Years ago sitting at the bar at The Oak Bar at The Plaza Hotel, I realized I was sitting next to Oleg Cassini. He talked to me for a long time and had some rather colorful stories!

I was strolling down 5th Ave where all the expensive shops are. I was drawn by a dashing older woman sitting on a bench near a shop window's lavish display of women's shoes. I looked over at her, and she suddenly gave me the loveliest smile I have truly ever seen...her smile conveyed so much ..but you could easily narrow it down to....."isnt this just grand?!"
Well...my feet left the ground as it does many times when I visit New York. And I often wonder who is that lucky man she might have been there waiting for.

Driving past the skyline of lower Manhattan at midnight (had just left NYC via Holland Tunnel & was on the access ramp to the TPK), having THE BEST view of the Statue of Liberty and the WTC (this was in early 2001), and thinking "Wow, this is the greatest, most profound skyline in the whole world!!"

A few years ago. . . just flew in to JFK, hopped a cab. The cab is headed into the worst stretch of highway in NYC at the worst time of day--the Van Wyck Expressway at rush hour.

Our cabbie knows his business. He is squeezing into the smallest openings between cars and lanes, checking the traffic report, working the service road like a pro, on again, off again. We never stop moving though all around us seem at a standstill.

Based on traffic, he takes us via the Grand Central Parkway past LGA to head for the BQE. Here his supreme skill and knowledge reach an crescendo. Just before LGA he exits into a gas station, speeds forward through the station, and then reenters the parkway. We save 500 yards of bumper-to-bumper stopped traffic.

Silent to this point my companion and I excalim, "Wow!" The cabbie shares his story--38 years at the wheel.

=D>

How do I pick just one?

A couple of months ago I went out for Jamaican food with 8 of my good friends from work. We were talking, laugihng, and enjoying ourselves, and then I realized the funniest thing...I was the only person in the group who was born in America. Not only that...all 9 of us were from different countries!

Certainly one of the greatest things about NYC is the people!

I can't match those written by the inspired author Helene Hanff in "Letter from New York" but here's one of mine.

I was walking up Fifth Avenue and this short man was walking ahead of me, hat pulled down over his face. This man was kvetching to his partner about how messed up the world was and there must not be a God. I sped up to pass this goon and when I looked over it was Woody Allen and Soon-Yi. I looked around to see if there was a camera, but there was none in sight!

I went to NYU in the 80's and loved walking around Greenwich Village . One day I ended up by battery park and went to the statute of liberty and then came back and went to the top of the towers. what a view.

Melissa

Scarlett - this thread was a fantastic idea!
Years ago in my [newly] single days, went to NYC with a friend/co-worker and stayed at the Algonquin. She decided I needed to learn to "pick up guys." We sat down in the lobby bar for smart cocktails and immediately attracted the attention of a nicely-dressed gentleman who eventually joined us and suggested we ought to get together later - he had some kind of business to attend to for an hour or so first. The elevator operator (do they still have those??) watched benevolently from the sidelines, and assured me, after the gentleman had excused himself, that he was a regular guest at the hotel and seemed respectable enough. Despite these sterling references I panicked after a while and decided we had better hide before he returned, lest he become more insistent on whatever he meant by "getting together."
We went up to our room and watched a few movies on TV. Eventually we got hungry, but realized it was long past the regular dinner hour. I knew the Stage Deli was open late (I had been to New York a couple of times and therefore was extremely sophisticated about these matters) and asked our pal the elevator man for directions.
I'm going to divide this post into two parts because it's getting long. Please stay tuned.

