Memories of the Times

In January 1984, this then-young Aussie on his first trip to New York City was advised by well-meaning friends to stay at the classy Gramercy Park Hotel, but it was twice as expensive as I'd anticipated. After one night there, I checked my finances, admitted defeat - and a local tourist advisory service recommended the Times Square Hotel on 43rd Street, instead, as "a place where Aussies often stayed when they couldn't afford the usual NYC prices".

My NY penpal was kind of horrified when she heard my new location. When I told Carolyn that I'd switched hotels she said, "New York's fine, so long as you stay away from Times Square. So where are you staying?"

Me: (in high pitched voice): "Times Square Hotel."

Yes, I couldn't have gotten much closer to Times Square itself if I'd tried! I must say that the Times Square Hotel's revolving door, quaint old foyer, cashier window, rickety elevator, incredibly noisy water pipes (at 3.30am every morning, like clockwork), a friendly maid who thumped on the door to clean the room at about 6.30am, the portable b/w TV with "rabbit ears" aerial (that had to be supplemented by touching the TV and raising one arm), the pathetic pigeon sheltering on a window sill from the blizzard outside, and not to mention the little mouse who visited me every night... Wow! What a way to get to know the real New York! I loved every second of it!


COMMON GROUND

I was under the impression that the hotel may have been demolished, but a bit of Googling today revealed that the Times Square Hotel is alive and well! Now a subsidised block of apartments, it is owned and operated by COMMON GROUND an organisation that develops solutions to homelessness.

According to a current resident, The Hotel Times Square "was built in the mid 1920s. It was a moderate-priced alternative to the great hotels in the neighborhood, the Hotel Astor (demolished) and the Knickerbocker (converted, still standing on B’way and 42nd St. The Hotel Times Square is very famous, since it was the neighbor to the New York Times building for much of the 20th Century. The NY Times moved to a new skyscraper a few blocks downtown, on Eighth Ave.

"The Hotel Times Square is on 255 W 43rd Street, at Eighth Avenue. It has a very grand lobby, a nice mezzanine, and a fine rooftop terrace/garden. It is not open to the public, but one may walk through the revolving door and have a quick look without trouble.

"There is an art gallery on the mezzanine. Most of the artwork is not terribly distinguished; but it is one way to get into the building. Ask to see the art gallery." (The New York Times' In Transit blog.)

Very cool! I must go through my album of pics. Somewhere I have a 3D photo of my little friend, the New York pigeon, who huddled on the opposite window's sill every night. I snapped a great picture the night of a freezing blizzard and I was thrilled to get a photo of "3D snow"! January 1984 now seems so very long ago, but almost like yesterday.

Ah, found it:



And here's why I couldn't find Times Square Hotel on Google Earth "street view" last year! The building's front was being renovated (2009)!

This cold makes me feel funny

Some of my school's Year 3 and 4 students are working with me on an interactive Book Rap, composing and posting emails for other schools to share ideas about selected books. Last week, their progress on some narratives about our school's various playground birds was unexpectedly halted by a visit from poet Steven Herrick, which was apart of National Literacy and Numeracy Week.

Few of our students knew of Herrick's work, but we did have three of his titles in the school library. His visit was an overwhelming success. The Year 4 students had already written their bird stories for the rap and were ready to compose their Wrap Rap-up messages to finalise everything, but we all suddenly realised the potential of applying Herrick's unique style of free verse to such writing as the bird narratives. Therefore, I read a few more Herrick poems to the Years 3/4 classes and, when the Year 3's came in for their catch-up book rapping session, to complete their narratives, I encouraged them to use the option of free verse in their final drafts.

A few groups soon reached a stalemate, having exhausted all of their wonderful brainstormed ideas of two weeks ago. It was not long after recess, so we went out into the playground and waited quietly. Sure enough, in came the pigeons and other birds, one by one, to pck through the students' abandoned leftovers of food! In just a few minutes of observation we were witness to: pigeons' meal time; a young male pigeon's first, tentative attempts at courtship; and the "rules" of avian attack/defence. A few minutes later the huge, glossy black crows had also arrived, swooping down, full of confidence, taking over the new bird bath, and having a great time laying down the law of birdlife. The students quickly noticed the "pecking order" of our school's bird population.

