Back on Park Avenue

I have a small number of TV shows that I record for viewing when Barry is not around.  Last night I was watching one of them from HGTV when a commercial flashed on for Selling New York, a show I've never seen.  Instead of fast-forwarding through the ad, though, I was riveted by it.  Apparently one of the properties that will be featured this Thursday is in a building Tom and I lived in for two and a half years; from the brief clips shown, it may actually be our former apartment.

When Tom and I started dating, he lived in a rented apartment in New Jersey and I owned a coop apartment in Brooklyn.  Neither place was really big enough for the two of us, let alone all our stuff, and we both worked in Manhattan, so as soon as we were engaged we started house-hunting.  We were lucky to find a gorgeous two-bedroom apartment in an early 1960's building on the corner of 38th Street and Park Avenue.  We were able to rent the apartment below market price because the previous tenants had trashed it and the owner was still renovating.  We moved in as soon as the varnish on the floor had dried and stayed there until the landlord decided the location was really worth $5000 per month; at that point we headed back to Brooklyn.

Living there was great fun while it lasted, though.  We were right below Grand Central Station, where something was always going on.  When Men in Black was being made, we watched from our living room window as the scene where Will Smith jumps onto the top of a bus was filmed.  We were within walking distance of the main public library (and the cafe in Bryant Park), the theater district, Macy's flagship store, and (if we were feeling ambitious) the greenmarket in Union Square.  On the Fourth of July we went up to the roof with most of the other tenants for a first-rate view of the fireworks on the East River.  Between Grand Central and all the buses that stopped on our block, we could go anywhere and do anything.  If we could have afforded it, we (or at least I) would probably be there still.

So why do I think the apartment for sale there now might be the one we lived in?  Because when we were leaving, the landlord was thinking of chopping the living room up to create another bedroom and renting the apartment to a group of singles, and the ad for Selling New York said the featured apartment was in a great location but really beat up.

I've already set my DVR to record the episode.  Even if the show doesn't feature "my" apartment, I'll have fun seeing the building again. 

“I miss New York. I still love how people talk to you on the street - just assault you and tell you what they think of your jacket.” ~Madonna