Today, I sound like the poster adult for New York. I mean, I do love New York. I love the sights and sounds, all the great shows and food. Not to mention, I’m there at least once a month for business. I even go for pleasure with my family.
But, the first time I was there in 1988, it was a different story. During my first trip to New York, within a week after graduating from high school, I was run over! In California, where I lived, it would have been a hit-and-run and a violation for not stopping for pedestrians in the cross walk. In New York, it was more like, “Hey girl, that cab had the right of way, not you.”
It was in the middle of seeing all of the popular “first-time touristy things” in New York. We had been on the boat tour of the harbor and went out to Ellis Island. We had been to Radio City Music Hall (outside, not inside). But this happened when we were in Times Square, naturally. Times Square was (and obviously still is) a kind of a chaotic, fast-pace location, and one of my friends asked if this was a good or bad area. Who knew? We were heading for the Empire State Building, and I was telling one of my former classmates about the movie, An Affair To Remember.
So I was describing a particular scene in the film, the scene where actress Deborah Kerr gets hit by car and seriously hurt and, therefore, never gets to meet Cary Grant for their rendezvous, and all of a sudden I was hit by a car.
Now, luckily, only my ego and self-respect were seriously hurt. I sat in the middle of West 34th Street and started crying. People were tugging at me to get up because the cabs and other cars zooming by saw me more like a fly on a windshield than a person sitting in a crosswalk. Finally, I was plopped on the sidewalk on Fifth Avenue, where few even seemed to notice.
“I was just run over by a cab,” I said. “I want to hire someone from one of these NYC law firms!” That’s a sentence that would have resulted in someone calling the police in California. In New York, people said, “Uh, yeah” or “Are you okay?” One man pointed out that I was hit, not run over, clearly an important distinction…
It was actually a great lesson about traveling and being aware of one’s circumstances. Crosswalks and green lights are fairly meaningless as they relate to pedestrians in Manhattan. I’ve followed that rule for more than 20 years, and it has served me well. I still would like to give that cab driver a piece of my mind, though. If I remember correctly, he was driving something big and yellow. Anyways, if you’re ever crossing the street in Times Square, here’s my advice: always look both ways!
