Nov. 18-20, 1955 My First New York Visit

Things I remember of my first New York visit -

19th - a soft snow fell all day - I remember leaving the American Museum of Natural History - the sky a cloudy & luminous evening blue - the street lights lighting up the falling snow & silhouetting the statue of three figures at the foot of the steps - everything was glowing, all sparklingly soft - seemed to me to be the essence of New York or what I imagined N.Y. to be - a typical segment of living in New York - the pleasantness, the excitement, the wonderment of that hour at dusk - the time between daylight hours and the night and all it could hold.

Crossed out: Earlier in the day we turned a corner just short of the Empire State Building - the weather was hanging low as shroud - all above a few hundred feet - I looked up just as we turned the corner

My first view of the E.S.Bldg. was a weirdly disjointed one - I saw only a portion of it high off the ground through the low hanging weather - it seemed ghostly, suspended and not really there at all - weird & wonderful -

12-10-55

Now, three weeks after being in New York, I can still feel some of the magic that is New York. Perhaps it's all imagined - perhaps we have all heard so much about N.Y. merely because of its size & its power that we imagine the magic to be there too - how can I say after spending but 2 days there. I am most anxious to see it in the spring though, when there is magic no matter where you are. I reheard Gordon Jenkins' Manhattan Tower last night and as I read the narration along with the recording it swept over me, strong & sweet - he spoke of sitting in the dark & watching the spring eveningtime settle over the skyline - I would like to see that & I feel as though I have.