Part two: The elevator operator told us "The Stage Deli is too far. Don't bother going there. The Muffin Burger up on 6th is open and it's only a block away." We were nervous about walking around so late at night, but he kindly watched us from the doorway of the hotel until we had arrived safely at the well-lit intersection.
The Muffin Burger was indeed open, doing a brisk trade in awful hotdogs and coleslaw; the clientele seemed to consist of slick-looking men with very tall large-boned black women wearing evening gowns. The "women" would disappear for a few minutes every so often and then return, handing cash over to their escorts. It didn't take us too long to figure out what was happening, and the crowd was quite friendly and prepared to chat with us so long as we didn't interfere with business. We had a great evening. Could it possibly have happened anywhere else?

Visiting the Statue of Liberty in person was the most amazing thing to me. Every american should make at least one visit to see her. I still get choked up thinking about it. New York is such a magical city, my husband and I just can't get enough of it. When you visit, it just captures you. When you leave, you miss it. We would move to Manhattan if life would allow it, but at this time it doesn't. There is no other city that speaks like New York City. It's a mecca for everything, food, business, fashion, theatre, you name it. Each time we go back I always have a new agenda. There is always something new to do. I can't wait to bring our children someday (especially at Christmas time) and have them fall in love like we have.

Two trips come to mind...

Also, when teaching a seminar in Oct 2000 at the UN to a delegation of Egyptian customs officials. Outside 5000 Jewish high school students were protesting something about the UN's involvement in the Middle East (I forgot exactly what). My class was visably concerned and distracted by the size of the crowd and the noise on the street below. The demonstration was peaceful just loud.

And then came the news that the USS Cole has been the target of a terrorist attack. The Egyptians were shaken but because of language barriers I couldn't quite interpret their emotions. I was shaken myself. One of the delegates asked that we stop to pray for peace. We did silently and then the seminar continued. Everyone remained tense and I finished up as fast as I could.

I wish I could say that we bonded and somehow advanced the cause of understanding and peace in the world but we didn't. It was just too tense, we couldn't communicate well enough except through the intrepreter, the gaps were too wide. I guess I thought that they would express shock, concern, outrage at the attack but they didn't.

2. Visiting my brother's office that overlooked the World Trade Center site on December 27, 2001. His office windows were sealed with duct tape to keep out the dust. He had rearranged his office furniture so that he no longer faced his once treasured view. We had just finished retracing his steps from Sept 11. It was horrifying realizing how close he had been to it all.

On the lighter side, the same trip we happened to catch the very last ride of the evening on the carousel in Central Park. The operator treated us to a very extended "Goooooooooooooooooooooood Niiiiiiigggghhhhhtttttttt. And dont' forget to hoollllddddddddddd yoooooooour hooooooorrrrrreeeeeeeesssssssss!!! Now get the hell out of here!!!" Very funny.

Scarlett -- what a great post!

Whenever I think of NYC, this favorite memory always comes to mind...

I'd visited NYC a few times, however on this one particular trip, right after college graduation, we were driving into NYC on a late Friday night to visit friends. Right when you see the Statue of Liberty, WTC, and the magnificent lower Manhatten skyline, the jazz verion of "On Broadway" happened to come on the radio -- it couldn't have been timed better if I'd planned it. I was awestruck! Even though I saw the skyline a few times before, this particular song at the time where I had all these new experiences was just awesome.

There is so much energy & excitement to the city, everytime I go I feel like I'm there for the first time...

I was lucky enough to go to the top of the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day about 10 years ago...tried to enjoy it, but boy was it cold

QuintEssential Moment #1:

Very lst trip to NY: I'm very young. It's 1961. It's every damned thing I'd ever dreamed! The streets of Murray Hill (still my favorite neighborhood)
...and everywhere else...live up to every nth of every expectation. We see West Side Story with Carol Lawrence and My Fair Lady (unfortunately, Julie Andrews has moved on, but it's still a knock-out of a show...)

The UN General Assembly is in opening session. Khrushchev is in town (banging shoes on tables). Castro is staying around the corner. There are cheering mobs assembled nightly outside our windows -(friend and I are lodging at the Tatham House (then Y) at 38th/Lex). They chant CASTRO! CASTRO!
Mounted police officers on crowd control chat us up and offer take us out for an after-hours tour of
"Haaaaa-LEM." Still an offer I wished we'd taken up.

