Brooklyn PI

 

One of the big moments - arriving in NEW YORK STATE.

We came over to Long Island on a ferry from New London,Conneticut, with not a little apprehension, our attempts at making contact with Warm Showers hosts had come to nothing.

 

An indication that an annual festivity involving pumpkins is not too far away, was this display on a roadside stall on our first days ride on Long Island.

 

 

We wondered if we'd made the right choice when Tommy said

"I've got a 35foot Alligator in the house, with big teeth!

Wait here a moment"

When we met Doris she was not a bit scary; a tall, willowy figure, she looked as though she'd walked many miles in the shoes of others, and had a heart of gold.

Both brought up in Brooklyn, they lived about 2 hours drive from there, which Doris pined for, but Tommy only went back for Gridiron games, and to see his Mother.

Of medium to stocky build with an implacable and unruffled expression that sat well with a man who, only a few years before, had surrendered his Private Investigators Licence. His business on Wall St had once emplyed thirty people, but Internet security checks along with other modern techniques had driven the business under, finger printing became obsolete.

Tommy and Doris were preparing to host us in style,unaware of this, I was busy getting tea underway on the Trangia camp stove when Val informed me;

"Tommy is expecting to do Hamburgers for us"

I called to him

"Hey Tom, I think we are putting enough on you by asking for a place to camp, without you feeding us as well!"

"You're not telling me you do embarressed are you?"

We had a shared meal, he did the Hamburgers I did boiled potatoes - not a traditional American meal.

After dinner we sat over a glass of wine and a can or two of beer, talking about many things, among these, the intriguing fact that Doris had a friend who'd been a Bunny Girl at one of Hefners Playboy Clubs years ago, till late in the evening, Val and Doris headed their respective ways to bed and Tommy appeared with another couple of cold cans.

I was completely oblivious to the fact that next day was the anniversary of the most traumatic event in modern American History - 9/11 and this was something personally traumatic to both our hosts.

Tommy had wandered throught the Twin Towers Plaza on the previous day, knew a lot of people, business associates, firemen and policemen who had lost their lives, then to cap it all, he witnessed the second plane fly into the tower block from the deck of a Hudson River Ferry.

No wonder he had a few beers that night, (maybe our being there made things a little easier, I hope so) Doris also knew many killed and lost someone close, a young man whom she helped raise from a baby in nappies.

Next morning when I went into the house a TV relayed a ceremony from Ground Zero, reading out the names of all the victims.

Later along the road we passed a fire station with a firemans kit placed on the ground in front of fire truck out of the shed and facing the road. Flags all along the way flew at half mast and on the media the debate raged about the nutty clergyman in Florida who threatened to burn the Koran and opinions varied on the building of a Muslim Centre in the vicinity of Ground Zero.