Walking the NYC High Line with Laurie

For our 70th birthday in 1970, I wanted to be with my twin brother Jan who resides in Brooklyn Heights in NYC.   I also wanted to visit the Brooklyn Botanic (not botanical) Garden and see Sean Hayes, a theater graduate of ISU, in Promises, Promises, the musical version of the movie,The Apartment featuring the tunes of Burt Bachrach.  Dinner with my twin, then on to the theater.  What a marvelous visit!  Then to my surprise, my twin marched me to the subway not telling me the destination.   Upon leaving the subway, we walked about 5 blocks west, climbed up three flights of stairs and there my heart went thump, thump, thump, for before me were plants, many of the same Ed and I have in our Prairie Garden.  This was my introduction to the NYC High Line.  The first section was completed - I was in a state of awe. "A ribbon of nature atop a true ruin, the whole phenomenon just floating in its own time and space."

Aunt Phyllis, a gourmet cook, invited her son (my nephew) Jason to join us for dinner.  How I love this man!!

Laurie and her Cousin Jase -- they shared an apartment in Austin when Laurie was at UT for her first year of law school. 

Most people know how spiritually attached I am to the NYC High Line, a garden high above the hustle bustle of NYC.  In the 1930's trains that delivered food and mail were at ground level.   But many people were killed because they would not get out of the way of the trains even when the West Side Cowboys upon horseback would ring a bell to warn people of an oncoming train.  To remedy the situation, the tracks were elevated 35' above the streets.  In 1963, due to the trucking industry, the last train delivered a cargo of frozen turkeys.  From 1963 until  the early 1990's the tracks laid in a decrepit state and a group of New Yorkers wanted to demolish the tracks.  But alas!  Another group had another plan -- to create an elevated garden.

Last summer when Laurie and her family were visiting, she said how badly she wanted to walk the High Line with me.   And we did, this first weekend in November. 

Jan Hyde and Dr. Phyllis Hyde's Brooklyn Heights home