Note: The Skylands Manor is decorated for the holidays during the first week of December and only for one weekend as it used for a banquet facility the rest of the time and as a hotel. The first weekend of December is when local Gardening groups are assigned one room to decorate and they have one week to put it together, display their ideas and explain how they did it to the public.
The front of the Skylands Manor during Christmas time.
The best day to go is the Thursday afternoon opening as it is the quietest day of the four day event with Saturday being the busiest. The best time on Thursday to come is in the morning.
In 2019, the decorations were not as elaborate as the previous two years. The snow storm before the event may have put a damper on a few of the groups decorating. Still the best day to visit the manor is Thursday afternoon as it is the quietest time and you can take the best pictures.
The two best rooms in the manor in 2019 were the Entrance Hall and Grand Staircase decorated by the Magnificent Seven, a group of volunteers whose theme was ‘The Secret Life of Gnomes’ and the trees and staircases were studded with gnomes, large and small, on the trees and wreathes surrounding the stairs.
The other room that was very impressive was the Center Hall whose theme was the “Enchanted Forest, full of little fairies and painted rocks and jeweled winged ornaments. When you looked at the detail work of the trees and table displays you could see the work that went into the decor. Each little fairy on the stands and trees had immense detail and took a lot of time. This display was done by the Friends of Laurelwood Arboretum in Wayne, NJ.
The rest of the rooms in the manor were really pared down from 2018 and did not have the same elaborate details to them. The Library and Study did not have half of the display items that they did in the past.
The Carriage House on the estate.
The Carriage House was used as a restaurant and a gift shop during the event.
The fee to enter the home is still $10.00. The carriage house is being used for a cafe with Chicken Salad sandwiches and hot dogs with toppings. There are all sorts of crafts for sale.
The Carriage House for Lunch.
The menu at the pop-up restaurant at the Skylands Manor.
Watch the calendar for 2024 in early December for the next display.
The Display in 2023:
It was just breathtaking!
This was the first time I had visited the mansion and I was able to visit on Thursday morning and the crowds were very small. This is the best time to come to the Skylands Manor.
The front door leading inside of the house.
The house looked amazing as usual and because I came the first day in the morning, it was the perfect time to visit the manor while the crowds were away.
The entrance to the self-guided walking tour of Skylands Manor.
The tour was really spectacular in 2023. The whole house was decorated so beautifully.
The entrance to the house was decorated by the Passaic County Parks and Recreation. This display was based on the magic of the Scottish Highlands.
After passing through the entrance of the house, it was off to the Ladies Parlor of the home and the decorations of the Garden Club of Teaneck. Then off to the Dining Room that was decorated by the Master Gardeners of Bergen County.
The Dining Room was just breathtaking.
The Dining Room was festive with lots of lit Christmas trees.
The Dining Room was quite elaborate.
The Master Gardeners of Bergen County were very detail orientated with their display spreading the Christmas cheer as you entered the house. The next room was the Breakfast Room with beautiful sunlight coming into the room and views of the gardens that are dormant at this time.
The theme of the Breakfast Room was that of enchanted forests with sacred fairy springs and moss covered meadows. The Breakfast Room was decorated also by the Master Gardeners of Bergen County.
A beautiful view of the Breakfast Room done by the Master Gardeners of Bergen County.
The decorations of the Breakfast Room were quite elaborate.
The side of the Breakfast Room.
As I left the Breakfast Room, I entered The Center Hall where the many faucets of Robert Burns, the Scottish author of “My Heart is in the Highlands” themed room was decorated by the Ringwood Garden Club.
The Center Hall of the manor house.
The Center Hall led to the back porch that was decorated by the Demarest Garden Club.
The Back Porch of the house just off the Center Hall.
The room was done with the theme “We wish you Blythe Yule as you enter a pastoral view of Holidays in the Highlands”.
The next room I visited the was The Great Hall, which is a Jacobean style interior designed to impress with its arched beams, paneled walls and spectacular stained glass windows (Skylands pamphlet).
The Great Hall Christmas tree
The Great Hall by the stained glass window.
The Great Hall decorations by the fireplace off to the side.
I next walked through The Octagonal Hall, that is the transition room between The Great Hall and The Withdrawing Room/Living Room. This was transformed into a boutique lounge with custom made furniture and decor. Festive pops of pattern and color create a merry, modern vibe (Skylands pamphlet). The Octagonal Hall was designed by Stephanie Graham and Diane Simon.
The entrance to the Octagonal Hall
The decorations of The Octagonal Hall
The statuary in the room beautifully embellished.
The Living Room was decorated to celebrate a Hip Highland Holiday and transformed into a boutique lounge with custom made furniture and decor. The Living Room/Withdrawing Room was designed by local artists Nicole Cohen (Teaneck), Brenda Gallagher (Upper Saddle River) and Lisa Williamson (Ridgewood).
The Living Room in full view.
We were joined by the Winter Queen in the Living Room who was roaming around the manor home engaging with all the guests who attended that morning.
A modern twist to the Christmas tree in the Living Room.
The display by the stained glass windows.
The festive trees of the Living Room
Transitioning out of the Living Room into the The Study, this room with its window seat is the perfect place to curl up with a good book or share stories of Christmas on a snowy afternoon. The study was designed by artist Linda Karen.
The window seat in The Study.
The dark wood paneling of The Study.
The last room on the tour was The Library that is resplendent with the holiday tree decorated with hundreds of lights and a myriad of ornaments representing the Scottish heritage of its owners (Skylands pamphlet). This room was designed by the Master Gardeners of Passaic County.
The Library at the Skylands Manor decked out for the holidays.
The Library in full view.
The fireplace in The Library is beautifully decorated for the holidays.
The Library in all its Christmas glory.
The Living Room was the last decorated room in the manor home for the holidays. I exited by the back door and then explored the grounds and the dormant gardens and look out areas of the estate that must look quite spectacular in the Spring and Summer months. I headed back to the Carriage House to look at the menu and explore the gift shop. This display is only open the first weekend of December and then for the rest of the year, the manor house is used for banquets and meetings and as a B & B. Until next year.
The front of the Carriage House where the restaurant and gift shop were located during the event.
History of the Skylands Manor & People:
The entrance to the manor that morning.
Clarence McKenzie Lewis bought Skylands in 1922 from the estate of Francis Lynde Stetson, who founded Skylands in 1891. Mr. Lewis was educated in England and Germany. While he was there, his widowed mother, Helen Forbes Lewis married William Salomon, founder of the New York banking house. Upon his return, Lewis attended Columbia University, where he received a Civil Engineering degree in 1898. In 1908, he married and bought a country place in Mahwah; it was there that Lewis became interested in horticulture.
The front of the manor home.
Helen Lewis Salomon, the mother of Clarence Lewis, was widowed in 1919. Not only thereafter, she and her bereaved son agreed to a joint project; she wanted a Tudor-style showplace; he wanted plants and gardens. Mrs. Salomon worked closely with the architect on Skylands Manor but she died in 1927 before its completion.
The entrance to the Walled Gardens.
John Russell Pope (1874-1937) “an architect born to work, in the grand style” was educated at City College, Columbia University, the American Academy in Rome and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He trained under Bruce Price, the master builder of Tuxedo Park. Pope designed many outstanding public buildings, such as the Jefferson Memorial and the National Gallery of Art.
The estate gardens overlooking the mountains and the valley below.
Tutor Architecture originated in England in the late Gothic period and continued to be popular into the Renaissance. It features half-timbering on the exterior, crenelated walls, large groups of rectangular windows, oriel or bay windows and intricate chimney complexes The interiors usually had large central halls, wood paneling, molded plaster ceilings and elaborately carved staircases. Tudor Revival became a popular style for the elegant country houses of wealthy Americans.
The estate grounds.
The builder of Skylands was the Elliot C. Brown Co., of New York City, which also built the country homes of Franklin Delano Roosevelt at Hyde Park and E. Roland Harriman (Arden House).
The house as you enter the drive.
Samuel Yellin (1885-1940) decorative metal designer and craftsman, who performed to call himself “the blacksmith”, fashioned the lanterns. electrical fixtures, lamps, gate, and spiral staircase rail for Skylands Manor.
The side of the estate that afternoon in the late fall.
Native Granite for the exterior walls of Skylands was quarried at Pierson Ridge above Emerald Pond in the eastern part of the property in Bergen County.
Mrs. Salomon purchased a collection of antique Stained Glass Medallions from an English collector. The 16th century German, Bavarian and Swiss panes were set in leaded windows by Heinegke & Smith of New York City.
