Getting Old and Getting Out
In New York City
byHerb Bardavid
Gloria and Gary
Gloria and Gary invited me to come back another and visit their apartment. I printed up several of the images I made that day and we set a date. I bought the photographs for them, they loved them. Their apartment on the Upper West Side of New York City was a classic setting for a creative writer. There were books and books and books all over the apartment. They were thrilled to show me around. Gloria is no longer taking photographs but she has some magnificent images.
What I found wonderfully interesting is here I met two strangers in a park in the middle of New York City and after only a 30-minute conversation they were perfectly willing to invite a stranger to their apartment.
And this stranger was perfectly willing to go. Just one more reason I love this city.
While sitting in Verdi Square on the Upper West Side of New York City I was waiting for someone to come by. This couple sat down next to me and we began chatting. Gary walks with a cane and Gloria does not. They have lived on the Upper West Side for more than 20 years. Gary has two jobs, works as a headhunter for a living and a writer of fiction as well. Gloria had been an editor of books and has published a photography book as well. We had a long discussion about following one's passion vs. taking a job that pays the bills.
They had not had their photograph taken in quite a while so they were happy to have me take some more images of them. Gary wore a tie and jacket for the occasion.
One of the things that I learned about my new friends is that Gloria was from Mississippi. This surprised me because there was not a trace of a Southern accent in her speech. The photography book that Gloria had published was about Mississippi and the rural neighborhoods that dotted the road that runs across Mississippi. That is Highway 51. The very name of an early Bob Dylan album. One of my favorite folk singers.
