METROPOLITAN DIARY 2

[elleng]

Coney Island Beach
Dear Diary:

Nana’s smile
A torch of sunshine,
Beckoned me,
A gangly 10-year-old
Into that sparkling arena
Of blue water,
Where I followed her,
Dog paddling
Across its endless space
Splashing like a duckling,
Looking back
At the Coney Island Amusement Park
On that sweltering August day
Until Nana,
A bathing-capped New York goddess,
Signaled with one loud clap
The sign
To “get out now”
As oncoming thunder roared
Into a darkening sky.

— Kathryn Anne Sweeney-James

His Stop
Dear Diary:

I lived and worked as a teacher in East Harlem in the mid-1970s. Several evenings each week, I took a yoga class at East West Books on Fifth Avenue near 14th Street. The class would finish by 9 p.m., and I would take the No. 6 home.

One night after leaving class, I boarded a rather crowded car at the same time as a male passenger who had clearly spent some time at a local pub. Although harmless, he was verbally obnoxious.

“Is this 59th Street?” he shouted as the train made its stops on the way uptown.

When we stopped at Grand Central, he did it again.

“Is this 59th Street?” he shouted.

This time, everyone in the car, it seemed, responded loudly in unison: “Yes!”

He got off the train.

— Marilyn Ellickson

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/28/nyregion/metropolitan-diary.html

[fierywoman]

1. Thank you!