Me and Mayor Koch
Feb. 4th, 2013 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drwexI had the urge lately to write down some more of my stories but then kinda lost the impetus. I'll try this one and see how it goes.
I'm reasonably certain that this story takes place in 1978 (*) so it's the 30th anniversary of the founding of Israel and I'm in high school. I take a bus with my Jewish youth group to New York city for the big celebration.
We're in Central Park, which is lovely but also OMGPACKED. I don't think I've ever been in that big a crowd before in my life and at this point I'm a couple inches shorter than average, so I can't see anything. There are people on stage speaking, there are bands playing and, in this pre-Jumbotron era, I'm missing it all. So I make my way to the back of the crowd and there I find a tree.
A tree being a tree and me being a boy, I find my way up it. It's small but it supports me lying down on a lower branch. I can now see over the crowd and determine what's up on stage. People walk back and forth below me but nobody bothers me. At some point I start bopping along to the music and discover that the tree isn't as big nor my perch as stable as it might be. I fall out of the tree, into a clump of serious-looking men and one balding curly-haired man. I have no idea who this is nor why these dark-coated men are glaring at me. I just... bumped someone on the way down and I'm the one who ended up in the dust.
Anyway, I stand up and immediately the curly-haired guy thrusts his hand out at me. He says, "I'm Mayor Ed Koch. How'm I doin'?"
I sort of goggle for a second and then reply as honestly as I can, "I don't know. I just got here for the festival."
"Well, then, enjoy your visit to New York," he says and the whole gaggle of them moves on. I hear him asking several other people "How'm I doin'?" but I don't think much of it as one of the dark-suited guys is giving me the hairy eyeball when he sees me about to climb back into the tree. I sulk a bit, and slink back into the crowd.
Years later I will become politically conscious enough to realize who that was and to understand that was his signature line. I never will meet Mayor Koch again, though.
(*) I reason that Koch having been mayor from 78-89 the 1978 date nicely synchs up with three decades since Israel was founded, in 1948. Earlier than that and Koch wouldn't have been mayor. Later than that and I would have been in college and not taking trips to NY for Jewish things.
I'm reasonably certain that this story takes place in 1978 (*) so it's the 30th anniversary of the founding of Israel and I'm in high school. I take a bus with my Jewish youth group to New York city for the big celebration.
We're in Central Park, which is lovely but also OMGPACKED. I don't think I've ever been in that big a crowd before in my life and at this point I'm a couple inches shorter than average, so I can't see anything. There are people on stage speaking, there are bands playing and, in this pre-Jumbotron era, I'm missing it all. So I make my way to the back of the crowd and there I find a tree.
A tree being a tree and me being a boy, I find my way up it. It's small but it supports me lying down on a lower branch. I can now see over the crowd and determine what's up on stage. People walk back and forth below me but nobody bothers me. At some point I start bopping along to the music and discover that the tree isn't as big nor my perch as stable as it might be. I fall out of the tree, into a clump of serious-looking men and one balding curly-haired man. I have no idea who this is nor why these dark-coated men are glaring at me. I just... bumped someone on the way down and I'm the one who ended up in the dust.
Anyway, I stand up and immediately the curly-haired guy thrusts his hand out at me. He says, "I'm Mayor Ed Koch. How'm I doin'?"
I sort of goggle for a second and then reply as honestly as I can, "I don't know. I just got here for the festival."
"Well, then, enjoy your visit to New York," he says and the whole gaggle of them moves on. I hear him asking several other people "How'm I doin'?" but I don't think much of it as one of the dark-suited guys is giving me the hairy eyeball when he sees me about to climb back into the tree. I sulk a bit, and slink back into the crowd.
Years later I will become politically conscious enough to realize who that was and to understand that was his signature line. I never will meet Mayor Koch again, though.
(*) I reason that Koch having been mayor from 78-89 the 1978 date nicely synchs up with three decades since Israel was founded, in 1948. Earlier than that and Koch wouldn't have been mayor. Later than that and I would have been in college and not taking trips to NY for Jewish things.
