One of the greatest weeks in my life was going to New York City as part of a group trip in March of 1984. Every year, Dr. W organized the trip at Eastern New Mexico University, in which about 20 people would take part in a theatre tour of the city. We were scheduled to see several Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. We also did the typical touristy things like going to the Statue of Liberty, the United Nations and the World Trade Center.
I almost got to go in 1983. At almost the last minute, Mom and Dad said they would pay my way to be part of the trip. However, Dr. W had already filled up all the slots on the tour and advised me to take the money, put in the bank and hold on to it until next year. I didn't put any money in the bank, but Mom and Dad still paid for the trip in 1984. Mom also gave me one of her credit cards with a signed note that said it was okay for me to use it.
Originally, the plan called for me to get a ride with a couple of the other travelers up to the airport in Lubbock on Saturday morning, 03/10/84. My high school choir in Artesia was doing a performance of the musical "Anything Goes" that night. I wanted to go down and see it as it would include the last few members of the choir that I knew when I was in high school. Three other people, including Kird, actually wanted to come down with me for the road trip. On Friday, I went out and filled up my car with gas. Then, during a class at the Theatre building, Dr. W pulled me out to tell me that the people I was getting a ride with Saturday morning were actually leaving that evening and would be spending the night in Lubbock. He said I would probably have to pay for a motel room that night. I knew I had relatives in Lubbock, so I told him I would probably get to spend the night with them instead. I immediately called Mom to get the phone number for her cousin. I called him and he was willing to let me stay, especially since one of his kids wasn't going to be there that night, so there would be an open bed.
The people giving me a ride came and picked me up. It was a woman and her brother. The woman was going on the trip and the brother was just driving us. We didn't talk much during the first part of the trip. After awhile, we started opening up a little more and conversing, but not about anything really important. The woman was a graudate student at ENMU, but I don't remember much else about her.
They dropped me off at my relative's. His youngest daughter was the only other person at the house. It was time for bed, but I couldn't go to sleep. I was much too excited about the next day. It also didn't help that the mattress had a plastic covering on it and the girl had her radio blasting all night long.
The morning arrived and I took a shower. My relative drove me to the airport. Dr W was there with some of the other people on the tour. It turned out I was the only actual Theatre student on the trip. The others were older people from the area and some of them worked at ENMU. We checked our luggage, got our tickets and got on the plane. We were flying to Dallas, where we would get a connecting flight to New York City. On the first flight, we were given these danishes for breakfast. They were as hard as a rock. On the flight from Dallas, we had omelets. I remember there being mushrooms and other vegetables inside. I actually enjoyed it, but the woman I drove up with didn't care for it too much.
When we started our approach to NYC, I could see the city through the windows. I kept thinking, "Hurry up and land this plane already! What are you waiting for?" We landed and went to baggage claim. Since I'm really inexperienced with travel, I stood right by the little door from which the luggage would enter the claim area. I was kind of paranoid about being in the big city. My two pieces of luggage came through. Everyone else on the tour got their luggage and we were ready to go. The plan was that shuttles were going to take us to our hotel. We waited for an hour for the shuttles to arrive, but they never did. The whole time, Dr. W was on the payphone trying to get a hold of the travel agent who he had hired to get all this stuff ready. The agent kept assuring him that the shuttles were on the way. Dr. W gave up and had us go out and hail cabs to take us to the hotel.
We rode six to a cab. Those of us in my cab were fortunate in that we arrived without any problems. One of the others had the front bumper fall off and all the men had to get out of the cab to lift it off the street and put it back into place. Another cab was spewing so many fumes that one of the women inside got really sick. So sick, in fact, that she had to stay in the hotel the whole time and didn't get to do anything. Her husband got to do all the stuff, but she didn't. A couple of months later, she was still feeling the effects of the pollution. This could have been avoided if those shuttles had arrived as promised. Dr. W was furious about this. This was the first time in several years of tours that the group had to take taxis from the airport.
When we arrived at the hotel, I started to get out of the car. I was on the right side and opened the passenger door. The first thing I saw was a bunch of cars passing by just inches away. I closed the door and said, "I guess I'm not getting out on this side." One of the other people in the car, who had been to NYC before said, "No, you NEVER get out on the street side."
We went up to our rooms. I shared a room with this guy named Grad. I knew Grad because he played one of the guards in "The King and I." I didn't realize it at the time, but Grad was actually Dr. W's longtime companion and was mentioned in his obituary as someone who was survived by him. At the time, I had a feeling Grad was gay, but my liberal homophobic attitude at the time was "unless you actually say or do something that obviously indicates you're gay, I'm going to act like you're straight."
It was snowing outside, and I didn't feel like rushing out into the cold. I turned on the TV and the movie "Stairway to Heaven" was on. (Otherwise known as "A Matter of Life and Death.") It held my attention for the time being. One of the interesting things about the presentation was the bumpers the TV station had during commercials. They featured a helicopter shot of the Empire State Building with an instrumental version of "Theme from 'New York, New York.'" Grad kept coming in and out of the room. I'm certain he was thinking, "We're in NYC! You didn't come all the way over here to watch TV." But he never said it.
After the movie was over, I went with Grad and Dr. R into Times Square, which was a couple of blocks from the hotel. It was a truly stunning sight. I had seen this on TV and the movies my entire life, and now, I was in the middle of it. Dr. W took us to the TKTS booth. The group didn't have any performances for that night, so we were free to do what we wanted. I wanted to see "A Chorus Line" for my first Broadway experience and hoped to get a half-price ticket for that night. After waiting in line a few minutes, Grad came up and told me that they ran out of "A Chorus Line" tickets. Dr. W told me that if I still wanted to see it, I could pay full price at the theatre. I went there and got a single ticket.
There was still some time to kill before that evening's performance. Rod showed up to see Dr. W. I don't know if he knew ahead of time that I was coming, but he didn't seem surprised to see me. Those of us hanging out in Times Square went out and got slices of pizza at this one restaurant. I remember seeing Rod fold his slice in half while eating it. I thought he had become a real New Yorker.
I went to see "A Chorus Line" and was mostly surprised at how there was so much more music than there was on the original cast album. It was really nice to hear a lot of the material that I was not familiar with. I went back to the hotel and slept very well that night.
The next morning, I woke up and got ready to take a shower. I realized that I had left my bottle of shampoo/conditioner at my relative's house. I had to use the little complimentary hotel soaps as shampoo for the whole week.
More on NYC tomorrow.
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