Gold In New York City

"Make new friends, but keep the old.  One is silver and the other gold."

~ Girl Scouts camp song

Gus in Times Square

My friend Gus is the gold I rediscovered in New York City this week.  She became my friend years ago when we lived in Smurthwaite, a cooperative scholarship house on the campus of Kansas State University.  Gus was the quintessential Girl Scout while I was a 4-H farm kid.  Yet, we formed a bond that has held across the years.   

"A circle is round, it has no end.  That's how long, I will be your friend."

~ Girl Scouts camp song

Gus was Smurthwaite's anonymous M & M Fairy, although she was so stealthy in her generosity that none of us caught her at it for a long time. She would leave a small pile of M & M's on the pillow of any Smurthie in need of encouragement, a tradition she began and then bequeathed to subsequent Smurthwaite House members that continues to this day.

"A fire burns bright, it warms the heart.  We've been friends, from the very start."

~ Girl Scouts camp song

I was a sophomore when Gus arrived at the house as a freshman.  In keeping with Smurthwaite's mentoring program, she became my "Little Sister," meaning that I had the responsibility to help her navigate the shoals of uncharted seas during her freshman year.  Yet, I think I learned much more from her than she ever did from me for she has modeled compassion throughout her life. 

"You have one hand, I have the other.  Put them together, we have each other."

~ Girl Scouts camp song

Gus on the streets of New York City

When Gus graduated from K-State, she joined the ranks of VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) whose mission is to fight poverty by eradicating illiteracy, improving the health of poverty-stricken areas, creating small business ventures and enabling the poor to grow in self-sufficiency. After brief stints in Oklahoma and in Seattle, she made her way to New York City where she has continued to work for social welfare and Christian mission agencies in the city ever since.

"Silver is precious, gold is too.  I am precious, and so are you."

~ Girl Scouts camp song

So when my husband invited me along on his business trip to New York this week, I contacted Gus to ask if she had time to see me.  I was hoping I could treat her to lunch.  Instead, she spent 1-1/2 days with me, scouting out a some of her hidden gems in New York City that most Times Square-bound tourists never see.  That's simply Gus!  One of the most generous people I've ever known.

"You help me, and I'll help you and together we will see it through."

~ Girl Scouts camp song

Gus in the foreground with the Lincoln Center in the background

She met me Tuesday afternoon at the TKTS ticket booth in Times Square.  Then, she walked me up 9th Avenue while explaining that native New Yorkers bypass the chain restaurants near Times Square in favor of the locally owned cafes along this avenue.  Because I planned to meet my husband at the Lincoln Center for that evening's performance, Gus showed me the way there, and taught me how to weave through the crowded sidewalks and cross streets against the light like a true New Yorker along the way.  At times, she scared the peewadden out of me!

"The sky is blue; the Earth is green.  I can help to keep it clean."

~ Girl Scouts camp song

Spring time in Central Park

After she oriented me to Lincoln Center's location, we crossed over a few blocks to Central Park where we found a comfortable spot and caught up on one another's lives since our college days.  Although I'd seen Gus briefly at a Smurthwaite reunion two years ago, I wanted to hear more of her life's journey. Plus, it was simply great to be together under sunny blue skys in a beautiful green park on a spring day when city dwellers were at play. 

Refurbished Chairs by Gus

Still committed to the scouting values she had embraced in her youth, Gus told me how she now recycles used paper into parchment and refurbishes discarded furniture picked up from the streets with her painting and decoupaging skills. We talked about how she might turn her art into an income-generating venture. 

 

View Larger Map

As the afternoon waned, Gus offered to spend all day Wednesday with me and I was delighted to extend our time together. Knowing my love of history, Gus said I should meet her the next morning at The Hamilton Grange ( Point A in the map above) and so I did.

The Hamilton Grange in Harlem

The Hamilton Grange, a beautiful Federal-style home, was built in 1802 by Alexander Hamilton, first Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, as a country refuge where he could escape the stresses of his professional life.  Now its surroundings are known as Harlem and it's a neighborhood that Gus knows well because she once worked for an agency nearby. 

