NYCOMG | Coney Island
We all know time flies. We all know the ones we love are gone too soon. We all know that if we’re going to eat an ice cream for the first time in six months, we shouldn’t be doing it while trying to solve a client 911 over the phone from across the country. We all know. We all know. We all know. The last two times I was in New York, I was saying goodbye to my sister Annie. She was here for the first visit, gone for the next. I never knew how sad you could be. Today, we saw my brother-in-law Ruben, who’s really more of a full on brother to me, and one of my twin nephews, Joshie, for the first time on their home turf since Annie’s been gone. Been wanting to go to Coney Island since forever ago, so that’s where we went.
Saquan was there to greet us and call the public over to play, but business was slow. Melissa (“Sweet Melissa Joy” on Instagram) and Frankie and friends took time to pose for me. The bird guy played “Here Comes the Sun” and shushed one of his feathered friends who didn’t understand the concept of background vocals. Let’s not forget Coney Island Amos, and the guy on a bench catching rays. We sidetracked to the aquarium, then off to L&B Spumoni Gardens for square Sicilian pizza (“Serving Brooklynites since 1939!”). And dark chocolate covered chocolate and vanilla ice cream tortoni, with cherries in it!
The day after Annie’s funeral, we loaded up two cars of cousins to journey to Jersey to have dinner with Ruben’s sister, Cindy, and her husband Steve. I don’t recall a word of what we talked about, but we laughed our heads off the entire way. We never made it to Cindy’s, perhaps due to one of NYC’s construction projects that should’ve been completed in no more than two years, now in its eighteenth. A bathroom break in Harlem, then back to Long Island to complete the cousin reunion.
Fast forward to now, Ruben dropped us off at our hotel. We’ll see him again tomorrow, hopefully both boys (Jacob had to work today), and that will wrap our NYCOMG visit. When the phone rang a short while after settling back into our room, it was William in Alhambra, a dear, long time client whose power went out and killed everything. In the course of our conversation, I learned that he grew up in NYC, on Henry Street in Chinatown. Fifteen minute walk from our hotel. Went to PS1, New York’s oldest public school. “Catch a flight to NYC so we can do a photo shoot,” I suggested via text. Running out of time here, but I was half serious.
We’ll be back, NYC. We’ll be back.
