METROPOLITAN DIARY
Going Down
Dear Diary:
I was riding downstairs on my building’s service elevator with Mike, the elevator operator.
Suddenly, he stopped at one of the lower floors.
As the door opened, he reached out his hand.
An older woman who was standing there reached in, holding a jar that she apparently hadn’t been able to open.
Mike took the jar, opened it and handed it back with a smile.
“Thank you,” she said.
He closed the door and we continued down.
— Anne Oshman
Yellow-Naped Amazon
Dear Diary:
My sister, who moved to California more than 30 years ago, came for a visit. Feeling nostalgic, we decided to go to Coney Island, where we grew up.
Strolling along the boardwalk, we encountered a small crowd gathered around a street performer. He was playing guitar and accompanied by about 10 parrots of various colors, shapes and sizes that were singing along with him, to everyone’s delight.
My sister could not contain her enthusiasm.
“Oh, my gawd!” she blurted out in her distinctive Brooklyn accent.
A yellow-naped Amazon that was the most talented singer in the troupe stopped singing.
“Oh, my gawd!” it exclaimed in a perfect imitation of my sister, repeating it over and over and opening its beak wide to put more emphasis on “gawd.”
The guitarist tried, but he could not coax the bird to abandon its new catchphrase.
— Arthur Mann
Glass Harmonica
Dear Diary:
I was on an uptown No. 1 in November 2013 when an older woman got on at 34th Street. I offered her my seat, and she graciously accepted.
At 66th Street, she rose to get off and began to walk past me.
“Let me guess,” I said. “You’re going to the opera at the Met.”
She smiled.
“I’m in the orchestra,” she replied.
I was on my way to that night’s performance, and we walked together toward Lincoln Center.
“I play the glass harmonica, an instrument invented by Benjamin Franklin,” she said.
As we parted, I said I would try to come down to the orchestra pit and get a look at her instrument. Then I went off to meet my granddaughter Amanda.
We had plenty of time before the performance, so we walked down to the front, peered into the pit and spotted my subway companion.
She looked up at us and smiled.
“Oh,” Amanda said, “a glass harmonica! That was invented by Benjamin Franklin.”
I turned to her and stared.
Last October, I read an obituary for Cecilia Brauer, 97 and a Metropolitan Opera Orchestra member, and recalled the time we met.
— Thomas J. Russo
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/12/nyregion/metropolitan-diary.html
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TY for posting!
