Quickie - The Big Apple, circa 1972

Hope you all are having a wonderful day, after the big celebrations last night!

With little else to talk about, this post is regarding the past...namely, back to December 1972.  My gosh, from December 1972 to the present is now 41 years....time sure flies when you're having fun!

Back then, my new employer "treated" me to a 2 month stint in the Big Apple, as a participant in an On-The-Job training program for my new job.  Hotel room cost and transportation to and from NYC were covered by the company, but meals had to be kept within a very small (by NYC standards) per-diem, or I had to pay the overage.  I managed to get by, but learned quickly the menus of all the delicatessens and cheap restaurants in the vicinity of the south end of Central Park.  

Training was boring and repetitive, but I sure did have fun sightseeing... 

Those of you from the NYC vicinity can probably recognize what memory says (not absolutely certain though)  is the long shadow cast by the Empire State Building in the low December sun, taken from the observation platform. 

How'd a dude get his picture into this blog?????

Who's rhe dude?????   OK, OK - it's me!   I don't recall who took the picture (with the Empire State Building in the background)  unless it was another visitor, or the guard.  At that time, my camera was one of the old film-cartridge-and-flashcube-using Instamatics (you youngsters probably don't remember them), without a self-timer or tripod socket.  And, I wasn't out and about with anyone.  Guess that's going to forever remain a mystery!

I had experimented with female clothes in my younger days (Mom's things of course,  whenever she wasn't around),  and the internet, as we know it today, wasn't even a gleam in Al Gore's eye back in 1972.  The Arpanet (from 1969 till its lights went out in mid-1990) was sputtering along, and I had absolutely no computer knowledge, access or equipment.  Thus, the above picture was taken well before I knew about my transgender tendencies, or even what transgender was.  Needless to say, I looked (and mostly acted) like a dude, and didn't (yet) wear dresses, makeup or the like.  

When I found the above picture in my archives,  showing both towers of the original World Trade Center under construction, it brought back lots of memories of 9/11/2001.

At home on that fateful day, my wife was supervising the installation of our lawn sprinkler system, and at work, several of us heard about it from others by phone.  While maintaining a semblance of work output, we found time to stand in a co-worker's office, watching the telly as the carnage unfolded and the plane flew into the other WTC tower.   We all were saying prayers for everyone in harm's way.

As I saw the above pic again, after having forgotten about it for all these years, I couldn't help saying more prayers for all those families whose lives were up-ended, and who continue to suffer to this day...  And I pray that nobody else has to experience such horror.

At least something hasn't changed on the NYC skyline...

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their day, as well as a very Happy New Year...