In January of 1981, I applied with IBM to go to a school they offered in New York City. I don’t remember the name of the school, but it was like graduate classes in computer science. The school lasted four weeks and was held in a building on 42nd street right near Times Square. I stayed at a hotel on Lexington Avenue and really had a ball living in New York for a short time. I went to class during the day and in the evening I was able to go to movies and Broadway plays and live TV shows. Two plays that I remember seeing were “A Chorus Line” and “Ain’t Misbehavin’”. They were both very good. I saw “The $25,000 Pyramid” TV show with Dick Clark as the host live. I was in the audience for five shows. They tape five shows at a time with a short break between the shows for the contestants and the host to change clothes and for them to clean up the set. I was there for an entire afternoon. It was very cool.
On thing I did while I was in New York was to go to the Lincoln Center Library which had all the entertainment news. I was able to fill in some blanks on the Top 40 charts that I had been unable to get up until then. I also visited some really great record stores down in Greenwich Village which had 45 records that you couldn’t get anywhere else. I was still into music. And as of this time, I still hadn’t met Mike Sveen.
Halfway through the four weeks in New York, I had the choice of going home for a break or having my wife come out to see me. We decided that Karen would come out. Kristy had been born just 5 months earlier. So Karen came to New York and brought Kristy with her. We spent the weekend sightseeing, me being the big shot New Yorker who knew where everything was. The church had a ward in a building right across the street from Lincoln Center. A Temple is on one of the floors of that building today, but then, it was just a chapel and a visitor’s center. On Saturday night, we got one of the girls from the ward to babysit for us while we went to a show. I have no idea what we saw. Maybe Karen remembers, but I remember taking the babysitter home afterwards (maybe in a taxi, not sure – I didn’t have a car). She lived down right near the World Trade Towers that fell during 911. I remember dropping her off right in front of the World Trade Tower and her telling me she could get home all right from there. It’s amazing what you remember and how much you forget.
Sometime in 1981, we got new home teachers and I met Mike Sveen for the first time and an eternal friendship was born. I’ve already talked about that in the blog post “here“.
Dad
I can’t believe you left Kristy with a complete stranger in NYC!! I would be freaking out leaving my 5 mo. old with a babysitter. You crazy folk.
It’s crazy how times have changed, huh.
I remember Kimmy and I staying at this family’s house – what was their name Mama? Sarah was the girl that was Kim’s age I think. I remember being freaked out by the dad, he was tall and had a a beard. Maybe he disciplined me or something. was it just a weekend? It seemed like forever we had to stay at that house.
I hope you and Mom had a fun time in NYC.
LOVE YA!
Kate
Well, she was a member of the Ward so I guess we trusted her. I remember asking the Bishop or Relief Society President for a recommendation for a sitter. Also, Karen informed me that the show we went to that night we left Kristy was “A Chorus Line”. I had forgotten that.