METROPOLITAN DIARY #2
Neighbors
Dear Diary:
My wife and I were outside the prewar walk-up apartment building in Long Island City that was our home for several years when we spotted a man walking a cat on a leash.
“How novel!” I said to the man.
We went inside and the man and his cat did too.
“Oh, you live here?” I asked.
He nodded.
We made our way up the four flights to our door. The man with the cat, behind us the whole way, stopped at the door next to ours. He put a key in the lock.
“Oh, you live right here?” I said, now incredibly embarrassed.
“Yes,” he said, before disappearing into the apartment. “I’ve lived here for eight years”
— Allison Hope
Totaling Up
Dear Diary:
Many years ago, when my children were little, my friends and I shopped at Natan Borlam’s children’s clothing store in Brooklyn.
The store carried beautiful clothes from Europe, as well as Florence Eiseman dresses for girls and Merry Mites and Gay Sprites clothes for toddlers, all at a fraction of their retail cost.
There were no price tags. You selected what you wanted and got in line. Natan would then look everything over and give you a final price. It was strictly cash only.
One day, there was a woman in line ahead of me whose arms were overflowing with clothes.
“I only have $42 with me,” she said to Natan when it was her turn at the register. “So please add it up and tell me what it costs before you ring it up.”
He took the items from her one by one, folding each neatly and piling them on the counter.
“Forty-two dollars,” he said brightly.
— Elizabeth Levine
Illustrations by Agnes Lee
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/31/nyregion/metropolitan-diary.html
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