The Empire State.

Most people who travel to New York refer to the city as the “Big Apple,” and rightly so. The town is always on and offers sites and sounds you only hear or see sporadically in other cities around the country and the world. While I was there this past week something really surprised me; people were much nicer and friendlier than I recalled. It has not been that long since my last visit, but the transformation was very noticeable. I saw people helping one another by holding a door open, lending a hand when someone needed it, and the most surprising were the friendliness of the police officers who spoke to me. I was standing at a crosswalk and an officer asked, “How I was doing?” and told me to “have a good time in Manhattan.”

This is New York; you would have thought it was Des Moines.

There are some things that will never change about New York; it could be the $12.00 drinks at the bar, the traffic in the city, or the hustle and bustle of masses of people on the move---but that’s what happens when you have a lot of people, on an island, and they all want to go somewhere and/or get something to eat. However, when you mix in friendliness, that has seemed to take over the city, you have to stop and wonder, “Is this real?” This past week it was...and while I was there we had more than a foot of snow, which surely should have made people unruly. However, people remained calm and didn’t splash you when they passed you in a car or tell you to hurry when you were trying to maneuver through a crosswalk. (Where I was staying, out by LaGuardia, I went to the same grocery store twice---the hot food they served was nothing short of delicious and very reasonably priced. I was a displaced happy camper.)

Before I went on this trip I really was not looking forward to spending time in the city, because of past trips, I thought it would be the usual pain. Now I am actually looking forward to my next trip; I am not sure if I will have the same experience as I did this time, but I do believe it could happen again. Hopefully without the snow.

While I was at Grand Central Terminal (thank you Dennis for pointing out the correct name) I had about 30 minutes to spend taking pictures before meeting up with a friend. Sure there was a lot of action while I was there---the commuter’s were commuting and you do not want to get in their way--- however one thing I did notice was a lot of security while at the station. Not your average police officers with a gun, we are talking some serious artillery.

The photo above is a mix of the friendliness of the police officers and the security in the station; I was really trying to stay back and take pictures of the officers, but then I saw two young Asian women ask if they could take a picture with them? Not only was the answer “yes,” but the two women flashed “peace” signs and got between two of the officers. Who took the photos? Well of course another officer, who else? I was in shock…and when I went up and asked, “If I could take a photo?” the officer said, “Don’t you think you have taken enough?” Apparently not, because I stepped back and took some more; not many because I didn’t want to find out when the friendliness ended and the jail time begins.


Thanks for stopping by.