From Wild and Wonderful to the Big Apple

The children were getting a little wild in the house after supper, so we decided to go out and explore a little.  We hopped on the J Train just around the corner from our house and decided to ride it to the last station on the line.  Jamaica Center, Queens, is the last station, so we got off there and climbed up the steps into the open air.  We saw busy streets full of cars and buses but spotted some green space and headed towards it.  As we approached, we saw it was a park and even on this random Tuesday night it was packed with action.  Kids running and playing in the playground, moms with colorful saris chatting and watching their kids, a great dane the size of a small horse being walked.   Amy (age 8), Liam (age 6) and Emma (age 4) were all quite excited to run and play in the playground with the other children.  Micah (age 1) just sucked his thumb and enjoyed rolling along in his stroller. 

A boy and his mom came by walking the other way and suddenly the boy, who was 7 years old but quite large for his age, grabbed Liam in a giant bear hug and proceeded to bite him on the head. Huh?  This had never happened to Liam before but he quickly decided he didn’t like it and began to shriek.  My protective dad mode kicked in and my first instinct was to use roughness to detach the little biter, however his mom got there first and pulled him away.  As I comforted Liam, I saw the mom looking on with concern and pain in her eyes.  Her son was autistic and she seemed overwhelmed and tired.  I felt no anger towards her or her son, only sadness for what they were suffering and I assured her that Liam would be fine.  (He was.)

Welcome to the big city!  😊

Life for our family has changed in a big way in the past few weeks. Earlier this year, I accepted a teaching position at Followers of Jesus School for the ’26/’27 school term.  On July 27, we closed on a property in Brooklyn NY – a direct result of answered prayer.  Two days later we packed everything we owned into boxes and with the help of our Slanesville church family, packed it all into a 26’ U-haul.  After eating some pizza together, many goodbye’s and a few rogue tears, everything was quiet.  We nestled down with blankets in the living room and spent our final night at 1024 Slanesville Pike. 

Thursday morning the 30^th, we headed for NYC.  Dad kindly offered to drive the Uhaul and brave the NYC traffic.  We arrived at 174 Warwick, our new home in the city on Thursday afternoon.  Some of the youth guys from the church here in Brooklyn came over and helped us unload and by 6 PM, everything was in the house.

In the two weeks since then, we’ve began to settle into the rhythms of the city.  Trash pickup is twice a week, miss it and you’ll have stinky trash bags sitting around.  Street cleaning is twice a week as well, forget to move your vehicle out of the way and you’ll have a ticket to pay.   We walk most places we go – church, school, visiting other church families, local restaurants(Jamaican, Dominican, pizza, pupusas, empanadas…) and small stores and our local park/playground/splash pad.  We’ve taken the train quite a bit so far, using it to go to places like fancier restaurants, DMV visits, library and doing touristy things like Central Park, Coney Island and the MET.   We’ve really only used the van do some grocery shopping at a large shopping plaza about 15 minutes away. They have Home Depot, Target, Aldi, Lidl and other stores that Melody gets excited about but don’t mean much to me…  😊

Last Sunday, Amy thought Sunday School was pretty neat. One of the girls in her class had a birthday, so their class walked down to Baskin Robbins and had some icecream.   Don’t remember that ever happening in WV.  😊

There have been lot’s of interesting/new things that happened in just the two weeks we’ve been here so far (other than Liam getting bitten on the head.)   In fact, after Liam calmed down and we walked on down to the park, we had a great time watching a very energetic volleyball game between what looked to have been a group of older, perhaps Hindu?? men.   They wore long flowing robes, small white hats and beards that would make any good Amish man smile.  In fact, watching them play, reminded me of what it would look like if a group of Amish bishops gathered for volleyball in the park.   Were they talented volleyball players – no.  Were they there just to have a good time and not worry too much about the score – also no.  After a particularly hardfought play, players from both sides leapt up to get the ball and ended up falling in the net.  Instantly there were cries of “touch” “touch” as both teams were sure the other team had touched the net first.  Play halted as everyone gathered around the net and yelled and gestured at each other. It was all in good fun! I think….

