Oh my god, it must be 40 years since I've been on 47th Street (near Radio City Music Hall).

Alan and I went to the Peripheral Neuropathy Support Group meeting in the CBS Building.

The meeting is from 6 to 8 p.m. and we arrived in NYC at about 5 p.m.

Well, you never saw me so excited in all my life. DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH NYC IS LIT UP??? holy cow!!!

There are JUMBO TRONS (for want of a better word), ALL OVER THE PLACE.

bit GIGANTIC TV SCREENS the height of skyscrapers.

I never knew. I had never seen.

Well, I must have seemed like a tourist with all the ooohh and aaaahing I was doing.

then the funny stuff happened.

I said to Alan "Isn't Radio City Music Hall around here"? and before he could answer this awfully handsome and TALL gentleman approaches me and says (with what I thought to be a Scottish accent), well he says with a big smile:

"Excuse me, are you looking to go to Radio City Music Hall?" and I said "oh no hon, but thank you anyway, and by the way, I adore your accent"

The guy burst out laughing and said "Why thank you". I said "You're from Scotland right?" and he smiled and said "No, I'm from MANCHESTER".

I then stuck out my hand and said; 'Welcome to the United States of America'.

Alan burst out laughing, the guy smiled from ear to ear and we all shook hands. It was absolutely marvelous.

Then we continued walking and I noticed this BIG building and there's this HUGE animated window with M & M's in it. I said to Alan "What on earth is that".??

And some policeman burst out laughing and said "that's M & M world (the candy, by the way).

I looked at the policeman and said out loud: "M & M's have their own world??? Everybody got hysterical. Then the policeman said: 'they have M&M's in there that are not on the market yet".

I said "really?? they have their own world??" I could not get over this.

Then we continued walking and there was this HUGE GROUP OF PEOPLE on line to get tickets to Broadway shows but the fascinating thing was that in the middle of all of this, there were these STAIRS. AND I MEAN STAIRS. Went straight up in the air. BIG STAIRS, HUGE STAIRS holding LOTS OF PEOPLE just sitting and chilling.

Of course Melody had to know what the heck was going on, so I said to Alan: "I have to sit on these stairs'. Alan thought I had lost my mind.

I go over to sit on the bottom step, and yet another security officer said: "maam, I'm sorry but you can' sit down" I said: "why on earth not, everybody else is sitting on them" and he laughed and said: 'Watch, they are all getting up now, we are going to have a lighting ceremony".

I said "a lighting ceremony FOR STAIRS??" and he said: 'oh you've never heard of this, today was the ignauguration of these stairs and we are going to light them up", "Today, is their first day".

Well, you never saw such a thing in all your life. I felt like I had just discovered NYC.

BIG JUMBOTRONS, BIG LIT UP STAIRS. PEOPLE!!!! LOTS OF FRIENDLY PEOPLE.

god, I have to get out more.

Then we went to the Support group meeting and we met up with the others who also have neuropathy.

Very nice people.

I told Alan. "We have to go into NYC more". He laughed and said 'if you think this place is lit up, you have to see LAS VEGAS!!!

yeah, in my dreams.

lol

You're funny! I always thought the New Yorkers were pretty friendly - just loud. They're mostly just cranky during the commute to/from work - can't blame them etiher I did the subway for 7 years and it was each man for himself.

Don't you live in Brooklyn?

I love your posts, Melody.



If you ever do go to Vegas, you gotta let me know so I can tag along. I'm not going unless you go too.

Last time I went to NYC - and everyone should go ayt least once in their life, it's just a must-do thing - my kids were about 5 and 10. Manhattan.

Dh got lost in Chinatown.

He was battling taxis in our beat-up Olds - and he won. It says something about the way you drive if NY cab drivers yeild to you.



We parked and walked blocks and blocks To Battery Park and waited for the ferry to go see the Statue of Liberty - another must-do. As we waited, a contortionist performed. He had his legs in front of him, feet up over his shoulderts, behind his head. Walking on his hands, then kind of on the cheeks of his butt.

My 5 yr old dd - loud enough for the whole crowd to hear says - Who IS that guy?

And my 10 yr old, again, loud enough for the whole crowd, answers - He's the Butt Scootchin' Man!