The entrance to the Botanical Garden.
Disclaimer: This information on the details of the history of Skylands Manor was taken directly from their pamphlet and I give them full credit for it. Please call the manor for times that it is open as it is used a banquet/catering facility and a B & B.
The NJ Botanical Gardens just off the Manor House Fall 2026:
I visited the NJ Botanical Gardens in the Fall of 2026 just as all the Fall flowers were in bloom. With the foliage in the background mountains, it gave the whole garden colorful effect on the late afternoon. I will have to remind myself to visit the gardens again in the Spring and early Summer next year. There is a real complexity to these gardens during each season. I will have to visit again in the Spring and early Summer of 2027.
Skylands Manor Gardens:
The Pump House at the start of the Gardens
The Pump House used to irrigate the estate
The Orchard on the lawn of the edge of the estate
The Butterfly Garden sign
Even though Fall began the early Fall flowers were still in bloom
The main part of the Gardens
The Gardens with the Fall foliage in the way
The foliage was just beginning in the Gardens
I noticed this beautiful seating area in the corner of the Gardens
Looking at the length of the gardens from the center point stonework
The center point stone vase
The Rose Garden in the second set of Gardens was still in bloom
The Gardens were filled with statuary. Mostly little angels and fairies
The Fall flowers were in full bloom
The second set of Gardens were lined with small bushes and more colorful flowers
The beautiful flowers of the Fall
The Perennial Garden was still in bloom at the time of my visit
The Fall foliage served as a backdrop for the Gardens
The Gardens were so beautifully maintained
The archway into the Gardens from the main house
The beautiful flowers lining the edges of the Gardens
The Rock Garden
I thought this was so beautiful
I thought this garden was so pretty in the third set of Gardens
I though of the angels as a good sign
The flowers were so colorful by the archway
The full view of the Gardens from the lawn and orchard
The view of the mountains in the distance
The Rose Garden on the edge of the lawn
The variety of flowers on the Gardens
The view of the lawn and mountains on the background
The lawn looking north
Leaving the Gardens to head back to the parking lot
The Skylands Manor is decorated for the holidays during the first week of December and only for one weekend as it used for a banquet facility the rest of the time and as a hotel. The first weekend of December is when local Gardening groups are assigned one room to decorate and they have one week to put it together, display their ideas and explain how they did it to the public. The best day to go is the Thursday afternoon opening as it is the quietest day of the four day event with Saturday being the busiest.
In 2018:
Each of the eleven rooms that were decorated for the event were amazing each with their own decor, docents and gardeners and theme to the room. The Entrance Hall was elegant with its garland and potted…
On November 30th, 2019, small businesses all over Main Streets and Downtown’s all over the country celebrated the Ninth Anniversary of “Small Business Saturday”, a shopping day dedicated to individual and small business owners.
Harbs on the Upper East Side of Manhattan
My blog. LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com honors those business owners first in New York City and now all over the Eastern Seaboard whose business owners offering interesting one of kind merchandise, unique merchandising design and placement of their goods and interesting window displays that showcase their stores.
Amado on Third on the Upper East Side of Manhattan at Halloween
Each store featured in this blog showcases the store’s individuality of the owner and the excellent customer service you will receive when you walk in. The in-personality of the big department stores demoans their failure but I think it is just corporate America answering what they think customers want. I think interesting…
I have never seen such a drop in temperature in one week. It is only a week since Halloween and on Halloween night it was 71 degrees and humid. I had to turn the heat off in the house and turn the air conditioner on one last time before I went to bed. That was unusual but the reason why I keep the air conditioners up until the weekend after Halloween.
Walking the Avenues of Central Park South this afternoon there was a distinct drop in the temperature by the afternoon. It was freezing in the City by 2:30pm. When I came out of the Cornell Club where I was doing all of my work, it must have been around 48 degrees and continued to go down. By the time I finished walking all of the Avenues, it must have been 40 degrees as the sun went down. I could tell by the way everyone was dressed this afternoon that no one was prepared for this.
I started my walk at Hop Won Chinese Restaurant at 139 East 45th Street for lunch (see reviews on TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com). The food at the restaurant is always impressive and very reasonable. A combination platter is $9.00 for an nice sized entree, fried rice and an egg roll. On this trip I had the Sweet & Sour Shrimp with fried rice and an egg roll and a Coke ($10.95 with tax) and your could not beat the portion size or quality.
Hop Won Express serves excellent Chinese-American cooking and is reasonable
They served me eight nice sized tempura shrimp in a light sweet and sour sauce and they were sweet and fresh. Their fried rice is very good, a little light sometimes on the ingredients but still good and the egg rolls here are good. This is why the restaurant is so popular at lunch hour for people in the surrounding office buildings and with tourists.
The Sweet & Sour Shrimp here should not be missed
After lunch, I walked up Lexington Avenue to East 59th Street and walked across the familiar neighborhoods of Turtle Bay and Midtown East which I had finished walking over the summer. Both are going through extensive changes with renovations and refittings of older buildings and the knock down and total construction of new ones. The Manhattan of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s is slowly becoming a memory as the City morphs into its next step of existence, which seems to be very upscale. The commercial and residential buildings are definitely catering to a certain clientele.
I started my walk on the Avenues of Central Park South at the corner of Sixth Avenue and 59th Street. This section of Manhattan is some of the most expensive real estate in the world and with the changing of the neighborhood and rents skyrocketing, I saw a big change not just in the buildings with their updates and renovations but a change in the businesses as well. Those 1990’s leases are coming up on their twenty year anniversaries and a lot of smaller businesses are being pushed out. If you do not own the building or have a certain lease with the landlord, you might be facing a double or triple increase in rent and its too much for the smaller restaurants and services like dry-cleaners and shoe repair shops.
Sixth Avenue (or Avenue of the Americans which NO ONE calls it) has seen a lot of changes over the years especially from Central Park all the way down to West 34th Street and it still is changing as we speak. Yet there traces of the old Manhattan that still stand out on the Avenue.
57 West 58th Street The Coronet, an 11 story brick building
At the corner of West 58th Street is 57 West 58th Street, The Coronet Building, a 11 story condominium building that was built in 1901. The building is built of red brick and limestone and what gives it its unique look is in the detail work of the entrance with its arched entrance and quoins, a type of wedging on an angle, that are made of limestone and detail work around the windows. The Beaux Arts detail work was very fashionable at the time (CityRealty 2018).
The beauty of the entrance to 57 West 58th Street
Another standout building on Sixth Avenue is one that sits on the corner of 57 West 57th Street. This 20 story Art Deco Building was was built in 1928 of stone and glass and was renovated in 1988 by Der Scutt, the architect behind Trump Tower.
57 West 57th Street beauty is in the Art Deco details
They restored the façade of the building and redid the lobby . Some the details of the building were gold-leafed for effect (LoopNet).
The details on the building facing West 57th Street
The entrance 57 West 57th Street with the fancy grill work
At the edge of the neighborhood is the famous New York Hilton Hotel Midtown at the corner of Sixth Avenue and West 54th Street. This hotel is the largest hotel in New York City and one of the largest in the world. The hotel was designed by architect William B. Tabler. When it opened in 1963 with 2153 rooms it was the largest hotel in the City (Hilton History and Wiki).
The hotel has a lot to claim to fame. John Lennon wrote “Imagine” in the hotel, the first cell phone was used here in 1973 and President Trump recently gave his victory delivery speech in the hotel in 2016 (Wiki).
When walking back up north on Sixth Avenue at the corner of West 55th Street is artist John Rennert’s sculpture, “Listen” on the spot where the well-known “Love” sculpture used to be.
Artist Jim Rennert’s “Listen”.
“Listen” sits proudly at the corner of West 55th Street & Sixth Avenue
Mr. Rennert was born and raised in the Southwest in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. A former businessman, Mr. Rennert later wanted to try his hand in being an artist and a sculptor in 1990 with much success. His works have been shown all over the world with his portrayals of the success and obstacles of the modern working man. His works are formed with a combination of bronze and flat laser steel. “Listen” is one of his public works (Artist Bio).
Across the street from this statue, sits another interesting Globe sculpture that I had not noticed on my first trip to the neighborhood. It sits in front of the entrance of 1345 Sixth Avenue, the Alliance-Bernstein Building. It must have just been placed there since my original visit. It is a very detailed piece art.
