PIFFLEFEST IN NEW YORK -- JUNE 24, 2012

There’s bad and good in everything.  Luckily, the only bad part of my trip into New York on Sunday, June 24^th, was the incorrect traffic reports.  George Washington Bridge clogged up for 40 minutes, or so they said while I was approaching it and after I zoomed through it at the usual bumper-to-bumper 50 mph.  And even the crosstown traffic wasn’t too bad, despite the parade closing of 5^th Avenue when I was going to very near Sixth.  As promised, there was even a parking garage right next to my destination.

The occasion was a New York pifflefest, of a size rare in NY these days.  Lindsey (Ducks) and her husband were living in NY for a few years, and I’d promised myself I’d go in and meet her.  Then Julia and her family, including two absolutely charming teenagers, were coming to the States for a vacation, starting out in the City, and coincidentally Lindley, from western Canada, was to be in town for a few days en route between eastern Canada and Washington on her latest genealogical tour.  We set a time and place, and no sooner had we done that then Cally said she’d bus down from Boston for the day.  So there we were, pifflers from Australia, the UK, Canada, Boston, and New Jersey, all meeting in NY and vying for attention from two very friendly labradoodles.

Ducks’ apartment was lovely, with a spectacular window wall with views of the Empire State Building and the Chrysler building, not to mention a number of other great buildings and marvelous vistas.  I’d grown up on the 14^th floor of a Manhattan apartment house, and I was still impressed.  One by one we trickled in, met or re-met each other, sipped lots of ice water, oohed and aahed at the view, and, of course, piffled, catching up a little bit and then chatting about everything under the sun.

After a bit, we all strolled over to Sixth Avenue (it will never be Avenue of the Americas to me) and down a few blocks to a café (Normadie, IIRC), for a late lunch and lots more piffling, only leaving a few hours later to walk back the same route, still talking, and ride the elevator back up to the 24^th floor and that marvelous view.  And then it was suddenly late, late afternoon, and one by one we trickled out again.

And what did we talk about?  We started with finding apartments in New York, the weather, and who walked where, and moved on, in no particular order, to Shakespeare (with a special emphasis on why Romeo and Juliet is not such a great play), the American Revolution, various legal cases, crossing the US/Canadian border and travel in general, TV (with a side of who watches car races and why) and much more.

It was, to make a long story no longer, an old-fashioned pifflefest, and I left with a big smile on my face!