Motorcades screech up the rain-spattered pavement on 1st Avenue as we sit in a cozy Italian restaurant and watch all the action. I wade in the Seagram House fountain. I LOVE New York!

QE Moment #2:

One year later: This time the friend I've travelled with has screwed me over and after managing to spare me only a Sunday supper and a Weds matinee, announces she's going back home with Mummy and Daddy. I'm stuck in New York...alone. I'm 20 y.o. and dammit, I'm not going to be daunted. I sightsee. I go to the theater alone. I dine in nice restaurants alone and refuse to let it intimidate me. A co-worker I'm acquainted with in Chicago is coming thru the w/e I'm scheduled to leave. We get together for lunch. It stretches into dinner. Acquaintance-ship blossoms. (Hold on, guys - it's still only the early 60s...) But exactly because he doesn't press any advantage, I start thinking, Damn! He's nice!! And keep thinking. And we start dating.

We celebrated our 40th "NY Anniversary" last spring, standing at the same spot above the Rockefeller Center ice rink where he'd first asked me out to dinner...and it will be 38 years of marriage this December. Is NY great or what???

Arjay, nice memories. I have to admit that you reminded me of another fave NYC moment.

It was another birthday I spent in Manhattan and a good friend of mine was the costume manager for Victor Victoria at the time. His being very good friends with Julie Andrews, he was able to secure my friend and I tickets for the show, and gave us a tour of the set and dressing rooms beforehand.

After the show, he brought us backstage to chat with Blake Edwards until Julie was finished changing out of her last costume. Then, we got to talk with Julie and have some photos taken with her. The clincher was that Julie gave me a framed, autographed print of herself saying "Best Wishes on your Birthday."

It was truly a birthday to remember, not to mention a NYC quintessential experience.

Thirty years ago I was standing in a telephone booth with the man to whom I am now married. We were looking through the Village Voice at ads for apartments, with the thought of subletting one for the summer while he was taking classes in the city and before I started law school in Boston. A couple approached us, looking much like ourselves, in their early twenties. "Are you looking for an apartment? We're going hiking for the summer in the Rockies, would you like to sublet ours?"

We ended up spending the summer in their apartment on the top and hottest floor of a newly renovated building on 14th Street across from a bodega where guys sat outside all day in their undershirts commenting to us on the heat every time we passed by. The strangers who had approached us about the apartment trusted us on sight, and we spent the summer creating many of those quintessential New York experiences.

Hmm... this post seems to have disappeared, so here goes again for another NY experience I forgot to mention above:

Walking around Colombus Circle late at night and coming across a homeless man pushing his meagre life's posessions on a grand piano!

Only in NY

Andre

I'm a native and it's hard to narrow it down to just one or two experiences, but I'll try...

First, leaning on the rail of a Spirit of New York boat with a glass of wine in my hand and watching the lower Manhattan skyline go by. I was only 20 and the cruise hosted by the company I was working for. I felt very grown up and the skyline just looked stunning.

Second, and this is more mundane...I was coming home after being let go from my job. I had most of my possessions from work in a paper shopping bag. The bag burst as I reached the top of the subway stairs near my home. I was trapped at the top of the stairs with all this stuff below me because there was a steady stream of people coming up. But after a minute, a couple of people gave me plastic bags, and two more people filled the bags from below while I held them. New Yorkers often get a bad rap, but they can be awfully nice when someone is in a tough situation.

Partly to keep this thread from slipping too far down...and because the poster just above referenced the 'bad rap'' NYers often get..I'll pop back in with the recall of heading out one morning with my then 4 y.o. son and 6 y.o. daughter in tow. As we crossed some busy E. side street, a deliveryman called out: "What lovely children, ma'am!" Unfriendly - yeah, right!