Two Words of Kindness
When our family performed “A Walk Through Tennessee History in Story and Song” for homeschool groups in Tennessee, we always included the Big Band tune, “Chattanooga Choo Choo.”* Ray and I spent our honeymoon at the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel in Chattanooga. With those connections,we were excited that our train change in New York City was at Pennsylvania Station. Sadly, the 1918 Penn Station has been torn down and the modern station is underground, but we still had fun singing the tune in our heads.
We had a layover in New York City before taking a commuter Amtrak from there to Boston on Wednesday. We had taken our kids to the Statue of Liberty a couple of times many years ago, but both times we took the ferry from the New Jersey side. Our car tires touched New York City streets when we were in the area another time, but that was only because we took a wrong turn coming out of Connecticut and (I kid you not) accidentally crossed the George Washington Bridge.
This time we were brave. We checked our bags for a couple of hours and set our feet on the streets of the Big Apple for the first time in our lives. Here we go . . .
The first famous place we passed was Madison Square Garden, because Penn Station is under it.
The Empire State Building is just a short walk away, but you can see it from Madison Square Garden.
We didn’t have time to go to the top, but we did go inside for a few minutes.
Macy’s is nearby, too. R.H. Macy opened a small, fancy dry goods store at a different location in 1858, but Macy’s has been at the corner of 34th and Broadway since 1902. I don’t know if it is really the world’s largest store, but it does have 1 million square feet of retail space.
On our way back from the Empire State Building, we turned at 34th and Broadway and took a short stroll down Broadway.
One of the fun things about being in New York City was simply seeing the yellow cabs and . . .
. . . the policeman directing traffic and . . .
. . . the street vendors and throngs of people.
We got back to Penn Station in time to grab a late lunch to carry with us on the train to Boston along with our honey roasted cashews. While we waited for our “All aboard,” . . .
. . . I went in a shop for a few minutes. On my way back to where Ray was waiting, I sneezed; and a female passerby said, “Bless you.” This did not fit my stereotype of the busy New Yorker. Her two words left an impression on this out-of-town visitor and made me ponder: “Was she a believer?” “Does she come from a family who says, ‘Bless you’?” “Why did she say that to a stranger passing by?”
I wonder how many lonely people would be blessed by hearing those two words of kindness.
Like apples of gold in settings of silver
Is a word spoken in right circumstances.
Proverbs 25:11
Our train pulled out of Penn Station at 3:30 on Wednesday afternoon. We thought that was close enough to: “You leave the Pennsylvania Station about a quarter to 4.”
*Mark Gordon wrote the lyrics to Chattanooga Choo Choo and Harry Warren wrote the music. The most famous recording of the song was by the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
I was actually born in New York City!:-) It has been many years since I’ve been there, but one item high on my children’s bucket list is a sightseeing vacation to the Big Apple, with grandparents, aunt and uncle, and cousins in tow!
Cool! What took you away? I hope you get to go with the whole crew!