We went back into the library full of renewed inspiration. One group, although they'd written their narrative about pigeons in normal paragraphs (and continued to do so), elected to perform it orally for the other groups as free verse poetry, breaking up the sentences into shorter natural phrasing, a la Steven Herrick. When we typed up their final draft, the new presentation style was retained. I was really thrilled with the result!

Normally I wouldn't share student work online, but the poem already appears elsewhere on a public forum, so I can give you a peek:

PIGEONS AT SCHOOL
by Year 3 students (in the style of Steven Herrick).

The playground is empty,

except for the pigeons.

They go and look

for food

in the rubbish

and eat it.

This is now their territory.

Until lunchtime.

A young male pigeon

strives to impress

a new female.

This will be his first mate.

The other pigeons

peck the ground

and other playground birds, who can’t find food,

follow them.

After their meal of scraps

The pigeons go to the bird bath to relax,

and to decide on the next school to visit.


Once again, raising the bar of expectations caused the students to meet - and surpass it.

I've now put up a display board about the book rap in the library, and one story and one poem have been earmarked for next week's school newsletter. Even though I've been "talking up" this book rap with other teachers at every opportunity, and putting items in the school newsletter, the display board has already caused a few teachers in the other stages to realise that there has been all this amazing creativity going on around them, while they stayed in blissful ignorance. So often, teachers get so caught up with their day-to-day class activities they can manage to miss out hearing of other students' and other teachers' success stories. The display board is going to be a great focal point for identifying examples of successful collaborative teaching, and the use of ICT (information and communication technologies) and cooperative student learning in the school library.

The timing has been excellent! I happened to have my 2007 Teacher Assessment and Review Schedule (TARS) talk today, and I had plenty of positive stuff at my fingertips to talk about (not that I'm usually shy about sharing).

The principal gave me some excellent feedback on my first year back in the library. He especially likes my enthusiasm for children's literature, our school's great improvement in the annual Premier's Reading Challenge (103 additional students made it, making a total of 313 this year!), and how I've made the library extra student-friendly.

Pussy patrol

These things work, you know.

When I lived in a flat in Lakemba, I had terrible trouble discouraging pigeons from nesting on my balcony. If you went on holidays for any longer than a few weeks, you'd come home to a pair of eggs sitting in a pot plant. (The woman next door even let a few hatch on her balcony, and the subsequent baby pigeons continued to "home" for many years.)

I read somewhere that all I needed was a cat silhouette, and the pigeons would go elsewhere. but I never got around to making one. (Of course, for the first six years or so, I had my own pet cat on guard.) Rubber snakes were also supposed to be effective, but I made do with totally ineffective wire coathangers, that were supposed to jangle in the breeze and scare off the birds.

Moving to Penrith and a house with a garden, the pigeons were no longer a problem, although magpies and other birds often sheltered on the back decking. The problem was particularly noticeable when I bought new outdoor furniture. You'd come outside with your breakfast - and every chair would be covered in bird poo.

The garden also attracted birds rooting around looking for grubs. Now, attracting birds to a garden is supposed to be a good idea, but they do create a terrible mess, tossing all the bark chips into the pool in their enthusiasm The rubber snakes trick actually works, I've discovered - although they can give humans a nasty shock as well, particularly when you hear of real brown snakes caught in your street. Not to mention the huge red-bellied black snake I met near Penrith Railway Station one spring.

Then I found the cat silhouettes. They look really cool and they really freak out the birds. The cats do work themselves loose from the fishing line every once in a while, and they were rather ineffective just propped against the fences. But I put them all up again the other day and, just a few minutes later, it began to rain. Sure enough, a young magpie winged into the verandah, seeking shelter... straight into the path of a cat silhouette. He took fright, made another pass, meet a second hanging cat, squawked an annoyed comment - and flew off to perch on next door's balcony. And crapped on it. ;-)