Subway Stories: The First Time I took the “L” Train

This was on April 26, 2003. I’d been invited to a birthday party for a young co-worker who would turn 24 on April 26. She was doing the party with a French intern from Brooklyn College who had been born at around the exact same time some 4000 miles away. April 26 just happened to be on a Saturday, so the party was held then at a loft in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, rented by Brooklyn College students. (I don’t recall if Delphine, the intern, actually lived in the loft or asked some friends if they could use it.) In any event, the directions to the place indicated that I would have to take the L train to get there. The L train runs west to east along 14^th Street in Manhattan and then continues straight into Brooklyn, traveling through Williamsburg, Bushwick and East New York before veering south and ending up in Canarsie. As far as I can recall, I had never taken the L train before. Whenever I’d needed to go crosstown on 14^th Street in Manhattan, I’d simply walked and whenever I’d traveled to those sections of Brooklyn, I’d taken other trains.

Empty Storefronts in Manhattan

A few weeks ago, I passed my favorite salad bar/deli in the neighborhood where I work and was stunned to find it closed. I'd been going to Green Pea at 38th Street and Fifth Avenue, even when I was working ten blocks north 15 years ago and more, since Green Pea is situated about halfway between my last workplace and my current one. I never took a picture of it when it was open. This is how it looks now:

Not only did they make good hot lunches, but the place was open late so I could stop there after work to pick up snacks whenever I was headed to the movies or off on long walks in Central Park. Where am I gonna go now?

High Line Park

Two years ago on Father's Day (June 19, 2011), my daughter took me on my first walk through High Line Park, which was created on an old elevated railroad spur on the west side of Manhattan  and extends roughly from 14th Street to 30th Street. The park is very narrow and snakes through what used to be a thriving industrial area, but is now predominantly residential.

The Toy Train Store on 45 St.

There’s a hobby store inside 23 W. 45^th Street in Manhattan that offers a display case in the building lobby featuring samples of the store's wares, such as these toy buses and subway cars. I've never actually been in the store, which is somewhere inside the building on an upper floor. I have no desire to buy anything in it, although it might be fun just to browse.