New York finished for us on a beautiful sunny day. After cold wind through the whole trip, we woke to temperatures in the mid-20's and headed to Central Park. We sat quietly and enjoyed being in such an iconic place on a Sunday afternoon in the sun.That afternoon turned into a lovely feeling of New York. As we wandered through the park towards dusk, people were out in crowds enjoying the great big natural space in the heart of the city. A full jazz band played what would have been noise anywhere else but became “atmosphere” in the open air.
100 years ago, there were no high rise blocks around Central Park – it was seen as definitely not the place to be. Interesting how cities shift their centre of gravity over time, isn't it? It seems gradually the richer types moved from the southern tip of Manhatten to what is now Downtown and further North around the park. The first high-rise building was just off 72nd street, and this was the place John Lennon had found peace in the late 70's.He and Yoko moved there as refuge from England and the pervasive fame of the Beatles legacy. In early 1980, I remember there was a series of interviews with them on the radio by a DJ named Andy Peebles, recorded in New York. John and Yoko seemed incredibly at ease, a happiness which prompted his song “Feels just like starting over”. It was a poignant set of transmissions, because just a few weeks later, he was shot dead outside his home.
A small part of the park is called Strawberry Fields, The understated, circular memorial to John Lennon that lies there is absolutely appropriate, and there are always fresh flowers laying upon it. It's a lovely site where people go every day and remember a man who was only really interested in peace and love – he talked and sang of little else. We stood in the gorgeous Autumn fading light and enjoyed our good fortune to be there together at that special place, at that moment.We walked on through Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues, the streets abuzz with so many great restaurants, shops amazingly, still open at 6pm on Sunday evening. Americans have so much less holiday time than us, so we assume they make the most of every moment of their weekends, and the shops capitalise on that. We even found a street market just before closing up. We felt like we had seen how the people are living their normal lives.
New York has been great and we leave it with a lot of happy memories from our short stay. We learned a lot about the city and its people, and now we remind ourselves how lucky we are, and turn our minds towards California.
