Dashing Through The Snow
After that fiasco, there were many cars that came and went. I didn’t mind driving, but I hated to drive into Manhattan. People in Manhattan are in a completely different class of drivers. Sometimes I had to, and sometimes I would park in Queens and either take the subway or an express bus.
Still battling the weight issue, I made an appointment with the one and only Dr. Robert Atkins! I waited months to get that appointment. His office was in Manhattan. I didn’t want to go alone so I took my daughter out of school, ( don’t tell anyone ) and off we went. I am so glad she was there because no one would ever believe what happened that day.
We parked the car in Queens and took the Express bus into the city. The bus dropped all the passengers off, a few blocks from the office. It was December, and Christmas was very much in the air. It was cold, everyone was busy buying presents and all the stores were decorated. It was a picture perfect snap shot of Christmas in the 1980’s. I made a mental note of where the bus dropped us off and we went to the office. Not what I was expecting. The office was a maze of little rooms and a lot of “doctors” seeing patients. You got an audience with the great OZ for a few minutes so that they could bill you for seeing him! In the waiting room, it was wall to wall patients, and an old English Sheepdog that belonged to Atkins himself and accompanied him every dayhe came to the office. I love dogs, and I can tell you this big sweet animal, stank! ( just a side note here, I started out being afraid of dogs. I would cross the street to avoid one even if it was locked up in it’s yard.)
My daughter stayed in the waiting room and had a little incident of her own. Some guy, probably twice her age was trying to pick her up! First my mom, then me and now her! Runs in the family I guess!
I have no recollection about my appointment . I just knew that it was my first and only appointment there.
We left the office and started walking back to the bus to take us back to Queens. We got to the street where the bus had left us off. We couldn’t find the correct place to get the bus we needed. I was starting to panic. Finally I saw an empty bus, with a driver, and the door open. We ran up to it and asked the driver where our bus was! He pointed to a bus that was just leaving. Unbelievably he said, “Get in, we’ll catch it.”
We never thought to question, we just got in knowing that the next departure would be in an hour! He was racing through the streets in the middle of Manhattan, dodging people all over the place. He caught up to the bus at a red light and told us to run.
We got out of the bus and ran, well my daughter did. Running was never my strong suit. As she approached the rear of the bus the light apparently had changed and the bus took off. The other bus was right behind him and he yelled for us to get on again. We did! He was a cowboy, he was chasing that other bus yelling “Whahoo!” We tried two more times and couldn’t catch the bus. Finally the first bus was stopped at the last light in Manhattan, the driver in our bus said, “You got it now, it’s a very long light, RUN!”
I was exhausted but my daughter and I ran out onto the street and caught up to the bus while it was still standing still! The driver opened the doors and my daughter got on the first step yelling, “Come on mom!” I crossed the threshold as the light changed and eventhough we weren’t in a seat, I was barely in the bus, he took off. I was so out of breath, and I thought my head would explode but we made it! It took a few minutes and then we looked at each other and started laughing. The other passengers were silent. They even avoided looking at us. I wish we could have thanked that crazy guy in the bus. I wonder if he ever told anyone else the story. I’m sure what he did was illegal!