Rounding West 59th Street I continued down Seventh Avenue and was struck by the beauty of a building even under scaffolding. Alwyn Court is one of the most beautiful buildings in this part of Manhattan.
The beautiful details of the Alwyn Court building.
The Alwyn Court at 180 West 58th Street was built at a time when the wealthy were abandoning the large mansions of Fifth and Madison Avenues and wanted luxury apartments instead (ie Income Tax has been introduced). The building was created between 1907-1909 and was designed by architects Harde & Short in the French Renaissance style with terra cotta ornamentation done in the Francis I style which gives it the unique look.
Alwyn Court’s terra-cotta ornamentation on the windows.
The beauty is in the detail work of the building and it is going through a second cleaning and repair. It was designated a landmark in 1966 (Wiki).
The historic plaque.
Further down Seventh Avenue you come to one of the most famous buildings in the world, Carnegie Hall at 881 Seventh Avenue at the corner of West 57th Street. One of the most recognized music venues in the world, this building was designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and build by Andrew Carnegie, business owner and philanthropist in 1891. It was one of the last largest buildings in New York City build with masonry and no steel frame (Wiki).
Carnegie Hall at 881 Seventh Avenue at Christmas time
Outside Carnegie Hall at Christmas for the Amy Grant concert.
You can see by the last three years of Christmas blogs that I have written that I have visited Carnegie Hall many times for the holiday concerts. The joke “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, Practice, Practice” is so true. The best and most talented perform here.
The Amy Grant Holiday Concert in 2023 at Carnegie Hall last Christmas was amazing!
There are more interesting buildings further down Seventh Avenue that are going through a renovation. 850 Seventh Avenue is a elegant detailed eleven story building at the built in 1910 with its stone exterior and its Art Deco features. It is very impressive when you look from the other side of the Avenue.
One sad reminder of the changes in Manhattan comes with 854 Seventh Avenue, the former home of the Carnegie Deli which closed in 2016. This was one of the most famous and iconic eating places in New York City and was in more TV and movies that I can remember. The restaurant was opened by Leo Steiner and Milton Parker in 1937 and the most amazing food including over-sized pastrami sandwiches, Matzo Ball soup and cheesecakes. I had eaten there many times in both high school and college and then when I was working in the City. The building remains empty today as the new owners are waiting to demolish it and build a residential building there (Wiki).
The famous Carnegie Deli in its heyday at 854 Seventh Avenue (it is about to reopen again in 2026)
Across the street from the former deli is 853 Seventh Avenue, “The Wyoming” apartment building. What stands out about this beautiful twelve story building built in 1906 is the elegant Beaux-Art style detail work around the windows and roof.
853 Seventh Avenue at the corner of West 55th Street
Heading back up Seventh Avenue, don’t miss the famous Osborne Apartments at 205 West 57th Street which faces Seventh Avenue. This elegant apartment house was built and designed by James Edward Ware between 1883 and 1885 in the American Renaissance style with masonry bearing walls and the building itself looks like a giant brownstone.
The Osborne is Victorian elegant at its best at 205 West 57th Street at the corner of Seventh Avenue.
The splendor of The Osborne lobby can not be matched
It was just starting to get dark when I rounded West 59th Street one more time for the last Avenue to walk and Broadway is always interesting. Having walked this main artery during the summer months three times, I gained a respect for the complexity of the businesses and apartment buildings that line it from Inwood to the Bowling Green. This former Indian trail offers a lot of interesting things to see and do.
My first stop was a visit to the new Nordstrom department store at 235 West 57th Street in the heart of the business district. After years of working at Macy’s, I always remember my store manager saying that they never wanted to open in NYC because of the unions. They felt they could never give the service that they were known for by opening in Manhattan. What twenty-five years does to a City!
I have to admit that the store is pretty and has beautiful merchandise but the staff was either so busy kidding around with each other or on their cell phones, they were not paying attention to the customers too much. The restaurant on the top floor was the busiest department I saw in the store and they seemed overwhelmed.
The Women’s Department at Nordstrom
A couple of things I did notice when walking through the store was the staff was so young and not dressed in the traditional conservative Nordstrom way that I knew of the suburban stores. The dress code went out the window here. That and no one ever approached me no matter what department I entered. Big change from the 90’s store that I remember. The second thing I noticed was that no bags were leaving the store. I always remember my boss saying that was the sign that a store was doing well.
Nordstrom Manhattan
Walking down Broadway in the later afternoon and evening, this part of Broadway is full of large office buildings that are somewhat generic but here and there are still traces of old New York.
At the corner of Broadway and West 55th Street is the Dream Midtown Hotel at 210 West 55th Street. What makes the hotel unique is that it is a renovated 1895 Beaux Arts building that also encompasses old brownstones on West 55th Street for a unique design. The hotel is basically a hip new hotel surrounded by New York elegance and the hotel has done a wonderful job restoring this old building.
My last stop up Broadway was at the Museum of Arts and Design at 2 Columbus Circle (see my reviews on TripAdvisor and VisitingaMuseum.com) which I had visited a few times over the summer to see the ‘Post Punk and New Wave Art’ exhibition. It is really different from the more traditional museums in the City.
The Museum of Arts and Design at 2 Columbus Circle
The museum was founded in 1956 and has had a few name and location changes over the years settling in this building in 2008 with a total redesign of the building by architect Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture. The museum’s purpose direction is dedicated to creativity and craftsmanship of the artist along with their materials and techniques (Museum history).
I thought the exhibition on the Post-Punk and New Wave era was really interesting as I remember the music from that era.
There had been some controversy when redesigning the building. It had been originally built in 1964 by A & P Heir Huntington Harford to house his collection of art as a museum. The original building before the renovation was designed by architect Edward Durell Stone and opened as the Gallery of Modern Art. According to what I read, the building was never endured by any of the architectural reviewers and only came into notice when the building was sold in 2002 (Wiki).
The old 2 Columbus Circle “The Gallery of Modern Art” before the renovation
This museum and the Dream Hotel Midtown are examples of what is happening in Manhattan now. The reuse of buildings and the old mixing with the new as businesses are being reworked into old establishments and that morphing Manhattan into its next stage of existence.
I walked around Columbus Circle as the lights were coming on and the temperatures were starting to cool. The holidays are around the corner and it looks like the City is gearing up for them.
Central Park was still busy and the carriage rides were in full swing that night. A lot has changed since the 80’s.
I can’t believe that Halloween is over again! It comes and goes so quickly and I can already see the traces of Christmas on its way. There are times that I can’t believe that July and August go by so fast and then there are the holidays.
Halloween, as you can see by the last few years of this blog, have become more than just handing out Halloween treats to kids at my house. In fact, even when I have been home I rarely see trick or treaters, the most being 14 kids about ten years ago. Kids today at least in my part of the neighborhood have little interest in doing this anymore.
Halloween started for me on the first weekend of October with the ‘Pumpkin Blaze’ at the Van Cortlandt Manor (See my reviews on TripAdvisor and VisitingaMuseum.com). Last year I saw the Blaze on the last weekend it was open on the first weekend of November and the temperature had dropped to 32 degrees and I said never again. I wanted to see it when it was warm out and I could take my time to really see the displays.
So I asked my Aunt Deloris to attend with me as a delayed birthday present to her and on October 7th we headed up to Croton-on-the-Hudson to see the Annual Pumpkin Blaze. It was unusually warm that night at 62 degrees but there was the threat of rain later that evening. Still for the entire time we were at the Van Cortlandt Manor, it was mild and pleasant. Since we attended on a Monday night long before Halloween, the crowds were not as large.
It was a spectacular display this year with many new displays to ohh and ahh at while walking the paths around the manor. To let you all know, the Pumpkin Blaze is a volunteer event and major fundraiser for the Hudson Valley Historical Society. Thousands of hand-carved pumpkins are illuminated all over the grounds of the estate and the light makes it quite intriguing.
The pumpkin carving starts in late August and early September
As you enter the path into the estate, they are lined completely with lit pumpkins. That lead to the Circus train display and the Tappan Scream Bridge, both made from a combination of real and plastic pumpkins, The train had gotten longer and more detailed over the years with detailed ghostly animals arriving at their destination.
The spooky Circus train
Another display that was amazing was the Museum of Modern Art display that had with copies of famous works in pumpkins. It was in honor of the renovation and extension of the museum.
The Andy Warhol Soup Can
The Headless Horseman Scream
As we exited the ghostly museum, you pass the musical carousel and the Albany Post Road that was lined pumpkins. There were pumpkin jack in the boxes, pumpkin dinosaurs and pumpkin mummies. The displays were bigger, more detailed and more elaborate then years past.
