeing a great photo exhibition at Grand Central Station. I was one of ten million people who visited Grand Central to see the wonderful Dear New York community art installation. The entire station was turned into one of the largest public art installations ever put together. The exhibition was created by Brandon Stanton, whose photographs and writing are seen on the website, Humans of New York.
Loved this bulldog photograph
Grand Central Station may be my favorite public building in New York City. It's a subway hub and the station for one of the suburban railroads, MetroNorth. Metronorth is the gateway to Westchester County and several other counties to the north of New York City and to Southern Connecticut. For many years it was also connected to the building where my agency had their headquarters and I passed through on an average of once a week for twenty years. I can't say that I know every inch of the building, but I'm familiar with a lot of them.
This seasonal photograph (on the bottom of the display) caught my attention
As a person who loves to take photographs and especially loves to take photographs of New York City, this exhibit was a dream come true. Fabulous photographs of the city I've lived in fifty years this month, displayed in my favorite building. In the main hall there was a grand piano and the treat of music played by students from the Juilliard School, which was a wonderful surprise.
I've been thinking about doing a post about my fiftieth anniversary in New York City and this is the perfect post. I moved to New York in October 1975 to begin a job with Harper & Row, which is now Harper Collins (Publishers). I expected to stay two years, three at most. I didn't see how I could actually live in New York. It was too big, too crowded and too noisy. How could I live here permanently? How would I put down roots?
I put down roots, tiny shoot by tiny shoot. Job by job, address by address, friend by friend. Hairdresser by hairdresser by cleaner by dentist by grocery by news stand. One day without thinking about it, I was firmly planted and now I have lived in New York City for fifty years. I have spent two thirds of my life here and I couldn't imagine it any other way. I didn't choose New York, New York chose me.
On that note, it's my fiftieth autumn in New York. In my first, in 1975, I had a new job and a new apartment. Everything was new and both exciting and scary. Now most things are very familiar and it's no longer scary, but there are moments that are still exciting. I will enjoy Central Park for the fiftieth autumn and once again, be grateful for the season, the leaves and the beauty of autumn in New York.
As ever, thanks for visiting and happy autumn!
