We turned off all the lights in our place at 9:00 PM, leaving only the fancy high-definition TV on, so that we could enjoy the great Macy's fireworks spectacular. Mind you, it's not that we wouldn't love to go see it in person, but today was one of those typical New York day of the 3 H's: Hot, Humid & Hazy. And the thought of having to go to one of the "prime" viewing spots really early in the day--in this 90-degrees weather was not the least bit appealing--especially when you consider that there would be literally thousands of people, sweaty, smelly people all pushing and shoving you---no...We decided it would be nicer to be in our cool air-conditioned place and not have to worry about fighting the hordes on the subway to go home.
We did that about a few years ago and the memory of it still burns. We had staked out a spot right by the water's edge, with a great view of the river and where the fireworks were going to be, this was at 7 o'clock in the morning! the fireworks were going to be about 9 something that night, crazy-- right? We had to take turns guarding the spot, because the more people came as the day wore on, the pushier they got. Finally... by the time the fireworks came the place was packed. We were being pushed and shoved from all sides. But then the fireworks started --what a fantastic sight!
Then it was over and the trek to get home loomed ahead. And --what a struggle. You suddenly had hundreds of people trying to get into the nearest subway station. Me and my friend (not actually thinking clearly) decided that we should run so that we could beat the huge crowd to the nearest subway entrance. So we start running, and for some reason--this set off a chain reaction. My friend tells me to look back-- and we see this huge mob of people also running and we got scared! Oh no....! We had no choice now but to keep running until we were nearly at the midtown station, all the way from lower Manhattan. We made it home way past 1 o'clock in the morning, totally exhausted and swearing to never ...ever!... do this again! Next time our trek would be to the TV in the living room, thank you very much!
