KristyWes

Old People Say the Darndest Things

I was walking through the Diamond District the other week, cutting cross-town on my way to the subway.  It was cold.  I trudged along, hands in coat pockets, trying to shake off the work day while mentally reviewing my To-Do list for the evening ahead.

The sidewalks were populated with store owners greeting one another as they closed up shop for the night, and slow-moving tourists, and young professionals on their way to Happy Hour, and other people who defy classification.

Such as the older gentleman I passed who had repurposed a fire hydrant as a chair, and was sitting watching the world walk by on the sidewalk before him. 

New York is a town of go, go, go.  We all have somewhere to be, and we're all invariably late to get there.  It's rare to see someone just sitting.  Doing nothing.  I wondered what was wrong with him.

He apparently was wondering the same about me.  As I passed, I felt him give me a once-over glance and then...  And then.  And then, he said this:

"Heya - she needs a man!" 

Taking a quick pause for reflection, he continued again, announcing to the world with a certain smugness, "Yes. She needs a man."

Dammit.

(In other news, I'm in search of a new after-work cross-town route.  One less likely to make me cry.  Let me know if you've had positive experiences with, say, 48th Street.)