Another day, we decided to visit Coney Island, a famous Brooklyn vacation destination.  A wide boardwalk separates a sandy beach from large carnival area, full of rides for kids of all ages.  We opted to head to the beach, even though the weather was a bit cloudy and cool, because the beach was free and the rides cost $5 each.  However, as we were eating some over priced hotdogs, a kind gentleman asked if we would like to ride the rides. He was there with a large group of kids and they had extra passes.  He gifted us 5 unlimited passes – (they cost $79.99 each!) and we (and by we I mean the kids and Melody) spent the entire day riding rides and doing their best to get those hotdogs to come back up.  My stomach felt slightly queasy just watching all the spinning and going around in circles. 

Another day we visited the MET, a museum full of ancient artifacts and an absolute paradise to anyone who enjoys art, history and culture.  It is somewhat less of a paradise for 6 and 4 year old children, particularly when you arrive at the children’s play area only to find it closed 5 minutes ago. No farther details will be provided but if Melody and I ever write a child-training book, this moment will not be in it.

Something that I haven’t figured out yet is why you see so many fire hydrants leaking – some of them spraying so aggressively that cars will ease over to the curb and slowly pull through, getting a free NYC car wash.  Others are spraying with less pressure and one of them we observed being used by someone with a bar of soap to take an open air shower.

Highlights for the children have been regular visits to the park and playing with the children there.   One visit, they met a boy named Liam who shared his bounty of water balloons and they had a stirring water fight on a hot afternoon.

Mel and I enjoy exploring and experiencing the food and coffee that the city has to offer.  Pasta from an Italian place that makes their own fresh noodles, gelato from a little old Italian lady who offers a cheerful “Ciao!”, the best hand-dipped ice-cream we’ve ever experienced, cold brew from a local deli, Jamaican jerked chicken and of course, pizza!

In some ways, we still feel like fish out of water, country mice in the big city.  There is so much going on that it can feel overwhelming, overstimulating and that we’ll never catch up.  I experienced my biggest country bumpkin moment walking down the sidewalk one day this week. I heard someone honk excitedly and I immediately put up my hand to start waving, my southern mind immediately jumping to the conclusion that it’s someone I know.  It only took a second to realize that the honking was not directed at me and was angry, not excited.  

Welcome to the big city!  😊

Bonus Content – One-side of a phone conversation overhead at our local park.

(Sounded like a dad giving advice to his son or perhaps a younger brother.)  Edited to remove profanity.   

Of course she’s not happy, you’ve got to take her out more…

You only been out twice and the one time the only reason you went out was somebody done gave you free tickets to the concert!

Man, she don’t wanna be hanging out with you in a hot room all day, she wanna go out and have some fun.   You wanna keep your girlfriend happy, you gotta go out, have a sense of adventure man.   Girls wanna be wined and dined man, don’t be crying about her not being happy. All you wanna do is set at home!  Course she’s not gonna be happy!

I was about to catch his eye and give him a thumbs up for his solid dating advice when things took a more cynical turn.

Quit you cryin man, she don’t wanna be committed, she’s 20 years old, aint no girl 18 to 25 that wants commitment, they just wanna have some fun, experience life a little.   They don’t wanna be sitting inside all day, wanna be out somewhere nice, sippin a nice drink.  

Cmon now, you ask me, I think being her #2 guy is better than being her main boyfriend.   If you the main boyfriend, you gotta take her out all the time, you gotta keep her happy, gotta text her every single day, all that stuff…

You the #2 guy, all you gotta do is come when she call you, that’s it – none of that other stuff.  You ask me that’s better, why you want to be her main boyfriend anyway, she not looking for any commitment right now… Quit you cryin man!