Of course - one of the more - in a way - amusing stories about Rockefeller and the creation of Rock. Ctr - was the run- in with Diego Rivera - the great Mexican muralist. Rivera was commissioned to do a mural for the new building - and he did. Thing is - Rivera was a fervent Marxist and anti-capitalist. And that was the theme of the mural. This did not exactly go over well with the Rockfellers and they immediately took it down. I think it now is at Dartmouth College.

Correction - the mural at Dartmouth is by Orozco. The mural that Rivera painted for 30 Rock was destroyed and dumped in the garbage. There was a big fuss about this at the time - but the Rockefellers would have no part of a mural with the face of Lenin in it. To retaliate Rivera painted a replica of that mural for the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.

<<<Let us not romanticize John D, Rockefeller as he was one of the largest violators on the anti-trustt laws. And although I heard the same stories about the dimes from the windows of his car, my grandparents never actually saw it occur.>>>

I'm fairly certain the anti-trust laws were implemented BECAUSE of Standard Oil/Rockefeller practices. He wasn't breaking any laws at the time, because the laws didn't exist.

In 1879, an attorney for the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, devised a new type of trust agreement to overcome Ohio state prohibitions against corporations owning stock in other corporations.

The Sherman Anti-trust Act was enacted in 1890 and Rickefeller was found in violation of the Act in 1911. The laws were fortified in 1915.

The Rockefellers did spend a lot of money buying up land for National Parks out west and saving views across the Hudson. If you all are not watching the National Parks programs on PBS, do catch them when they repeat.

Another interesting tidbit re the Rockefellers - you may note this if you visit Kykuit - their estate on the Hudson. In touring the kitchen you will note how low the kitchen sinks are. This is due to child labor they employed to do kitchen work.

Agree that the Rockefellers were (perhaps still legally) abusing their wealth and power - until the government tried to stop them.

And I think if you saw the dimes or not was a function of where you lived (my grandmother grew up on 103rd St in Manhattan and went to school at St Cecilia's (still there) on 106 - so a major street a limo on the way to Wall St was likely to traverse.

As far as I can gather, your plans involve getting from the station to TOTR, then seeing Rock Center and the Cathedral and Times Square. Correct? Are you planning lunch at anywhere in particular? Eating hot dogs off the street typically doesn't go well with little kids.

Seeing Times Square will take all of 5-10 minutes, unless you want to go into someplace like FAO Schwartz. It would make me nervous to have little kids there unless they were in a stroller.

If I were you I'd pick at least one more destination and take a cab there first - maybe Chinatown with lunch there - maybe the Guggenheim? Then to TOTR, etc. I'd just ask the cab driver to drive me past Times Square on the way to the station as a way of seeing Times Square. (And I guess you'll need to split up and take 2 cabs.)

Both kids have multiple food allergies. We have had problems with them in restaurants. So we carry what they can eat and we cannot eat near them. For adults we will find some restaurant after getting there depending on where we are around lunch time(1-2pm), while one of us watches the kids.

Yes we will be taking strollers.

Both my grandfathers grew up on the Lower East Side and my one grandmother grew up in Brownsville. Maybe Rockefeller never stopped at Katz's.

You might try the 2 big toy stores one in Times Square, ToysRUs with the 4 story ferris wheel and FAO which is on 5th Ave and 59th ST.

Macy's of course on the kids level would be a hit as well.

If you go up to the Central Park Zoo, there is a petting zoo for the kids and several good exhibits, including one of penguins and of course polar bears.