Archive

Gotham guests, post 9/11

April 23, 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Tom Claridge

Quite awhile ago, daughter Nancy advised me that she had successfully online-auditioned for a fabulous choral concert at Carnegie hall, where the conductor, Eric Whitaker, would direct about 275 voices in many of his own compositions, some of which would be world premieres.

I decided then and there to be at the concert, and when Pam said she would prefer to stay home, I checked with sister Mary, who immediately jumped at the idea of finally getting to New York for the first time since the Claridge family went there from Shelburne in the 1950s when she was maybe five years old.

Mary was equally accommodating at my suggestion that we get there this time by train instead of plane, and before long she sold both ideas to a friend, Ann Zimmerman, who had spent a fairly long period living near Gotham on the New Jersey side of the Hudson.

So it was that last on Thursday, April 5, I somehow made it out of bed at 4:30 a.m. and headed down to the Orangeville Mall in time for the 5:29 GO bus to Brampton. We made it to the Brampton terminal well before the train I wanted, which got to Union Station at 7:25, a full 55 minutes before the Amtrak train to NYC was due to depart.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t been to Union Station for a couple of years and soon found myself in the midst of construction work seemingly several city blocks from the great hall, where we were to meet by the clock. Not surprisingly, Mary and Ann, who took the Newmarket GO train, were already there and said we should head for Gate 20 because boarding would start in 10 minutes, at 7:50. It did, and the train did leave the station shortly after 8:20 for an uneventful trip to Niagara Falls via Hamilton.

Unlike the glory days of travel by rail, the train had none of the extras such as a dome or dining car, and it turned out that the trip took an extra two hours, thanks to airport-style security at Niagara Falls, N.Y. But the train did make it to Penn Station on time and we were in the Park Central Hotel (almost opposite Carnegie Hall) before 10 p.m.

In many ways, Manhattan hasn’t changed all that much over the years. There still are huge numbers of yellow cabs, with at least four stationed in front of our hotel all the time. The subways still run noisily to just about everywhere you want to go, but the fare that I remember being 10 cents in the 1960s is currently $2.75 per ride and can only be paid via a Metro Card that costs $1 to purchase, with no refunds available when you’re leaving for home.

The hotel was unusual, being in a block that included a second hotel and the Manhattan Club, whatever that is. Equally unusual was the fact it had neither a coffee shop nor a dining room, and despite that there was no coffee maker in the room. But the beds were comfortable and the TV fully 50 inches.

The next days saw us doing all the main tourist traps, including the 9/11 Museum, the Empire State Building observation deck and the cruise to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

But thanks to the terrorist attack 17 years ago, long lineups for security checks were everywhere, some of them taking a full half-hour and being even more intensive than those at some airports.

The crowds for our trips to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island were huge, with boats packing everyone like sardines and leaving roughly every 15 minutes.

Perhaps the biggest surprise to me was a chart at the Ellis Island immigration centre which showed that between 1880 and 1924 some 1.8 million Canadians emigrated to the U.S. (What a change from today!)

The weather was cool every day, albeit not as frigid as that we’re currently experiencing locally, but there was some sunshine and excellent viewing from the Empire State Building, which is currently undergoing some major renovations.

As expected, the concert Sunday afternoon was fabulous and we were in seventh heaven as we left Carnegie Hall until Mary got a shocking email from her daughter Kristen advising that Bill Rea had died. I couldn’t believe it, thinking to myself that Bill was one guy who never seemed to get sick.

Breakfasts during the four days started out routinely, with Mary and me sharing some bacon and egg sandwiches from a Subway outlet across the street, and finished in spectacular style with a visit on Monday to Stardust, the eatery near Times Square that features would-be Broadway stars singing karaoke-style for the patrons. Even at nearly 10 a.m. the lineup to get in was long, but the show was great, making the $16.95 for bacon and eggs well worth the price.

The return trip by Air Canada involved a $40 cab ride in rush hour to La Guardia, with the cabbie manoeuvring his vehicle through the tightest of spaces. For some reason, the walking distances at both La Guardia and Pearson were amazingly short and for once the flight left and arrived on time.

Readers Comments (0)