‘Welcome to the Greatest Place on Earth!’
It was a the winter of 2008, the world was fresh with possibilities and the Dow was above 12,600 (its now around 7,600, but I’ve lost very litte because of my accute trading strategies - no money in the stock market at all.). It was my first trip to New York City. My first “Only in New York” showed me the generous spirit of humankind, going the extra bit for a fellow in need, and stomping out the indifference, apathy and meanness that sometimes consumes that spirit.
During my first trip to NYC, my girlfriend and I were having problems maneuvering our luggage through the turnstiles at Penn Station. A massive crowd came and went and still we were unable to push the bulky baggage through - so we went over to a transit worker and inquired about a door we saw next to the turnstiles. The transit worker uttered a few things under his breath but didn’t move a muscle to help.
I gawked at him for another second and then went back to the turnstile to jam my bag past the pronged web of steel and confusion. We were getting frustrated, but a few more kicks would have had it.
All of a sudden, though, we noticed a clattering of aluminum cans approaching from behind us. A homeless man, shouldering a large bag of beer and soda cans, stood to survey our sad situation.
For a well-traveled but ultimately naive Coloradoan like myself, what he did next simply stunned the senses.
He simply threw his bag over the turnstile, then leaped over himself…without paying…in front of the idle transit worker!
The homeless man then walked around to the door we had eyed earlier and let us through. The transit worker remained nonplused. The guy yelled at the transit worker, “You *@%ing dick!” and then turned to us and asked if it was our first time in the city - I nodded.
“Welcome to New York City, the greatest place on Earth!” he said walking away with his bag.
-Jeff Smith, Brooklyn (www.civsourceonline.com)
