New York State Of Mind

October 30, 2014 5:56 PM

When you bring a four-year-old to the Big Apple, things get weird.
posted by the man of twists and turns (4 comments total)

The Tenement Museum is great; I saw it when it was still fairly new but on a hot summer afternoon the experience was vivid and memorable.

Kinda kept waiting for the weird... mostly it sounded just very New York.
posted by kinnakeet at 6:43 PM on October 30, 2014 [1 favorite]

Am I reading the article correctly in that the author didn't volunteer at the school in Queens or anything, just brought his daughter there to gawk at the disaster remnants? If so, that strikes me as really problematic. Kids need to learn that disasters and tragedies affect real people, sure, but the way to do that isn't by disrupting some teacher's day to stare and make objects of her students.
posted by ActionPopulated at 7:39 PM on October 30, 2014 [2 favorites]

What did I just read? How did we go from throwing people into volcanos to a guy trying to recapture his lost youth by returning to NYC with his family for a week long vacation? And, yeah, the visit to the Far Rockaway school was really weird. "Hey, kid, look at these poor saps! All right, who wants ice cream?"

I don't think it had anything to do with his 4 year old. It was just him trying to relive his memories.
posted by jillithd at 7:09 AM on October 31, 2014

Tough crowd! I thought this article was sweet. It also really made me want to visit the Tenement Museum, something I haven't yet done despite having visited New York a few times.
posted by spacewaitress at 3:22 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]