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.)
(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.)
