…in the
middle of Times Square.
No, I wasn’t
there at some odd hour, when no one was around.
As I understand, there are no moments like that in Times Square, the
center of activity, at least tourist activity, in New York City.
No, I was
there on a Monday morning, at about 10 am.
It had been raining, but it had stopped.
It was snowing the evening before, but that had blown through. The square was full of people, hundreds of
them.
I had taken
a walk, by myself, a break from the activity of our vacation. Just a short walk in the cold morning air, no
need to hurry along, nothing to rush to, just a moment to stand, and look, and
maybe take a photo.
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| Photo by Mark W. Laughlin |
But I
noticed, as I stood just about in the center of the open area, an eerie
silence. Just before, as I had walked
along 7th Avenue, several of the store fronts had music blaring, and
one lady hawked with a megaphone, “Discount
Tickets!…Everybody gets a Discount!”, as they competed for attention from
the passers-by, competing in that flashing, light-filled, usually very noisy
space that fills Times Square.
There were
people all around, but they were taking photos of their own, or talking just to
each other, barely audible. Traffic was heavy,
but with hardly any honking horns (people in India just won’t get that…”how can city traffic move, without the power
of those horns ?”).
No, there
was just an eerie silence, maybe just coincidence, just a few seconds when the
voices, and music, and horns, and cars were quiet for a moment, when that
fellow with a jack-hammer up the block took a break.
But then, I
heard the sound of an ambulance siren, heading just past me, a policeman’s whistle
joined in, telling drivers to get out of the way, a bus driver jumped on his
squealing brakes, the jack-hammer guy went back to work, and there she was again…“Discount Tickets!…Everybody gets a Discount!”
(…never did
make it into that huge Victoria’s Secret store…maybe next time!)
- Mark
12-Dec-2016
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| Photo by Mark W. Laughlin |
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