The SW Corner of Madison & 50th (A New York Story)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I was just walking back from the store after having my briefcase repaired (it seems I had a screw loose) when I turned the corner and there I was at 50th & Madison, and for just a second it was 20 years ago. Ever happen across a place that whips you right back?

It was the early '80s, I was dating a nice Swiss gentleman named Daniel. I knew it wasn’t going to last: he was moving back to Switzerland, and he didn’t speak enough English to get my jokes.

Daniel: “I am going back to Switzerland to make watches.”
Eve: “So, yer gonna spend the rest of your life sittin’ around makin’ faces, huh?”
Daniel: ???

Anyway, it was a nice summer night, he was walking me downtown after we’d had dinner somewhere in the East 50s. It started to drizzle, just a mist, and we ducked down into this sunken stairway with an overhang at the office building at 50th & Madison. We huddled for a moment, then looked up to see the lights go on over the rectory behind St. Pat’s—it was just at dusk, and with the drizzle, the whole building was surrounded with this lovely halo.

I don’t remember anything else about that evening, but it was one of those wonderful moments when New York really is like in the movies, and I just had a flashback when I passed that corner. Now, I’m going out in my tutu and waiting for a bus to splash me . . .

2

I expected something much more elegant from you darhling

3

Eve: “Hold out your hand.”

Watchmaker: “The big one or the little one?”

4

Men have been hanged for less.

5

Eve is too much.

When she makes time, she does it with a watchmaker!

6

I don’t remember too much about him, except that one evening (we didn’t date very long). I sang him some Friederich Hollander cabaret songs in German, and he said my pronunciation was excellent and my vocabulary was astonishing.

Wonder if he ever thinks of me, and New York, as he sits up there in the Alps makin’ faces?

7

…nah, too easy.