Pumpkin Dinosaurs
The pumpkin carousel
The paths leading to the Van Cortlandt Manor were lined with a pumpkin cemetery and then the dinosaur displays. This lead to the light show at the Van Cortlandt Manor that was lined with pumpkins and a light show that illuminated the house. The house was surrounded by pumpkins of all faces and expressions along the path around the house. This lead to another cemetery that had the Van Cortlandt family names as you exited the property.
Van Cortland Manor at Croton-on-the-Hudson
As we exited the property it lead to a series of tents that carried all sorts of gifts and Halloween items, two different food concessions with hot dogs, cider, homemade doughnuts and popcorn. It was very active after everyone had walked the show.
Then my aunt and I came across this giant pumpkin that was craved out of wood that everyone was taking pictures at and we pose for our own Halloween portrait. That was a lot of fun dodging the other families to take the shot.
My Aunt Deloris and I at the end of the Annual Pumpkin Blaze
Just as we were leaving the site and heading to the car, the heavens opened up and it started to rain. We just made it to the car as it started to pour. As we headed back to New Jersey and crossed over the Tappan Zee Bridge, the rain started to let up to a light drizzle. When we reached Paramus, it was just a light mist.
We stopped for dinner at the Suburban Diner at 172 Route 17 North in Paramus, NJ ( see review on TripAdvisor) for a snack. The snack ended up being a large Turkey Club Sandwich with a side of fries, Cole slaw and a pickle. This thing was huge! My aunt ordered a BLT that was just as large and for two people who just wanted a ‘snack’ we devoured everything. I guess it was all that walking.
I continued my Halloween activities to where it all took place, Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown, NY, where the months of September, October and early November are very busy. Historic Hudson Valley has lots of events this time of the year, one of them being the Pumpkin Blaze.
Another event I attended was the “Home of the ‘Legend'”, a tour of Washington Irving’s home, ‘Sunnyside’, which is located at 3 West Sunnyside Lane in Irvington, NY (See review on TripAdvisor and VisitingaMuseum.com). I had visited the house years ago but they now had a Halloween tour of the house.
‘Sunnyside’ was the home of Washington Irving from 1835 until his death in the house in 1859. The house was originally a small two room stone house had been built around 1690 for a tenant farmer and had once been part of the Philipse Manor estate grounds. When Washington Irving bought the house in 1835, eyeing the home when visiting his son Oscar who lived in the area.
Washington Irving’s Sunnyside at 3 West Sunnyside Lane
With his friend, George Harvey, a painter, they created the home in the Romantic style with almost a fairy tale appearance. The ‘storybook’ home is covered in wisteria and has the most beautiful views of the widest area of the Hudson River. The author wrote some of his most famous stories from this house. He lived here with his brother, Ebenezer and his five daughters after his business failed so the house was a busy one.
Washington Irving’s Dining Room Set for lunch
The house was sold to John D. Rockefeller for the State by Washington Irving’s great grandson, Louis Irving in 1945 preservation. The house tour is really interesting as the old Victorian wing was torn down to preserve it to the time of Washington Irving so it has the original kitchen, ice house and barn. These ten acres were a working estate.
I got to see Washington Irving’s study and bedroom with the original furnishings which I thought was interesting. It does have a small kitchen for all those people and the bedrooms the rest of the family had were almost the size of today’s contemporary homes. So it must have been tight for the family.
The Living Room/Music Room where the family gathered in the evening
When you exit the kitchen from the back to end the house tour, you head to the back lawn where the ice house is located, the gardens and the barn. There are ten acres to roam around with ponds and streams and again that amazing view of the Hudson River. This tour should not be missed when it opens back up in the Spring.
The last event I went to in Tarrytown was ‘The Unsilent Picture, which took place at the Tarrytown auditorium. The program was a movie based on a story line mystery that takes place one evening and the local actors play out the characters to scare a family member. I was so tired from the cold and it was so boring that I think I fell asleep for five minutes and missed a section of it. I just didn’t get the interest in the whole thing. I would bypass this in the future.
The Unsilent Movie
Here is the trailer for the movie:
One Halloween event you should look into is the Victorian Halloween Tea lecture at the Staatsburg Historical Site/Mills Mansion in Staatsburg, NY. These lecture teas are very interesting and the food is wonderful.
The Staatsburg Historical Site/Mills Mansion at 75 Mills Mansion Drive
I have been a Friend of the Mills Mansion now for about four years finding that I was going to a lot of their events it just made it easier to join and get priority on their special events which are enjoyable. The Halloween Tea was one of them the opened the holiday season.
The slide show as we were about to begin the lecture
The table set for the Halloween Tea
The guests arriving for the Halloween Afternoon Tea
The friendly witches getting ready to greet guests
This event was a tea and lecture of how the Victorians recreated Halloween from a dark more countryside evening wrapped in mystery to an engaging urban event with costumes, specialty foods and traditional events like apple bobbing that guests then made their own. Local Historian Carol Kohan discussed how the event went from a dark rural event to fun and engaging holiday.
The celebration was spooky and fun
From the old traditions to new ones
The Victorian’s made everything elaborate and overdone and the Halloween celebrations were ‘taken up a notch’ with elaborate costumes, parties, bonfires and desserts and candies that were to be served. There were special invitations and cards that were to sent and rules of etiquette.
The Ghosts and Ghouls of the holidays
Following the Civil War and at a time when disease was not understood the way it is now, there was an interest in spiritualism and seances were in vague as people want to reach out to their loved ones. So having a medium at a party was part of the activity. The Victorians knew how to transform a holiday.
The Menu for the afternoon
Our tables numbers on the table
During the discussion, we enjoyed an afternoon tea of the specialty Staatsburg Tea blend, a variety of finger sandwiches, pumpkin and cranberry scones and many types of pastries including mini pumpkin cheesecakes, tiny devil’s food cupcakes and assorted sweet cookies. The caterer always does a nice job with the food and service here.
The food at these function are excellent and plentiful. These were the current and raison scones
The Assorted delicious Tea Sandwiches
Sweets and cakes
Pumpkin Cheesecake bites and Apple Tarts with Marshmallow Cupcakes represent the holiday
The start of the lecture after tea was finished
After the tea and lecture, we took a detailed tour of the Mill’s Mansion which I had taken many times but this was with another tour guide and he gave us another perspective to the house. He mentioned stories of the Mills family that I had not heard before and we also got to see how the renovations of the house were going. It looks like the dining room and entrance hall will be finished in time for the holiday party.
The foyer of the Mills Mansion as they prepare for the holidays
All of these activities lead to the big event in my Halloween every year, the NY Greenwich Village Halloween Parade which I have been marshaling now for five years. Participating in the event this year, I got an invitation to go to Rokeby, the estate of the Aldrich/Livingston family to see the puppet rehearsals. This year’s theme to the parade was “Wild Things” and the puppets and costumes were to reflect this.
Because I had the above Afternoon tea at the Mill’s Mansion the next day, I stayed at an Airbnb for the night and that was interesting. I had a feeling that the host really did not want to meet me as she scrambled out the door that night. The room was in a small private home near downtown Kingston and the nice part was that I could enjoy all the restaurants, museums and historical sites (See VisitingaMuseum.com for the sites I visited) and go back to the room to sleep.
After I checked into the Airbnb, it was off to The Rokeby Estate which is a 400 acre property in Red Hook, NY. Most of the artists for the Halloween Parade and the Sinterklass Parade in December (see my blogs on this as well) live on the Rokeby Estate in the homes that surround the old mansion.
The Rokeby Estate in Red Hook, NY
By the time I got up there, it was just starting to get dark and trust me, the roads are not paved going up to the house and it gets dark up there. I parked by the barn where all the magic happens and they create and assemble all the puppets. This was interesting because I got to see all the designs and all the construction areas of the barn.
The rehearsal went by well and they even created music for the puppets to dance to when performing. Then the participants holding the puppets lead everyone to the Rokeby Mansion and we all assembled on the porch which was lit with Christmas lights and watched the performance from there.
The Wild Things at the Puppet Rehearsals at Rokeby
The Max’s of the Wild Things
Watching from the porch of Rokeby was a lot of fun and what a place to view everything. Before it got dark, I got to talk to Tracey and Wilt Aldrich and introduce myself (we are like 12th cousins by marriage) and we got to chat before the performance. I got to see the sun set over the Hudson River from there and it was spectacular. The colors over the mountains was amazing and you can understand why people moved up here.
