Have you ever tried to go shoe shopping in Manhattan? Nuts. Ever tried to do any thing there? It's hard. I found a store called "Shoe Mania". There gimmick was buy one pair get the second half off. Sounded simple enough. Pick out two pairs of shoes, save some loot and then out. Not so much. The shoes we were shopping for were good sandals that could get us around the world and then some. Mine were relatively easy to find, due to the lowered selection of men's styles. Zoey's on the other hand were a bit more tricky. The way this store was run was something to be in awe of. Many, many men walked around asking if you needed help. I sure did. I wanted to know more about the shoes I was about to purchase. Do the do well in the water. What about in the sand. Do they last a long time? Why are they $100? But alas, very few of the employee's new much more English than, "Do you need help?" and "what size". The store probably had 75 to 120 customers in the store. Now the "Mania" part of the tittle made sense. When you asked the store associate for a size, he would call it in to some unknown dispatch center via blue tooth headset and ask you to sit. Minuets later he would return with the shoes and asked if they were OK for you, before running off to help some one else in there dire shoe crisis. Minuets more later he would return to see if you wanted anything else. Zoey struggled with here decision. So many to choose from and the two she liked the most, well, they didn't have her size. I told her that this was just the first store that we had come to, and if she didn't feel comfortable in her selection, we would go some where else. She decided that since we were here we should just get them and get out. Settling for some very nice shoes we went to the register to make our purchase. $195 the cashier tells us... What? that is way too much. We explain to the clerk her stores sale and get the total down to $125. Geez. What a mess....
Cigarettes although being rationed for only after eating were fired up 6in from the door. Food was the next priority. Burgers are never a bad idea. This proved to be right again. Yea grease!!! The ice cream of the day flavor was coffee and donuts.... Not too shabby.
Hopping back on the subway we decided to get the hell out of Manhattan... Too many people. We ended up back in Brooklyn in a neighborhood called Williamsburg. This is kinda the hip part of town among kids our age. All the bare are full of tight jeaned bandanna cycling 20 to 30 somethings. It kinda gets old not being the cool kids in those bars. So much wanting a drink we came across this bar called Rosemarys Green Point Tavern. The windows were all covered with these horrible silk flowers and really lame nick-knacks. We go inside, and talk about a dive. This place is the epitome of dive bars. Wood panelling, juke box, and one arcade game. There sit 2 men in there late 50's. Staring at us silently, we take the first two seats closest to the door. The bar tender comes up to us and asks what were having. Two big Buds I reply. The men carry on in there banter. Swiftly he returns with just that two 32oz beers in Styrofoam cups. Zoey and I smile. This is the first time that I have been served beer in Styrofoam. Shifting my attention to the other two customers, it turns out they are in a mildly drunken debate about which doo-wop songs were technically the most difficult for a lead to sing. Amusing. It turns out guy number one has already decided that "Gloria", "Sunday kind of love", and "In the still of the night" are the hardest. The bartender apologizes for these men drunken behavior, and us smiling day its fine. The bar tender goes to the juke box and plays all three songs to maybe settle the argument. The great thing is during each song the two men and the bartender are all trying as hard as they can to sing along. Loudly. Zoey and I are laughing so hard by this point. Guy number two won't budge. "Forgetaboutit" is all he says. Guy number two goes on to tell us about some of these old groups singing in the subways when he was a kid. Tells us about the time he was in a singing group called the Kents (after Kent st. two blocks up) He tells us that the Kents were the only doo-wop group to ever get thrown out of the subway. We all assume that's how bad they were. It was so cool to come across the three singing men. The have probably not lived more than 10 blocks from where they were born 50+ years ago. This was there neighborhood. And they were proud of it.
Later that night we went to Prospect Park in Brooklyn and got to See a free David Buyrne concert to kick off summer. It was cool seeing how many people the five boroughs can fit in a park. His show was good the people watching was fabulous. We ended up taking off early thinking that the subways would be packed after the show let out and came on home. Thanks David Buyrne.
