Saturday, December 01, 2012

Vivid Memories… (1) A middled-aged nice-looking woman sitting on the sidewalk on 47th street in NYC, the jewelry disrict, and weeping—her son, standng next to her, sorrowfully reaching out an arm to touch her— A businessman stopped to look at them—sypathetically-- I felt sorry for the mother and son, and wished that I were rich and could help them— I must have been in my 20s— Did I give her any money? $20? I hope I did-- I was living in WNY, and must have been maybe 10 years old. It was beginnnng to rain. A woman I didn’t know accosted me and said she had left her umbrella at a store—would I fetch it for her? The store was two blocks away—I retrieved it for her—she said, hesitatingly, that she couldn’t give me anything now but I should be there tomorrow night and she would reward me—I should have said, you don’t owe me anything-- I doubted she would show up—but the next day I was there… and wasn’t surprised that she wasn’t-- I was walking to work in NYC one morning—I looked into a Chinese laundry—an attractive, slender older woman was holding an iron, over an ironing board—she looked exhausted, and she looked at me ever so sadly—meeting my eyes—I hurried away— When I have remembered this over the years, I think of my going back there and silently giving her some money--