In the park, but not on Saturday

 On Friday, October 13th, 2023 (yes, a Friday the 13th!) I fulfilled an item on my bucket list. 

I went to Central Park in New York City and spent about three hours there with my husband. 

We only did half the park, entering at 59th Street/Columbus Circle, and going all the way to the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir before turning around. 

It still amazes me that for the price of a subway fare, you can hop a train, get off at 59th Street (or whatever other park entrance you pick), and just about 50 feet in, you forget that you are in the world’s biggest city, with all of its traffic noises, horn-honking, police-whistling, siren-sounding, and just the general noise, wear, and tear of a big city. 

Central Park is an oasis when you can find a favorite tree or favorite slope and sit down with a book, or journal, or whatever it is you’re doing, and do it. It’s a wonderful place to people watch.  There were at least two groups of kids doing some sort of play activity; I’m wondering if it was a school activity. 

We walked down the Mall, where statues and busts of famous people decorate each side of the walkway. 

We stopped and chatted with a man who was selling handmade note cards; he’d learned how to do the art during the COVID lockdown. And after wandering through the park, I’m convinced that if it can be made and sold, you WILL find it in Central Park! 

A man wanted to give a brief, free massage demonstration to Frank. He declined. 

Along the way, we were serenaded by a guitar player and a saxophonist; and there were probably other musicians in areas of the park we didn’t even hear. 

Central Park also has its share of joggers, bike riders, and walkers.  If you want to, you can pay for a pedicab and take a ride while the cabbie improves his overall health. If you have the finances, you can upgrade to a horse and carriage ride. 

Frank and I elected to walk. 

I specifically went looking for two very famous statues: one of Alice in Wonderland, the other of Hans Christian Andersen. Both statues are near life-size, and you are encourage to climb/pose/sit on/sit next to them. Around Alice’s statue are quotes from Lewis Carroll. She is posed with the Mad Hatter at his tea party. 

Hans Christian Andersen is posed with a quill pen in his hand, bending over an open book, with a duck next to him. He is reading/writing the story of the Ugly Duckling.

We finished our visit with a quick trot through Strawberry Fields. I was looking for a mosaic — which I found — with the word “Imagine” in the middle of a sunburst. If you listen carefully, you can hear John Lennon’s “Imagine” playing in the background. This is Lennon’s memorial; the Dakota, where he and Yoko Ono lived, is not very far from Strawberry Fields. 

Back in the late ‘60’s or early ‘70’s, a young singer-songwriter paid at least one visit to Central Park. Many years later, he described shooting some home videos there, and while viewing them, taking notes on things he saw and the impressions they left with him, and distilled it all down into a three-minute, 56-second of joyous, explosive celebration. 

The song that resulted, “Saturday In the Park,” introduced me to the band Chicago.

“Saturday In the Park” hit number three on the Billboard Hot 100 in September, 1972, the best performing of the band’s singles to date. 

My husband and I experienced some of the things this young singer-songwriter probably did during his time in Central Park: I didn’t see a man selling ice cream, but the park had its share of food trucks and plenty of people took advantage of them. 

There was a man playing guitar, singing for everyone (I found myself singing Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day” along with him). 

And there was the “bronze man” who could still “tell stories his own way”, which I understand is a reference to the Hans Christian Andersen statue. 

There’s a magic in Central Park that maybe you can catch in one visit; maybe you will have to go back again and again to truly experience it. Perhaps, if I had been younger or wearing better shoes (my feet were hurting and had been ever since a walk down Boston’s Freedom Trail inspired them to threaten their own Revolutionary War), I would have been able to capture more of the atmosphere that makes Central Park, Central Park.  

We exited the park at Strawberry Fields and, while trying to find a McDonald’s, walked down a street or avenue that was the perfect example of the neighborhood usually used in an establishing shot on something like Law and Order. It was a shady street where the steps to the houses/apartments run down to the sidewalk, the cars are all parked on the street and probably have to be reparked every so often; and had we been there later in the day, we would have mingled with the crowd coming home from work. 

All magic must end, and we had to leave behind the magic of Central Park and dive back into the “real” New York City, with its crowds, traffic, and the accompanying noises. 

What I did not know until later that day brought Central Park magic and my love affair with both Chicago and “Saturday In the Park” full circle, in a sense. 

Friday, October 13th, 2023, was the 79th birthday of that young singer-songwriter, Robert Lamm, who put a joyous day spent in Central Park to words and music and brought its magic to fans both old and new. 

So, on the birthday of the man that wrote the song that introduced me to Chicago, I wound up visiting the place that inspired the song in the first place. 

In a sense, that was, in the words of “Saturday In the Park,” a “real celebration.” 

If nothing else, it was a wonderful coincidence that topped off a beautiful day. 

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.