After rehearsals, it was off to Rhinebeck for dinner at Pete’s Famous, a diner concept downtown that I highly recommend. I had a much needed Hot Turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes ($10.95) and a Coke (see review on TripAdvisor). The main meal was loaded with that thick turkey gravy that diners are known for when serving this dish. The meal started with a Chicken and Rice soup that really warmed me up. It was nice to warm up in the restaurant and chat with the waitstaff.
Pete’s Famous at 34 East Main Street in Rhinebeck, NY has wonderful food
After dinner, I just walked around downtown Rhinebeck, NY knowing that Sinterklaas was only four and a half weeks later. I could see that the Christmas lights were being put on the trees already. Then it was off to bed and back to the Mills Mansion for the tea. The parade would be four days later.
The Chicken Rice Soup is amazing
The ultimate comfort food a Hot Turkey Platter with Mashed Potatoes
Halloween Night was really unusual again this year. The weather was threatening rain all day and it was weirdly warm being 71 degrees and humid that night. Somehow we never saw the rain that night and as it got dark didn’t even notice the clouds.
Getting ready for the parade
I got the parade early this year arriving at 3:00pm to meet with the Head Marshal at the gate (and my distant cousin by marriage), Marc Schuyler. I had lucked out and had been invited to the Marshaling meeting the week before which made me better prepared for the parade. By the time I got there, most of the marshals had arrived and I got to work with the locations of people and where everyone was supposed to go.
My ‘cousin’ Marc Schuyler and myself at the parade entrance
With the exception with one pain who lived near by and snuck into the parade route, we did not have one problem this year and getting people into the parade was easy. We had no hassles this year and because it was not raining as expected, the parade route got really busy. People came out for the parade in droves and the costumes were more creative than in previous years.
We got all the bands in, all the ‘Thriller” dancers checked in and all the float people into the park on time and kept the tourists out. By the time we closed the gate at 8:00pm, there was no one left and the parade was in progress. By the time I got to Sixth Avenue and Spring Street, most of the parade was uptown.
The parade during set up
I got to see about four floats go up Sixth Avenue and one band before the rest of the parade was people in costume. There was everything from Superhero’s to cheerleaders in that parade. People dressed as horses, birds and trees. Lots of Jason’s and Freddie Kruger’s and spirits of death. People were dressed like little kids and cartoon characters the list goes on.
Preparing for the parade
There was a small get together after the parade but that was not until 10:00pm so it gave me about an hour to walk around the Village and watch people in action. I swear I walked all over the Village and Soho and every street and restaurant was mobbed! Because it was so warm outside all the outdoor cafes were open. All the outside tables were taken and it seemed that every restaurant was packed with people with more waiting. Even the McDonald’s and littlest pizzerias were busy. With no rain and warm weather, people were in the mood to be outside one last time.
The Floats in the parade
A group of us had light dinner that night at Da Umberto on 107 West 17th Street in the Village and the food and service were wonderful. They had a nice buffet set up for us and we had a choice of a Risotto Bolognese, Penne with a Pesto Cream sauce, Rigatoni with Vodka sauce, or Eggplant Parmesan as the main dish, a wonderful salad with house dressing and a Tiramisu for dessert. The food and the service was excellent and we had a nice evening just sitting around and talking about the parade.
Da Umberto is an excellent restaurant! Make sure to try the pastas
When I left the party around 11:30pm, it was still going strong as was the street party after the parade. People were still eating outside, house parties could be seen from the windows and people were still parading around in their costumes.
When I got home just past Midnight, I felt the first drops of the storm and when I got inside around 12:15am, the heaven’s opened up and did it rain! It pounded the roof. God had really spared us all of that. It was the last night that I slept with the air conditioner on and the heat off because when I woke up it must have dropped 25 degrees and the heat went right back on.
Another Halloween over and here come the Winter and Christmas!
Don’t miss this little ‘gem’ of a museum down the block from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is fun to discover these small gallery museums that the University’s run.
I just happened to stumble across this museum on the way back from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and saw that they were having an exhibition entitled “A Wonder to Behold: Craftsmanship and the Creation of Babylon’s Ishtar Gate”. The exhibition is on the craftsman who created the ‘Ishtar Gate’ and the ‘Processional Way’ in the Ancient City of Babylon.
Glazed brick art from the ‘Processional Way’
The small exhibition contains many examples of clay bricks that were used to build the decorative walls and pathways, artwork from the ‘Processional Way’ were displayed as well as smaller decorative art pieces from the time period.
Some of the works in the exhibition
The exhibition also showed tablets from the time period, information on…
Five Locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Greenvale, Rye Brook and Westport, CT
I came across Lester’s, a clothing store for children’s, teens and adults when I was walking around the Upper East Side on ‘Day One Hundred & Four’ on my blog “MywalkinManhattan” when I walked this section of the Upper East Side. I saw crowds of school kids coming in and out of the store with their parents and stopped in for look.
Don’t miss the children’s section
What I discovered was a store that almost sets the tone for what most people would think the Upper East Side teen might want for school, summer camp and casual wear. The store was stocked with all sorts of jeans, tops and shoes for the toddler to teens alike. There are Layette sets for infants…
I have visited Wah Fung Number One Fast Food Restaurant several times on recommendations from YouTube and reviews on TripAdvisor . It is considered to be one the best restaurants in New York City for Chinese Roast Pork and one of the cheapest (see my reviews on TripAdvisor).
Wah Fung has a simple menu
This tiny hole in the wall restaurant is located across the street from Sara Delano Roosevelt Park, a thin strip of park that separates Chinatown from the Lower East Side. The lines for food that are mentioned online are no exaggeration. The two times I visited during the week the lines were about ten deep but move very quickly. Everyone takes the food to go.
The food is wonderful if you like simple Chinese cooking. They have…
Sun Sai Gai is a small restaurant in the heart of Chinatown. I have been coming here for years after discovering their selection of buns for sale for between $1.00-$1.50. Two of these buns are the perfect quick meal or afternoon snack. I love both their Roast Pork Baked Bun ($1.20) and their Steamed Pork Bun ($1.00). Both are soft buns that are loaded with sweet roast pork. They are huge and flavorful and I have always found them to be fresh (See review on TripAdvisor). They are a great snack when walking on the street.
The roast pork buns are excellent
Another recommendation on the sweet side is their Custard Buns ($1.00) and their Egg Tarts ($1.00), both of which are on the savory/sweet side. The custard buns are…
Don’t miss this New Jersey institution tucked in the corner near the entrance of Hacklebarney State Park, one of the most beautiful and underrated parks in New Jersey. Just driving down State Park Road brings me back in time to the mid-1970’s when we used to stop at the farm for apple cider. My mom always liked to have it in the house to serve with dinner when we were growing up. The best part is that they still press their own.
The Hacklebarney Park Cider Mill bakeshop and cider mill
The old fashioned signs from the late 1980’s
Coming to Hacklebarney Cider Mill Farm is a step back into the rural era of New Jersey and the family that runs the farm respects its history and does not treat it like a theme park like the farms up the road from it on Route 206. The Pitney family is now into their 7th generation of running the farm and over the years have continued to add to the business.
The family farmhouse in the early Spring 2022
The family added a fence to the front of the house in the Summer of 2026
I got to meet one of the daughter’s running the farm with her husband at the end of the day of business and got into an interesting conversation about the farm. They are really a nice couple, and it was good to hear their perspective on farming in New Jersey today. It is not so easy, but I told them I like that it isn’t so commercial as the farm up the road. It is quaint and family oriented and looks more like the working farm that it is today.
The farm is very family oriented and not some sort of Disneyland farm
The produce and flowers in front of the farm entrance
When you drive up to the parking lot you still see the old family homestead of the Pitney family who runs the farm. Still used by the family, they have built around the property a prosperous retail business that includes the farmland itself, a retail bakery and cider business and a food stand.
The farm in the Summer of 2026
Their baked goods are amazing!
Gourmet Products line the shelves
Don’t miss their retail bakery which is amazing. Their apple and fruit dumplings may be on the pricey side but are bursting with fresh fruit and are normally sold so fast that they are still hot fresh out of the oven.
The selection of powered and glazed doughnuts
There are doughnuts and dumplings both of which are excellent
Their cider doughnuts are the most popular items in the bakery and are sometimes sold by the dozens. When they are hot out of the fryer, there is nothing like them especially with a little powdered sugar or cinnamon.
