10th grade English assignment:
"Delight and Liberty, the simple Creed of Childhood". This quote from William Wordsworth's “Ode Intimations of Immortality" reminds me of my first trip to New York City which, when I was young, was a very rare happening. In this case I was going to see my grandmother's apartment in the City for the first time.
It was a big occasion, one which called for the starchy, itchy white shirt and the itchy gray flannels. In addition, there was the tweed jacket that always prickled my arms because the white shirt had short sleeves, and a red tie. It was always a red tie because the only other tie I had had valentines on it and my father's were almost too big to be called ties. So, while my mother got ready and my father cleaned up the kitchen, all us kids piled into the car. There were only three of us, me and my brother and sister, but it seemed like about ten because the back seat was so crowded with coats and books and paper and things we had brought to keep us busy. I had brought three sharpened pencils and a pad to draw on, because I always liked to draw, and a book with pictures in it that I would try to get my sister to read me if I got bored. Then, as I was fishing out a pencil that had fallen between the seat; we were going, with the sun shining in the windows on my brother's side, and already the hot, hazy, early morning . . summer air pouring in through the windows. We went through town and saw people opening up the stores and bringing in the newspapers, waving Good Morning and sweeping off the sidewalks. Then we went by the school, and I was so happy and proud I could hardly keep from bursting, because all the other kids were in listening to Mrs. Reed and I was on my way to New York City.
And pretty soon we got to places I hardly recognized, with a big road ahead of us and unfamiliar trees. The sun was brighter now, and there were more cars around us. It was fun looking at all the cars and all the people and trying to decide where they were going.
Then we passed a whole lot of railroad tracks with trains parked all over them, and long, grimy buildings with brownish broken windows and pipes with steam and smoke coming out of them. And behind the buildings were even white houses, looking all the same with a TV antenna and a red chimney on each me, and little – fake-looking bushes and yellowish patches of grass in front. And I wondered how the people coming back from work ever found their own house and why somebody didn't paint theirs a different color, like green or red.
Now something was happening, because my father was swearing at some other driver and then turning off the road, and we were all squished to one side until we were suddenly on another road, and we slowed down and my father handed the man in the toll booth a dime and we were going again, this time up a hill to a huge bridge with monster pillars and strings holding it up, which suddenly became bars and blurs whizzing by on each side, and over the roar of the whirring tires my sister shouting ''There's the Empire State Building' and straining my eyes to see something more than big blocks sticking out of the brown haze, and little tiny specks of boats on the shimmering water below us.
It was quiet again and the bridge was behind us, and I lied to my sister that I had seen the Empire State Building, figuring I had probably seen it without knowing it, which is practically the same thing. Then we were driving along a road next to a river, with ferryboats going up and down, and buildings all over the place, some of them so big they blocked out all of the sun on the road, and I wanted to be on the ferryboats, and I wanted to be on the other side of the river, just to see what it was like. There were smelly trucks around us and big chutes overhead going from one building to another, carrying what? Probably people. I wondered what it was like to be in a big chute high above the noisy, smelly trucks.
Then we turned and there were more high buildings on each side, so that it hurt my neck to try to look at the top of them. And my father kept stopping the car and above the roar and honking of horns, a beat-up yellow taxicab honking his horn and sliding in and out and between the other cars. And then the street was smaller, we turned off of the other street, and the buildings were made out of stone and brick instead of steel and glass.
We got out with my mother in the windy, dusty street and went in the door of the building, where a man with a policeman's cap smiled and opened the door for us, and when we got inside, it was like an icebox with shiny marble walls and there was no desk like a regular hotel, just an elevator. So we got in the elevator with another smiling man with a policeman's cap (it wasn't really) and then my father came in and we all went up. When the iron door shook open and we walked out, we were in a little carpeted hallway that was dark except for one or two lights and didn't have windows at either end. My father walked up to one of the doors and knocked, and suddenly there was my grandmother, with light flooding from behind her, in the doorway. We all said hello and went inside. It was much brighter and was almost like a little house, only it had only one story and all the windows were on one side. Also, the only thing you could see out the windows was more buildings, so my brother and I looked out for a long time at the terraces and roofs below, while my mother helped fix dinner. We could see smoky chimneys and old tin cans on top of the buildings, and lots of antennas and wires leading all over the place.
After we had dinner, we went back and watched the buildings for a while more. Then we looked at old books, and I must have fallen asleep, because I don't even remember saying good-bye to my grandmother.
The next thing I knew, it was pitch black and everything was suddenly still and my brother punched me and my mother asked me if I was awake and I said yes. Then I realized where we were, back home, and I could hear the car doors click and everybody get out, and the doors slam, and the muffled barking of our dog from inside and my father's voice. And I could feel the wool blanket around me and I knew I wasn't going to go in just yet. I was happy where I was.
by Trick_Tour9500