Today I Met Freddy

The view from the bench @ Joe's

Today I decided to head out to my favorite neighborhood coffee shop “Joe’s”  its on the UWS at Columbus and and 85th, if you have never been there, you should.  As I sat on the bench outside enjoying my iced latte and watching the street life go by, a nice older gentleman asked if he could share my bench.  I joked with him and said “Well of course but only if you have a good story to tell.”  He chuckled a little as he sat down, not sure if I was serious or not. I smiled at him, and he pointed to the mighty tree directly in front of us, “I was here when they planted that tree”, he said.  Judging by the size of the tree, clearly the largest on the block, it had been there for a while and apparently so had my new bench mate.  “Yes it was 1948 when that tree was planet. He then pointed to a building at the end of the block, “I’ve lived there since 1946”.  Oh, I think my new friend might have more than one good story to tell.

My new friend seemed a little sad to have very recently left his job as a large print maker for the Metropolitan Museum. Being relatively good at math I figured he was a bit past the 65 year retirement age. “1921, thats the year I was born” he said to me. Wow my new friend was 90 years old but looked at least 20 years younger. He was not sure what he was going to do with all his free time, maybe he would volunteer at the museum once a week.  Retirement was boring.

He went on to tell me he was originally from Jamaica and joined the RAF (Royal Air Force) after heading to Scotland and then England in the early 40’s. He asked if I knew what the RAF was and I was happy that I did. My friend told me he had never married but came close once. I asked him about all the changes he must have seen in the neighborhood in the last 65 years and he mentioned the house down the block that had parties every Saturday night.  “Always a shooting or two” he said shaking his head.  The Upper West Side neighborhood is now a nice enclave of families, shops and restaurant much different from the New York of the 70’s and 80’s.

I finally asked his name.  “Freddy” he said with a smile.  I then asked if I could take his picture.  A bit reluctant Freddy asked why and I told him that I wanted to write a little story for my blog.  I wanted to tell the story of an interesting person I met today.

We all need to take time to stop and listen to the Freddys of the world.  They have a lot of history, a lot of good stories to tell.  Talking to Freddy made my $4.00 latte, priceless!

As I left the bench at Joe’s, Freddy gave me a sincere “thank you”  I thought to myself no, thank you Freddy, you have made my day, I hope to see you again!

Freddy