All of the posting the last couple days of pictures from my latest trip to New York City with Amanda got me to thinking about one of my very first trips to New York City when I wasn't much older than Amanda in September of 1977. At the time I had just barely turned 19 years old and was stationed at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey which made it easy to hop on a bus and venture up to the Big Apple where I met up with my best high school buddy Carol, still only 18 years old, who had taken the train down from Connecticut.
We were getting together to celebrate my birthday a few days late as well as attend my very first Broadway play at the Helen Hayes Theater. We had chosen
Equus as at the time it was starring Leonard Nimoy and Carol and I were admittedly big
Star Trek fans which made it totally exciting for us!
Probably the only reason we chose
Equus was because of Nimoy as the play itself is rather, uhm, disturbing you might say.
Equus was written in 1973 by Peter Shaffer and it tells the story of a psychiatrist who attempts to treat a young man who has a pathological religious/sexual fascination with horses. Pretty heavy material for a couple of teenagers especially considering there's full frontal nudity at one point; you've got to remember, 1977 was a totally different time as compared to now and those things were still pretty racy. I can still remember the older lady sitting next to me waking up at just that point in the play and gasping "Oh my goodness!" rather loudly!
Still it was quite the adventure for Carol and I and we had a wonderful time posing for pictures in front of the theater ...
... and then later visiting the Empire State Building where I posed for this picture at the top. The quality is pretty terrible as these pictures are pretty old and were taken with what I believe was a Kodak 110 Instamatic Camera - or something along those lines - so I have no idea if I was pointing at anything in particular or not but I have a feeling I was. I don't believe that was a typical pose for me!
Good Lord, and to think that I thought I was
fat back then. What the heck was I thinking??
This picture of Carol was taken back at the Hotel Edison where we decided to stay for the night. That was back in the days when you could actually walk into a hotel and ask if there were any vacancies then get a room without having to lop off an arm and a leg to pay for it! I bet if Carol were to see this she'd be shocked at how young she looks, too!
Anyhow, this trip was just one of several that Carol and I took to New York City while I was living in New Jersey but it may be the only one that I have any pictures of. Obviously I wasn't attached to a camera back then like I am now which is too bad as the memories these pictures provoke are priceless. I can still remember how much we laughed when we went to open the window shade of our hotel room and it came crashing down off of the window or how shocked we were when Leonard Nimoy just materialized in front of us while we were taking pictures out in front of the theater. And what did my brilliant 19-year old mind come up with to say on such an auspicious an occasion? "Oh, it's you!" Duh ...
Now, if you'll excuse me, I am going to go feel old and fat!
