RUDIMENTS 1124.

RUDIMENTS, pt. 1,124

(a vast otherwise nothing)

Having to do with that same

subject  -  the 'natural' aspects

of NYC  -  water always played

a large role in what I saw and

understood of NY. On many

levels. First was the whole

Croton Reservoir thing and

the huge engineering of the

aqueduct, which is still in place

way uptown, and which can be

walked now too. There's a

great book I read once, back

in Princeton, called 'Water For

Gotham,' that covers that perfectly.

The history of water in Manhattan

is an amazing. Let me digress:

-

Some of my best times, through

the early 2000's were my early

morning Princeton hours. Woodrow

Wilson is getting kicked around now

like a turd-football, but his house,

as President of the University, still

proudly stands  -  and don't let any

of those of today's Princeton snivelers

confuse you; they still revere him

there, treat his legacy like gold, and

are otherwise, generally, so full

of BS that it leaks from their pores.

His house, now, is called Prospect

House, and there's a wonderful

Garden there too. His wife had

originally set it up. Once a

pride of Princeton. Up until

recently, any Princetonian, in the

Administration, or the bumphead

student population, would have

proudly and gladly gone on forever

about it all. Even those crackhead,

student, 'tour guide' creeps would

rattle on about it all as if they were

his servant. (They're the student

reps who take prospective students

and families around, showing them

with high elation the sights and

places of the University, accompanied

by all their trite doggerel. I can only

wonder what these fly-fishers say

now). Anyway, I'd watch the early

morning gardeners, as I sat in the

plaza area of Prospect House  - 

just a few tables and chairs, but

of royal stature, overlooking

the Garden and, generally, east.

It was great for sunrises and dawns.

That's from where I read 'Water

For Gotham.' Quite memorable;

I guess which is why I brought it

up. Also, it was like seeing the

whole underside of the faux

elite trappings the place had :

food service trucks (Prospect

House, besides being open for

Woodrow Wilson history

walk-throughs, served as a

dining hall for faculty, and

card holders (such as myself!)

to lunch at). I'll interject here,

as well, about the unwholesome,

present-day, work situation of

Princeton, with all its invisible

hordes of daybreak workers

humbled in to serve and clean

for the Masters. The food service

workers and the gardening crews

were like the whole, unspoken,

underside, as I said, of the real

University,  putting aside all

their twisted 'white  and right'

hidden rhetoric. It wasn't known

as the 'Northernmost Southern

University' for nothing.

-

Meanwhile, back in Manhattan,

water remained the strangest thing:

a thousand small shopkeepers, each

morning, hosing down their storefront

areas and sidewalks; the entire Flower

District awash in 6am hoses, misters,

and sprays. A river of street-water 

running. The Fulton Fish Market,

in the very same manner, a flowing

Nile of wet, while people yelled,

as cackled, laughed and soared

amidst all the spray and smell and

that wet-thrash that only loads

of salty fish can bring forth. As if

the very land itself had been made

for water, and,  likewise, the water,

for land. That had become my world.

The Hudson, before its harborside

life was removed, was vivid with

the freight, cargo, and drayage of

a thousand things an hour. Where

travelers, steamers, and produce

once floated in and out, there is now

nothing there but the unending and

rigorous dotage of joggers, bicyclers,

preeners, and noodlers, dawdling

their varied Spandex selves across

a vast, otherwise, nothing.
-
Any person is allowed to smite, be
prideful, taunt, and strut. Any one,
or all of those. There's no difference,
BUT, there is a quality of extension,
some idea of tolerance, that others
have the right then to give back.
What I found happening with old-line
Manhattanites was mostly the pride
aspects; in the same manner as
Jersey Shore people scoffing at
Summer visitors for being 'Bennies,'
or whatever that word is that's used,
(short for benefits, or a reference
to the slang of the name, 'Bennie'?
Or reference to the $100 Benjamin
Franklins in their wallets, which the
locals greedfully do, eventually, get to).
By the way, have you ever ridden the
train up from the Jersey Shore line
and watched the behavior of those
same shore people on their touristy
way into NYC  -  loud, obnoxious, foul,
and sloppy?  -  hmmmm? Who's
a Benny now, I wonder?
-
In any case, the New York version
of same is haughtiness and a sort of
self-righteousness about living
where all is (supposedly) gold and
rats don't swarm. Methinks, to reach
higher, oh ye Shakespeare in the Park,
Joe Papp, NYC types, 'something
 stinks in Denmark.'