Walk #43

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8 June 2005
5:43 pm to 6:43 pm
Heads: 53
Tails: 51
Total intersections: 28
Ending point: corner of Peck Slip and South Street
Latitude/longitude: 40:42.26.24N/74:00.04.59W
Distance from home: 0.4163 miles
Literature received: None
Coin: 1997 nickel (P)

I walked out the door, and soon felt that summer was on the way. I had new shoes on my feet. Men were sitting on benches with their shirts off. A six-year-old had set up a lemonade stand offering drinks for “1 doller.” And the air was filled with the pungent smell of baking garbage.

I walked east down Maiden Lane, zigzagged through the Southbridge Towers housing projects, came out heading west on Fulton Street before turning back to John Street. At 6 pm, I passed by one of the many entrances to the Fulton Street/Broadway-Nassau subway megastation, just as an MTA worker was closing it for the evening. With one hand, he rang a little bell; with the other, he pulled down a grate.

A brunette woman, clearly upset, walked in the other direction, talking on her cell phone: “Still, the next morning I got up and I forgot about it.”

I walked east to the water, and then north alongside the East River, looking up at the Brooklyn Bridge and a few scattered seagulls.

Another overheard conversation, this time with both parties present:
Son: “You can’t make me join the army, Dad.”
Father: “No, but I can send you to rehab.”