NEW
YORK
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| Bluebell woods in Brooklyn Botanics |
No culture shock here. Just a shocking change in the weather: first day blowing a gale; day two, frigid in
the park; day three, 70 degrees and rising; 85 degrees in the evening before we
leave on an Amtrak train for Niagara. But a sweet memory of a sunny day in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden before I go.
America's a country of contrasts: break dancing to Hari Krisna musicians in Union Square;
transparent, industrial-strength wrappings on packets of food – or am I getting
older and weaker? – names that conjure up America’s history, especially its American Indian past – Poughkeepsie, Milwaukee, Utah, Chesapeake and Chicago; elegant old ladies in Central Park; people walking dogs raped in bespoke, sartorial chic;
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| Break dancing in Union Square |
The Hudson High Line walkway
affords a view to the west, the dark water flowing out to the Atlantic. And natural woodland, like I saw in Japan,
the variegated greens of the various trees rolling over the hills, unlike the
serried rows of conifers that cover large ares of Scotland and that stay dark green throughout
the year.
Americans seem to love their
flags, their god and their country.
That’s the impression anyway.
They take a pride in what they are and what they do. That self-critical mode of thinking that you
find so much in the UK is missing.
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| Flags in the garden |
Then there are the rich and the
poor; the sane and the crazy; the young and the old. All are embraced as one
community and people just get on with what they’re doing, mostly. But the effects of America’s history can
still be felt. Especially amongst the African Americans. So many of the poor souls are lost in the city, wandering around with their minds totally lost. They are the dark ghosts of the past, never having been able to fit in to society and once down, staying down.
I leave a New York I never really knew in the past. Now a city of homogenised stores and corporate businesses, there are still unique corners and enclaves with surprisingly singular names: Berried Treasures, fredflare, Seaburn Book Store and Krause's Candy Kitchen.
In Flushing, there is an amazing sculpture of a globe, about 60-feet high with the land-masses cut out to reveal their silhouette against the blue sky.
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| The globe in Flushing Meadows |
There's so much of US still to see. Maybe the next trip, if there is one.
