Back to New York City

By the time we had all stirred this morning, Yves and Mary had left so we had us some breakfast. I had a bowl of Sugar Frosties followed by a bagel with butter. Bagel: doughnut-shaped bread like thing with seeds on. Flavoured with various things – mine was garlic. Would have tasted better hot but it was really just dense bread.

Mary returned as we were washing up so we walked up the road with her (v. steep) to the university. What a beautiful place it was. I was very jealous of the Cornell students. The buildings were old and ivy-covered and were set in spacious grounds dotted with trees. The students were dressed differently from English ones – it was hard to say in what way. I suppose it was the “hiking” look they seemed to have. Heavy boots, drainpipe Levi’s, and check lumberjack shirts under thick parkas and coats. Some carried their books in small rucksacks. 90% (or so it seemed) had fuzzy hair. Certainly long hair was out.

We strolled through the campus and went into the art museum. They have their own art museum! From the open-air top floor (where they keep their Rodin and other sculpture) you could look over the campus and the magnificent view of the nearby lake. Very English landscape. Went to the gorge (they have their own gorge) and stood on the bridge looking at the river below (into which one mixed-up student per year plunges to his death). The engineering department has its own hydraulics workshop there by the side of the waterfall so that students work on a real-life problem.

We walked back to Mary’s digs and she cooked us bacon and scrambled eggs. We gave her our tent as she said they needed one. For the journey, Mary gave us some bagels and a quart bottle of Coke. Then we were off. More tedious driving and about five tolls to pay. I was desperately trying to get rid of several dollars worth of change which I had been carrying round since Cleveland so we chucked that in the hopper of the automatic booth each time. As usual we drove and drove until there was about a pint of gas left in the tank and we had to get off the Thruway to look for a filling station.

That crisis averted we pressed on and through Yonkers into New York City. Wasn’t sure that Joe should have been driving because it was hectic to say the least. The yellow taxis outnumbered private cars, and they rocked and rattled over the bumpy streets of Harlem without regard for the private cars doddling along at 35. God knows what happens when someone says “step on the gas” like in the movies. Harlem looked very tough – as bad as people say it is. Rolled up the windows and locked the doors just in case. The liquor stores had plate glass between customer and shopkeeper, as in a post office. One street we drove through was made of railroad sleepers – I know NY is bankrupt, but wooden roads?

It was fairly straightforward to find the hotel McAlpin and I went in to book a room with my 1-nite voucher. Bit shocked to find the hotel closed for renovation, and inhabited only by a security guard. “Oh you must be one of them stoodents” he said and gave us a BUNAC letter explaining we had to go to the Prince George. What a shower of fools.

So, it was off to 28th and Broadway once again, though hopefully they would not give us the ballroom floor. Booked a room and had to pay $9 extra for a single. Still, it was the only way to get five of us in. I took in three sleeping bags – one visible and two in my bags. The others simply sauntered in and we rendezvoused in the room. Crummy dump – the curtains wouldn’t even close – neither would the bathroom door. Still, there was a TV and a double bed, and just enough space for three on the floor.

We trooped out again for a coffee at the place next door. Shôn met up with his poncy medic friends – they’d all done such unbelievably crazy things, and had such a wonderful time.

Back at the room we bedded down and watched TV for a while. There was a programme analysing the Ford/Carter debate. They had an image consultant and a body language expert etc. A bit unnerving to think that one of the most powerful positions in the world is occupied by a man chosen because of his acting ability. Went to sleep to the sounds of some war film on the TV.