The Cinnamon Powered Apple Cider Doughnuts
People were walking out with bags of them that day. They have different versions of the doughnut as well. The pumpkin doughnut has a nice flavor to it and with lots of cinnamon topping on it gives it a hint of the fall. They also have a maple glazed version of it and one with bacon as well. They are crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.
Hacklebarney Farm Cinnamon Apple Cider doughnuts are light and delicious
The Powered Sugar Doughnut
They are so good
Yum!
They also have the most luscious looking Apple and Pumpkin pies on display as well as they were cooking fresh turkey stew for customers to sample. There are all sorts of delightful smells when you enter and exit the farm stand.
The farm pies look amazing
Try to get to the farm early and see the demonstration of them making their fresh apple cider and pick up a half gallon or two for the road when it is in season. It is delicious, sweet and tart and reflects a different variety of apples. After two days, the complexity of the juicy becomes more pronounced and delicious.
The farm’s sweet and juicy apples in the Fall of 2024
The pumpkin and gourd display on the Fall of 2024
The late Summer bounty in 2026
Visiting a small New Jersey farm stand is a Jersey tradition in the Fall months. With the sprawl of development in the Garden State, these farms are trying hard to adapt to the times. There are still many left though and Hacklebarney Cider Hill Farm is a treat to anyone who wants to ‘go out to the country’. Also, don’t miss walking through their corn maze. That looks like an experience if you have the time in the afternoon.
I made a special trip to the farm in the late Summer of 2026 and there had been some changes on the farm. The house added a fence to give them more privacy with the growing crowds of people visiting the farm. More landscaping with beautiful flowers and vines were planted around all the buildings and they nicely merchandised the chicken coops in the back of the farm. They really do make a lot of noise. They also added Corn Hole games to the lawn.
The farm in the late Summer of 2026
The Apple trees in the Summer of 2026
Seeing the fields lush with Apple trees and Corn fields was a complete change from the end of the Fall when everything seemed so dried out. The apples are just starting to come in and the farm started the ‘pick your own apples’ program. People were really buying that day.
The Apple orchards in the late Summer of 2026
The farm was growing two different varieties of apples
The Apple harvest is just beginning
The picking of your own apples was just starting
The crop was really coming in
You have to have lunch on the farm while you are here and make a picnic out of it on a nice day. The hot dogs are really good and with the right toppings make a nice meal along with some Apple Cider and a doughnut.
The hot dog stand on the farm
The hot dogs are cooked in cider and served hot in a soft bun. Their hot fresh apple cider, pressed on the property is perfect on a cold Fall day or refreshing cool on a hot day.
You have to check out the stand for lunch. The hot dogs are cooked in fresh apple cider
Nothing like a hot dog and Coke on a hot day
The hog dogs are delicious
The hot dog stand has an old fashioned feel to it
After Thanksgiving, the farm will be open on weekends only until Christmas and then closed for the season. Please check their website and call first before you visit. On a recent post-Christmas trip in 2020, I found that the farm closed for the season already. Wait until the Spring when they reopen for business but call the above number first or check their website.
The farm during pumpkin season
In the Spring of 2022, the farm opened early and the family by request of their customers have opened the farm stand earlier than usual and they also are selling hot dogs and sides on the weekends to people visiting the farm at the stand near their fields.
The farm is so welcoming to visitors
The afternoon that I came out for the “Pathways of History” tour of historical sites, we came for lunch and had a delicious quesadilla with a side of salsa that we ate at the picnic tables outside the stand.
The Apple Fruit Dumplings with fresh Jersey Apples
For dessert, we had one of the Cider Doughnuts and a Fruit Pocket, which is made with fresh fruit. All of their baked goods are made from scratch and by hand in the bakery on premise. They also have a nice selection of gourmet goods.
The gourmet items and gifts at the farm store
It’s nice to just relax in the sun and watch the family work on the farm, admire their dogs who are so friendly with visitors and walk around the bakery admiring the desserts and other delicious baked goods.
The family dogs are so friendly
When I visited in the Summer of 2026, I was able to walk through the Apple Orchards and take pictures. The farm has this fun Corn Maze, which people really looked like they were enjoying. The corn plants were at full height before harvesting.
In the Summer of 2026, the Corn Maze was in full swing and people were paying to get in
The corn fields in the Summer of 2026
The back fields facing the farm stand
Just behind the hot dog stand and garage is the Chicken Coop with its cackling chickens and hens. The chickens came right up to me and were so friendly.
I love their sign for the coops
The silver chicken greets you
The Chicken Coop
The chickens in their coop
The family has done a beautiful job landscaping the property. There are some nice places to relax and people watch. All the buildings looked like they had been scraped and repainted since the last time I visited in 2024.
The doughnut making building smelled like fresh fried dough
I loved the vines cradling up the building
The garden in Summer bloom
The potted plants
The flowers and bushes by the building
The vines by the old wheel
The vines growing up the water pipe
At the end of your visit, you can’t leave without getting some of their delicious doughnuts and apple cider to take home. The apple cider is just coming into season. The apple cider is best in October at the end of Apple Harvesting time but this was just as delicious and is perfect in the morning to start breakfast.
Their cider and doughnuts are really good
Their baked good are so good!
All good things have to come to an end but the farm is open weekends especially before Thanksgiving. Until the next time.
The farm in the Summer of 2026
The farmhouse from the 1800’s in the Summer of 2026
Leaving the farm for the day
While you are there remember to take time to spend at Hacklebarney State Park, one of New Jersey’s great natural park systems. So don’t miss visiting the park when you exit the farm or vice-versa. You will see some of the most spectacular views. It is worth the trip out and while you are there, stop by Hacklebarney Park. It has amazing trails.
Don’t miss this New Jersey institution tucked in the corner near the entrance of Hacklebarney State Park, one of the most beautiful and underrated parks in New Jersey. Just driving down State Park Road brings me back in time to the mid-1970’s when we used to stop at the farm for apple cider. My mom always liked to have it in the house to serve with dinner when we were growing up. The best part is that they still press their own.
Coming to Hacklebarney Cider Mill Farm is a step back into the rural era of New Jersey and the family that runs the farm respects its history and does not treat it like a theme park like the…
On the evening of October 7th, 2019, I did my second book reading of my up coming novel, Book Two in my New York Trilogy (the first being “Firehouse 101” published in 2005), “Love Triangles”. This is the story of Wharton Business Senior and Retailer Alan Balantine-Garfinckel adventure into New York City for the Christmas Holiday season working at Steinman’s Department Store.
Justin Watral, Author and Blogger
(Author Justin Watral at the Brooklyn Book Festival 2012 promoting Book One “Firehouse 101” (IUniverse.com 2005).
Alan who finds love while working in New York City gets more than he bargained for when while choosing between falling in love with his girlfriend, his best friend and a fantasy Champion figure skater his world is turned upside down when a mysteries rodeo cowboy enters the picture. How will true love conquer all?
Steinman’s Department Store’s first floor that mesmerized Alan Ballantine-Garfinckel
I read the beginning of my novel to a room full of hopeful authors and their friends at the Hasbrouck Heights Library in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ.
Steinman’s Department Store at Christmas: Their first floor chandeliers
Here is the Prologue to my upcoming novel, “Love Triangles”.
The dazzling B. Altman was the inspiration for Steinman’s Department Store.
I hope you all enjoy it and will buy the book:
Prologue
She came back to campus and now I have to flee, Alan thought. It was never easy confronting an old girlfriend and Alan didn’t want to start now. He took the coward approach and decided to leave campus. Not a good move in this bad economy but he decided it was time to leave Philly. Alan and his best friend, Jerry were winding their way through the career fair on the University of Pennsylvania campus for most of the morning without much luck. After over a decade of knowing one another, Jerry still acted like the whiny undergraduate Alan had known his freshman year.
“I can’t believe that they’re going through with it,” Jerry exclaimed as they passed the tables of recruiters. “They must be kidding themselves. They have known each other for almost forty years. God, my mother is such a shit. She is always pulling things like this! Why does she have to divorce the guy now?”
Alan did not want to discuss this any further having problems of his own to deal with at the moment. He had known Jerry’s parents for years and they never seemed happy. Jerry’s mother was a self-centered bitch, who always wanted things her own way regardless of everyone else’s feelings. Jerry’s father had gone along with it for years, her demeaning his every move. While vacationing in Europe, he caught her cheating with another man. It was the last straw in their marriage and Jerry knew it.