We still laugh about that.

We also went to the top of the WTC on that trip, and back to my home town in NJ. I moved from there when I was 8, but when we were coming up rt 18 I told dh "Slow down and turn right up here. Now stop. That's my old house."

I took him right to it.

Later, we stopped at McDonald's to eat, but the waitress could not understand a work my family said. I had to order for them.

"Sorry, they're from Ohio. They don't speak soda," I said.

I live in Brooklyn NY. But I worked in Manhattan from when I was 18. I stopped working at age 39 or so (worked from home after that).

The NYC I worked in and the NYC I visited last night WERE TWO COMPLETELY cities. Multiply the people in the thousands, and those BIG HUMONGOUS SCREENS. And the m&m store. Thank god I'm a diabetic because I would have spent LOADS of moolah in that place.

Oh, there was a place called Dale and Thomas and the sign said "Oprah's favorite popcorn". Alan and I went in but Alan couldn't sample any of their popcorn because it has loads of sodium and Alan can't have sodium.

And the flavors of that popcorn. They had black pepper popcorn, and mult kinds of flavored popcorn.

I tell you if they had these kind of stores way back then I wouldn't have weighed 300 lbs. I'd have weighed 400 lbs.

lol

Ive been to Vegas, and if you ever go I want to go meet you!

You have me rarin to go to NYC!!!! LOL

What the heck is Toon Town USA??

LOL

MEL

I live in california, but dont really like to endulge the actual geographic location. This keeps most of the riff raff from tryin to locate my humble abode, and also keeps the ones wanting to steal information for their monetary gain guessing.

So I put a mythological city name.....well sometimes it is toon town around here with all the grandkids

I do know that if someone was determined enough they could find out, but it makes me feel better LOL.

Yeah come to Vegas...we have New York New York, Paris Hotel, the Luxor pyramid, The Venetian with the gondola rides, A Volcano, A giant Lion (MGM), A circus, and many many more...

With all this why go anywhere else. Oh and Melody, we have a M&M world here too.

http://www.vegas.com/lounge/map.html

And that is only the Strip, we also have downtown which is now like an outdoor playground.

I am like a tourist when I go to the Strip since every time I make it there they have blown something up and built a new one in its place...Sue

I went to Las Vegas when I was 22 years old. It was part of a road trip that my friend Loretta and I took (we went to California and Las Vegas).

Just imagine two YOUNG, innocent 22 year olds IN LAS VEGAS. We met two guys. They took us out to dinner, dancing, the whole bit. They they EXPECTED US TO GO BACK TO THEIR HOTEL ROOM.

I just looked at my date and said: (can you imagine how stupid I actually was back then.?) I looked at him and said "you want us to go back to your hotel room, why on earth would we do that?"

Well, my girlfriend's date looked at us like we had lost our minds. And MY date actually got a lightbulb moment, realized who he was dealing with and calmly said to his friend. "These women ARE NOT THAT KIND OF WOMEN".

You have to realize. I was a 22 year old, catholic school raised young woman who was on my first road trip and didn't know that WHEN MEN TOOK YOU OUT ON THE TOWN, THEY EXPECTED PAYBACK.

My date looked at me and said: 'You are nice girls, be very careful, don't go out to dinner with a guy unless you set him straight up front.

I looked at him, gulped and said 'thank you for a nice time".

Then I said "Let me tell you something, I was raised to think that when you go out with a man, and he takes you out to dinner, and dancing, and whatever, he is enjoying your COMPANY, that is why he asked you out in the first place". The guy looked at me, (He must have been 25 or so), he smiled and said "Not in these times".

NOT IN THESE TIMES??? my god, this was 1969 or 1970, (can't remember).

Can you imagine what is happening today??

Oh, when these guys took us OUT, they took us to Caesar's Palace. We went on the barge in Caesar's Palace (dont' know if they still have this), and we wound up on stage singing with the piano player. His name was Pupi Campo and all I can remember is that he was married to Rosemary Clooney's sister at the time.

I was so excited thinking. "My goodness, this guy knows Rosemary Clooney".

I was NOT THINKING "Oh my god, our dates expect us to go back to their hotel room".

God, the innocence of long ago.

lol
Mel