HELLO DOLLY Off Broadway...17º

 New York City is about 90 miles South of Poughkeepsie...Aunt Beaty not only gave us the tickets but supplied the car to drive there...Herb would drive and Sonny had hand drawn a map, with directions to get to a parking garage in NYC, near the theater and and the center of NYC...I don't remember much about the drive (Herb has alway been a good driver and had a good head for directions), but as we neared NYC, looking down the road ahead, it looked like millions of big and little ants marching...The ants were cars and people!..We hit 5th avenue at noon, bumper to bumper traffic, cars honking, buses had the right of way...Mom and I were in the back seat, I was shaking like a leaf and had to pee!..Herb got us to the garage and parked, mom and I went hunting a bathroom, only we found that you needed a dime to use one...While Mom searched for a dime, a stall door opened, I grabbed it before it closed and slipped in!..Whew

We spent the day walking, because no one was brave enough to use the subway and we were afraid of where we might end up if we did...We visited Rockefeller Center in all of its Christmas glory, made our way up a bajillion stairs to the top of the Empire State Building and viewed the city from there...Dinner wasn't memorable, except for the prices...We visited Macy's, I think it was the largest department store in the US at that time...I don't remember buying anything, maybe a postcard.

We found the St James Theatre, Off Broadway (meaning that it was a theater that has less than 500 seats)...The musical, Hello Dolly staring Ginger Rodgers was an incredible show, we were all in awe...I think it started my love for musicals of all kinds...We arrived back in Clinton Corners around midnight, safe and sound, thankful for Herb's good driving and his sense of direction!..Continued tomorrow...Hugs to All...OWAV:)

                                        

Playbill from 1966

The photo that inspired me to write this story.
Pat and Brian visited Rockefeller Center
to see this years tree that comes
from the county they live in,
in Maryland.