Jerry’s parents were now trying to get a quickie divorce while still in Europe. Jerry was flying abroad at the end of the semester to try to talk some sense into the two of them. Alan was grasping with his own issues. After losing his long term job at Sears when they closed his store as part of the downsizing, he had decided to go back to Penn and study at Wharton. His father wanted him to come into the family consulting business and Alan wanted to delay that as long as possible. His mother provided the excuse by recommending that he apply to Penn, where she had been a professor since their move to Philly years earlier. He knew he needed to get off campus. His ex-girlfriend was returning.
Christine and he had started dating as underclassmen. She had played center and had been the co-captain of Penn’s Women’s Basketball team and had been Alan’s girlfriend throughout most of his junior and senior years. There were a lot of things that Alan had been attracted by, her blond hair, her green eyes and a winning smile that lit up a room. After they clobbered Harvard for a share of the Ivy League title their junior year, with Christine leading the way, Alan had met her by approaching her afterwards to congratulate her on the winning basket.
Alan had always tried to put Christine on some sort of pedestal that even she could not understand. Their relationship had been strained from the beginning. By their senior year, as he watched her defend the Ivy League Women’s Basketball title, he knew that the relationship had cooled. Christine had told teammates she didn’t know if she was winning the championship for the team or to keep the relationship going. It struck anyone who knew them as odd as they always seemed like the happy couple.
Now over a decade later, she was returning to coach the team she lead to two championships and a second berth to the NCAA’s. In that time, she had also played professional basketball for New York and had been on the Olympic team, winning a gold medal in the Summer Games. Even with all that, none of it impressed Alan enough to rekindle the relationship. He just wanted a fresh start.
Too many people were entering the business school without any concept of what they wanted to do with the degree once they got it. The economy was a wreck but Alan knew there might be something out there that would give him a break from school. He wasn’t even sure what he wanted to do when he graduated the next year and didn’t want to have other younger students around to remind him of it.
“I know why you are leaving and it has nothing to do with Christine,” Jerry said as they rounded the corner looking for the Ritz-Carlton booth. “You can’t blame her for not being champion skater. Alan, that was a decade ago. You think you would have gotten over all that years ago. You built Christine up to be something she wasn’t and then you fucked the whole thing up. Ironically, here she is a decade later an Olympic champion herself and you still don’t care.”
“Shut up Jerry,” Alan said, not believing what he was hearing.
This was from a person who was a virgin until he was 38 and never had a serious girlfriend his whole life. The only reason why he even lost his virginity was that he saw the movie, “40 Year Old Virgin” on cable and did not want to have himself labeled the same.
Jerry knew the truth behind the breakup and couldn’t believe that after all these years Alan still harbored the same crush. Years earlier, when everyone else was glued to the TV for the controversy in figure skating scoring and medals that were shuttled to appease different countries and fighting skaters, Alan fell in love. When the skater had taken the ice, Alan wondered who she was and why everyone applauded her so much. When she finished her short program, the whole arena went wild.
It was what happened when she looked up and smiled. Alan’s heart raced and he knew that was the woman for him. It was her spunk, her determination and the look in her eyes of great accomplishment. The commentators were going wild with her performance and you could hear the boos in the background with her marks, which later everyone commented were too low for her performance.
The sports announcer said that she had done it to prove to herself that she could accomplish her goal of returning to skating and coming back to land the jump that made her famous a decade earlier. She showed such grace and dignity that even Alan felt it did not deserve the third place finish. She really deserved the gold!
It was later on in a documentary that Alan realized that she had not wanted to go to the Olympics. ‘I had already been there’, she commented and she wanted to give someone else a shot at competing there. Magazines hailed her as a great sportswoman and represented finally what was good in competition. She may not have won the event that night but she won the hearts of everyone who liked a comeback kid. It was the moment that Alan developed a major crush on skater, Darlene Durbin, the ‘Queen of the Quadruple’.
“That has been your problem for years, Alan,” Jerry explained as they walked. “You have held every woman you have ever met to that peak. In your eyes, no one is good enough, including Christine, who herself won a gold medal.”
“But no one ever applauded her like that,” Alan explained. “Alan, you were at the basketball championship. They applauded the team and all the players. They even gave the team a standing ovation,” Jerry exclaimed. “You saw it on TV. Even both of your parents could not believe you broke up.”
That spark wasn’t there, Alan said to himself, that heart and that great sense of accomplishment. It wasn’t in Christine’s eyes that night. She had done it for the team, but that sense of self-accomplishment wasn’t there.
“I just can’t explain it to you, Jerry. You wouldn’t understand the whole relationship,” Alan said, searching for the Ritz-Carlton booth and a chance to get off the subject.
Making the wrong turn down the isle, instead of being at the Ritz-Carlton booth, Alan was standing in front of the recruiting desk of M. Steinman & Company of New York City. While Alan looked at his map for a minute, the bored recruiter was happy to finally talk to someone. The recruiter was getting annoyed with having to direct undergraduates to the banking and financial booths (as if they would get jobs in this economy, he thought). He looked at Alan and saw something in him and then started his pitch.
“There are a lot of changes happening at Steinman’s,” the recruiter, George stated. “We have a whole new management team, new advertising and have reintroduced our old logo from 1896 as new. We even brought back our original slogan, ‘Steinman’s, it’s always a pleasure’.
Alan was not sure what he wanted to do with his time and thought that going to New York might be a nice change, plus it was far enough from Philly where he could avoid the college but close enough by where he could come home as needed.
“Do you have any retail experience?” George asked, trying to get Alan interested. George would later tell the interviewers in New York what a catch Alan was for the company.
“I was born to do it George,” Alan said. “I had been working at Sears as an Assistant General Manager until the company closed my store due to the downsizing. That’s when I decided to go back to graduate school. There has been too much instability in the field and it has not gotten any better with this economy.”
George explained that Steinman’s was holding its own in New York and the recent renovation of the old store on Fifth Avenue brought curious shoppers into Steinman’s, who as Millennial’s had pretty much left it to their grandparents to shop. There were so many positive changes in the company and they were looking for people who understood the business to work along with them.
“Alan, please look over the material and call to schedule an interview. We would like to meet with you. I think that you will be a good match. There will be a second round of interviews in New York and you will be able to see the workings of the store. I would like to see you soon,” George said as he shoved his business card in Alan’s hand and scheduled the on-campus interview.
Even though Alan was much older then the usual candidate, he could be placed in a higher position then the typical college graduate. Alan agreed to the interview and said he would see him tomorrow.
Alan felt a sense of déjà vu. Had this happened before? Something seemed so familiar about all this but he could not put his finger on it. He said goodbye to George and set off to look for Jerry. Jerry was probably boring some recruiter with all his parents’ marriage woes. For God sake, the guy was almost 40 and he was worried about his parents?
Jerry saw Alan and waved down to him. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company was down this aisle, he pointed out. Alan could see the hotel display from a distance.
“Where were you all this time,” Jerry asked. “Ritz-Carlton was down this side of the aisle. We went the wrong way. You must have read the map upside down.”
Alan explained that he was talking to Steinman’s Department Store out of New York and had arranged for an interview for tomorrow. Jerry asked him if he was crazy.
“You always told me that your father nearly went crazy after losing the family store decades ago and that you never wanted to enter the field again after that whole thing at Sear’s. You have the rest of your life to go into that business, especially if you join your father in his consulting and buying business.”
“It’s not that Jerry,” Alan explained. “Something seemed so right about it. It was like I was going home. Steinman’s reminds me so much of what I grew up with in DC. The stores were always considered very similar. Hell, I remember my grandfather complaining that old man Steinman used to come to DC just to steal his ideas. Besides it would be nice to spend the holidays in New York. Let’s face facts; I don’t know what I want to do when I grow up.”
“You are just avoiding Christine, Alan,” Jerry said. “You just want to avoid the issues of your breakup and not see her around campus. You built her up to be something she wasn’t and then you screwed it all up. You had no one to blame but yourself.”
“Shut up, Jerry,” Alan growled as he walked towards the Ritz-Carlton booth. “Don’t let your parent’s problems cloud your judgment about mine. I am getting tired about talking about it and let’s change the subject. Did I tell you I had the elevator dream again?”
Jerry shook his head but knew of the dream. It seemed that Alan had been having this dream ever since he hit puberty. Alan had always reached a certain point in the dream and then always woke up before it was over.
As Alan got older, the dream would progress but would never reach a conclusion. He always woke up. Jerry asked what had happened this time. Alan told him this time the elevator had reached the top floor and the door had opened. He stepped out into an open plain. He saw a figure in the distance. As the figure approached him, he woke up.