The Morris-Jumel Mansion

From the Grange, we walked north approximately a mile to the Morris-Jumel Mansion (B), built eleven years before the American Revolution by British Colonel Roger Morris and now the oldest home in the borough of Manhattan.  And yes, General George Washington slept here because this home situated as it is on a hill overlooking Harlem River and the Bronx to the east, Manhattan and New York's Harbor to the south and the Hudson River and Jersey Palisades to the west, served as his Headquarters during the campaign to secure New York's Harbor for the colonies.  Later, in 1810, the home was purchased by French emigrant Steven Jumel and his wife Eliza who used her wealth to make it a elegant home to dazzle the leading families of New York.  Unfortunately, those leaders of society ostracized her, in part, because of her marriage to Aaron Burr and her divorce from him two years later. 

This photo of Hamilton Grange shows its beautiful symmetry

You've got to wonder what Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton felt about her close neighbors since she continued to live at Hamilton Grange for another 50 years after her husband Alexander died in a duel instigated by Aaron Burr in 1804. 

John James Audobon's grave in the Church of the Intercession's cemetery

Our third stop was the Church of the Intercession (C) where Gus worshipped for many years and where we quickly found John Aubudon's grave in its cemetery. Clement C. Moore, the author of A Visit From Saint Nicholas, is also buried here.  Gus told me that every Christmas the church holds a candlelight service when children gather on the altar steps to listen to a reading of Clement's poem, a tradition that was instituted by Reverend Milo Hudson Gates, the church rector in 1911.  After the service, many attendees walk by candlelight to Clement's gravesite to pay tribute to his memory.

Grant's Tomb

Hopping onto the subway, we rode downtown towards Grant's Tomb.  Stopping for lunch at a Middle Eastern restaurant, we shared a plate of hummus pita, baba ganoush, falafel and stuffed grape leaves while the deli's flatscreen TV broadcast a Lebanese soap opera in Arabic.  I was fascinated by the Arabic close captions. Sadly at the end of our meal, we found ourselves too stuffed to try their baklava for dessert. (If the foods Gus introduced to me are as unfamilar to you as they were to me, click here to jump to the "Lebanese Cuisine" entry in Wikipedia and scroll halfway down the page for brief descriptions of these foods.)

The Riverside Church

We ducked into The Riverside Church for a meditative rest in its sanctuary before crossing the street to Grant's Tomb (D) . 

Grant's Tomb

Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?  "No one!" comedian Groucho Marx once quipped, but that's not true.  Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, Julia Dent Grant, are buried in this mausoleum built by donations exceeding $600,000 from Americans grateful to the Commanding General of the Union Army who finally caused the South to surrender and ended our nation's bloody civil war.  Apart from a professional photography shoot set up on the steps of the tomb, Gus and I had the place to ourselves.

The Cloisters' Garden

The final gem Gus shared with me was a visit to the Cloisters (E), the branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to medieval masterpieces.  Philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. envisioned a reconstructed abbey built upon a promontory in Fort Tyson Park at the north end of Manhattan Island as the perfect showcase for his personal collection of medieval art as well as a larger collection he purchased from George Grey Branard, an American scupltor and medieval art collector.  

Gus in the courtyard of The Cloisters

Rockefeller hired architect Charles Collens to create his vision using salvaged pieces of French abbeys Rockefeller purchased and shipped over the Atlantic to the site.  To preserve the scenic view  forever, Rockefeller bought up hundreds of acres of undeveloped land directly across the Hudson River from the Cloisters and donated the parcel to the State of New Jersey.  Upon completion, Rockefeller gave the Cloisters to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  It truly is a remarkable gift and the crown jewel of New York City's parks.

Gus and I enjoyed the scenic Hudson River view from The Cloisters

"Across the land, across the sea, Friends forever we will always be."

~ Girl Scouts camp song

The George Washington Bridge as seen from The Cloisters

Thanks, Gus, for sharing your friendship and your city with me!