New York City — with children

Recently I asked my children what they remembered about our year’s Sabbatical in New York City. Though only 7, Sally remembered her 2nd Grade classroom which was in the basement of P.S. 125. She remembered that there were only open grates for windows where all you could see were the shoes of the people passing above on the street. She learned early on, not to sit under one of these windows where people spit as they passed and it often sprayed into the classroom.

She remembered the boiler room where students went for lunch if it was raining and they couldn’t walk home. Sally made friends with the big cat who was allowed to live there and do battle with the rats and mice.

Once we were all having dinner together in our small dining room when Sally, our shy, quiet little girl asked innocently, “Is ‘SHIT’ a bad word?” Cosmopolitian Neel, age 9, choked back a snicker. David calmly explained that it was a word that we didn’t use in our family and asked why she wanted to know. She said, “Everytime the teacher says “Shh–” Forest would say “It” and the boys would all laugh. Sally was getting quite an education.

With only the background of schools in Virginia I volunteered to be a Room Mother. How those children took advantage of my ignorance! My first assignment was to accompany the fourth grade class on a field trip to the Museum. I was horrified when on the way, some of the class hopped off the subway. I panicked. “I have lost these children in downtown New York City”. Little did I know these savvy street-wise children simply jumped on a car further down the same subway and we all arrived at the Museum at the same time. At the Museum the children scattered again. When it was time to leave I was ready to call the police but at the last minute they popped up and somehow we all got back to the school on time. But this ended my days as Room Mother at P.S.125

Neel remembers the small asphast playground where they played stick ball. The wall of an adjourning apartment was part of the game–so many points if you hit the ball to a second story window. Older children often gathered outside our Apartment House and threw balls against the wall. I never could figure out just what the game was all about.

The school situation was so bad we responded in a method typical of the late 60s—We, (parents, Professors from Union Seminary, students from Columbia and Union) protested with signs outside the school Neel remembers the TV cameras and being interviewed by one of the reporters. After several days the protest was so large the school was closed and for two weeks we had a Liberation School for the students held at Riverside Church. I was a teacher in that Liberation School.

Both the children caught mumps that year and remember being in bed but none of us can remember how they spent their time. We didn’t have a TV.

In the apartment Sally and Neel loved throwing things out of our 5th story window. They had a toy at the time that, when thrown in the air would open a small parachute. It was perfect for pitching out the window, watching it open, then running down 5 flights of steps or taking the elevator to retrieve it from the street. Sally remembers once a ball flew out the window and they had to chase it several blocks down Broadway. Another time, for some reason, she can’t remember why, they threw boxes out the window until the Apartment Supervisor came looking for them and they both hid under the bed.

Sally quickly made a new friend, Sarah, who lived just above us on the 6th floor. They were in the same grade and walked to school together. Sally and Sarah worked out a code by banging on the apartment pipes—when they could get together to play.

Sweetpea, Sally’s cat, didn’t know what to make of the City. She would sit as far out as she could on the ledge of our 5th story window and watch, for hours, the traffic on Broadway. When we would try to take Sweetpea for a walk she would literally slink along the walls as close to the buildings as she could get. Once she climbed up the fire escape. Sally’s friend, Sarah, signaled her on the pipes to come get her cat who was hanging from their ledge on the 6th floor.

Thinking back on the experience I am amazed at how children just adjust so easily –find games to play and make new friends.