“You have gotten further then before,” Jerry said as they waited in line to talk to the recruiter from Ritz-Carlton. “What do you think it means?”
“It means I am closer to finding a solution to a problem,” Alan explained. “I don’t know what it is supposed to mean, Jerry. I just don’t understand why I keep waking up before it’s finished.”
When Alan was younger, it always ended up being a wet dream. Now as an adult, he woke up hard. When he and Christine were sleeping together, she had no idea of the dream. He was always hard and she enjoyed love making in the morning. Alan never told her the reasons. Jerry asked him what he thought he was going to find in New York. Was it the answer to this riddle?
“I don’t know, but I need a change. I need to get out of Philly and away from my parents. I have been cooped up in Philly too long. I knew I should have gone to graduate school elsewhere. While it is great that I am saving so much, I don’t like the fact that I am Professor Garfinckel’s son,” Alan stated with some disgust.
Alan did not like the fact that his mother, a Senior Professor at Wharton, pushed him so hard to attend the school. He had liked working but she worried about him being lost in his career.
“Maybe what I am looking for is in New York, you never know,” Alan stated as his turn with the Ritz-Carlton recruiter came up.
The night before his interview with Steinman’s, Alan had the elevator dream again. This time the dream was longer and more vivid. The dream had always started the same. Alan was walking down a long hallway of office doors and then an elevator at the end of the hallway would open up on its own. He would press the button to go up and the elevator door would close with a thud. As the elevator rose, it went faster and seemed to want to get to its destination as quickly as possible. The elevator light panel criss-crossed quickly and twinkled like a Christmas tree. Alan began to worry that the elevator might crash through the roof.
Then as suddenly as the elevator rose, it began to slow down. It stopped with a small jolt and the red flashing light flashed “17th Floor”. The door slid open quietly. Alan stepped out of the elevator onto an open plain, as far as the eye could see. No noise, no cars and no people. Just open plain with cactus, brush and mountain in the distance.
Alan took a few steps out of the elevator, contemplating on what to do next. He was startled as the doors slammed behind him. He turned to see that the elevator had disappeared, as if it never existed in the first place. “Where am I?” he thought to himself. Alan stood all alone in the blazing sun, dressed in a blue suit, Gucci red tie and loafers and briefcase, looking totally out of place in the environment.
He wondered how he was going to get out of there, when he heard the faint beat of hooves in the distance. Alan turned to look in the direction the sound was coming from and it grew louder as the figure came closer. Alan made out the faint figure of a man on a white house riding in his direction. This is strange, Alan thought, this is where the dream had always ended.
Alan stared as the man on horseback rose toward him. Suddenly, he was about twenty feet from Alan. He dropped his briefcase and walked toward the man. Alan could not see his face very well. Climbing down from his horse, the cowboy walked toward Alan. His white Stetson covered part of his face, but Alan could see the rest of him. He was wearing a duster, blue jeans and cowboy boots.
Alan was amused by his slightly bow-legged walk. Now directly in front of him, Alan still could not make out his face.
“So I finally found yawl,” the cowboy said with a slight Southern drawl.
“It was not that difficult, I have been here many times before,” Alan stated. “Why has it taken you so long to appear?”
The cowboy kicked the dirt in front of him and shrugged. “I was not sure that yawl wanted to see me, but I see the time has come,” the cowboy said. “I feel that the time is right. Yawl wished for me and now I’m here.”
“I did?” Alan asked.
“Yawl always wanted to meet me and here I am,” the cowboy added.
The cowboy stepped in front of Alan and rubbed his right shoulder gently and then walked closer. Alan could see the dazzling smile appear as his thick mustache crinkled slightly. Even though the face was fuzzy, he could make out the cowboy’s green eyes. Not just any green, but a deep emerald green that sparkled in the mid-day sun.
Alan moved himself closer to the cowboy and with that, the cowboy reached over and gently hugged Alan. Alan had a warm feeling all over his body that did not come from the heat of the sun. Alan moved closer as his hand reached for the zipper of the cowboy’s jacket and slowly unzipped it. It revealed the cowboy’s leather vest, printed cowboy shirt and his gun.
Alan put his arm around the cowboy’s waist and drew him in closer, reached over and started to rub his back. The cowboy put his arms around Alan and hugged him gently.
“If yawl wants me to stop, just let me know,” the cowboy whispered into Alan’s ear, as he slowly rubbed his head on Alan’s shoulder.
“No,” Alan answered, “Come closer.” His arms encircled the cowboy’s shoulders.
Though Alan still did not have a clear view of his face, his mustached lips moved closer to Alan’s and he kissed him. Alan giggled slightly.
“What’s so funny?” the cowboy asked as he pulled away.
“Your mustache tickles,” Alan replied.
It did not just tickle; it felt wonderful, Alan thought, soft and bushy. It was thick and neatly trimmed and brushed up against Alan’s clean-shaven face. Alan moved the Stetson over slightly and they kissed again. The kissed gently at first and then harder and more passionate.
Alan hugged the cowboy tightly and could feel pressing against him the erection in the cowboy’s tight jeans. As the cowboy’s head rested on Alan’s shoulder, Alan could feel his warm breath on his neck and the faint smell of cinnamon. The cowboy’s hand then made its way to Alan’s groin and caressed his growing erection. He gave it a slight grab.
“I think you are ready,” the cowboy said. Alan looked into the cowboy’s eyes and asked (he could still not make out the face).
“What do you mean?” Alan asked.
The cowboy flashed that mustached smile as he pulled away from Alan.
“I think it’s time for yawls wish to come true,” the cowboy answered as he slowly moved away and walked back to his horse. Alan stared as the cowboy mounted his horse, slid his duster back to reveal his holster. He pulled the gun out, spun it rapidly on his index finger before returning it to his holster. He turned the horse towards Alan.
“What wish do you mean?” Alan asked as he looked up.
The cowboy smiled again and said, “The one that yawl have locked deep in yawls heart and wished to come true. The one yawl fantasizes about coming true even though yawl don’t understand the feeling. It has always been in front of yawl, Alan. Yawl are just beginning to understand it.” The cowboy tipped his Stetson, so that Alan could see the bright emerald of his green eyes again.
“Will I see you again?” Alan called to him.
“Yawl will know when it’s time,” the cowboy shouted back, as he slowly rode away.
“When will that be?” Alan asked.
“When it’s time,” the cowboy replied.
“Why can’t I see your face clearly,” Alan yelled.
The cowboy turned back and flashed his smile again and rode off shouting, “When it’s time, yawl will know.” Alan could hear the echo and fade as the cowboy rode off in the sunset, “when it’s time, when it’s time….”
Alan took a few steps backward to see the cowboy riding in the distance and then tripped over his own briefcase. He fell back into the now opened elevator door. The doors closed shut on the western scene. The elevator raced down as rapidly as it had ascended. Floor numbers lit up quickly as the elevator reached the bottom floor.
The door opened at the ground floor of a department store crowded with hundreds of holiday shoppers who were busy doing their Christmas shopping on one of the busiest days of the year in a store decorated for the holidays. Alan walked down the main aisle toward the front of the store as the words, “when it’s time…” rang in his ear. As the crowd parted for him without him asking (this must be a dream, he thought, no one does this in New York City), he walked through the glass revolving door to exit the store and the bolt of cold air woke him up. He finished the dream!
Alan jumped out of bed. ‘Holy shit’ he thought, I am going to be late. He was starting his first day at Steinman’s and wanted to make a good impression by getting there early. He showered, shaved, dressed and ate quickly. He grabbed his briefcase and his papers and ran past Gramercy Park on the way to the subway in Union Square. He took one look back to look at the trees, which were still green. ‘That will change’, he thought to himself. The holiday season was right around the corner. As he got to the subway, he said quietly to himself. “Maybe it is time.” He then added, “Nothing like being late on your first day of work!” He then disappeared down the subway stairs.
The Former Garfinckel’s Department Store on F Street in Washington DC
Special Author’s note: “Firehouse 101” can be ordered on the IUniverse.com website, Amazon, Barnes & Nobel.com, Walmart.com or any other book platform. The book can be found for sale at the FDNY Museum in Lower Manhattan if still in stock.
Be on the look out for Book Three of the Trilogy “Dinner at Midnight”.
Don’t miss this little ‘gem’ of a museum down the block from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is fun to discover these small gallery museums that the University’s run.
