Just spent 3 hours pedestrianing around the general Broadway, Times Square, Bryant Park, Penn Station area. Mostly sunny, almost 60F, very pleasant.
Saw a lot of locals and a lot of tourists. As in multiple thousands. Some bundled up for cold, others in shorts & t-shirts (really). Most dressed for Fall.
I went into the Penn Station main lobby & food court and down into a couple subway stops but not past their pay gates.
Approximately zero masks were seen.
I did not go into an indoors crowd except after arriving at LGA. Negligible masks there too.
Same as the American one, really. Turkey or ham dinners, football on TV. But we don’t tend to travel great distances—when we lived in the same city, I used to go to my sister’s for dinner with her and her family. Now that I’m just two hours away, I don’t. That doesn’t mean that travel for Thanksgiving doesn’t happen, but our airports, train stations, etc., are nowhere near as busy as the American ones that I see on the news for American Thanksgiving.
As far as cash goes, I think the only time I use it nowadays is at the racetrack, where bets must be placed in cash, or by credit voucher, which can only be purchased with cash. But for everything else there—bar tab and food tab—I can and do use my card.
So you stayed outdoors and didn’t go into the subway. Exactly the opposite of what I said.
But hey, I only live here and take the subway every day and go to the theater and movies several times a week. You’ve been in the city a whole three hours!! Clearly you know more than me.
Just my luck: I was all set to purchase a turkey for one from my go-to grocery—Kroger delivery (on sale for $0.49/lb). But before I could hit “add to cart,” they ran out faster than my holiday spirit.
Looks like Thanksgiving dinner will be a hot dog smothered in cranberry sauce. Or maybe I’ll just share a can of cat food with my cats—I’ve got a can of Little Friskies Gourmet Turkey & Gravy in the cupboard.
One Thanksgiving I was stuck on a Navy base in Meridian, Mississippi. I was at a school post boot camp and I could not get a flight home to Pittsburgh.
I bought a loaf of bread and a six pack of beer and went to a nearby lake and fed the geese.
The geese got the bread and and I had the beer.
I may or may not have had a young sailor with me at the time. I really can’t remember.
I braved the reading terminal and got the lunch box at Bassett turkey and a pumpkin pie from the Amish. The crowded aisles were maddening! Thankfully it wasn’t as crowded at the actual stalls.
As usual traffic was blocked up due to the parade route set up.
It was quite crowded tonight at the grocery store but not as crowded as I expected for the day before the event. But perhaps it was literally impossible to be more crowded since there were no more carts available. At any rate, I was pleasantly surprised at the number of people staffing the checkouts and the modest size of everyone’s purchases, both of which were other factors that could have exacerbated the checkout process. It only took a few more minutes longer for the trip than usual.
Thanksgiving Eve has always been a drinking night for us and many other people. Last night was no exception, but my gf wanted to stay local. We headed to Allusion Brewing, a nearby brewery.
They were packed. Mostly kids. Turns out Santa (the real one) was there for pictures and parents turned out in full force. Yeah, most breweries are kid friendly, but this was ridiculous. Seriously guys, hire a babysitter.
So we went down the block to AJ’s which was closed. I texted a friend who bartends at Conny Creek Brewery and she told me they were busy, but sanely so. We drove there and found she had saved us two seats at the bar that had just opened up.
