We grew up in Hartford, Connecticut. Dad was from Hartford, Mom from Boston and Brighton, Massachusetts. We (my sister Pat and me) grew up in a family full of, well, what is often called "culture". We went to museums regularly (the Wadsworth Atheneum, still Hartford's pride, is the first public museum in the United States and when Stu and I were back in June, we went to a special exhibit there. Monet's water lilies. Mom's favorite art in the world. Goddamn, she would've loved it.)

We listened to music on the hi-fi - lots of show tunes, lots of jazz and swing years bands and singers. Lots of classical music. We went to the symphony and the theater. We later ushered at the local rep company (which got us in to see plays for free.)

And I don't know how often, don't remember many details, but we went to New York for Big Deal Stuff. I don't know if it was every year, but a lot of years, around this time, we drove to New York for the weekend and became tourists. Smart tourists maybe, educated, classy tourists, maybe, but tourists. So you native New Yorkers? If you're going to sneer (and you will, I bet.) please go over there so I don't hear you.

I don't remember where we stayed but we stayed overnight. And yes, I remember Radio City Music Hall and the Rockettes' precision. I don't remember much else, so I am sort of guessing that we stopped going there after a year or two, once it was no longer a novelty. As Jews, too, the "Santa" aspects of everything were just not interesting. Of course it was everywhere, we knew that but...Again, there's clearly a lot I don't remember. But hey, the stuff that's still in there is good.

What I do remember? Trying to pry the real memories from the movie images, I remember the tree at Rockefeller Center and the skaters, always looking so great. There was usually one skilled person in the center ice, doing spins. I think. In a monochromatic outfit. Sometimes a boy doing jumps, sometimes a girl doing a layback. I think. I never skated there. We grew up skating on ponds, not rinks, in Hartford. These people looked so much better than I ever did. Maybe it was the outfits, the tights, the skirt.

I remember walking the streets with everyone else looking at decorated stores and windows. My memory provides the thought that Tiffany's and Steuben Glass were across from each other on Fifth Avenue (no no, don't tell me, I swear I'll go check later) and that we far preferred Steuben Glass. They used to advertise in New Yorker, one item, all very special. My favorite was "The Sword in the Stone". The fancy show pieces were in the back, in window boxes lined with, was it black or blue velvet, simply lit. It was so much more like a museum than the glitter of Tiffany's.

We would usually visit MOMA, as I recall. The Museum of Modern Art was so much more to our taste, I think, than the Met. We all, i think, had our favorites: the Brancusi sculptures out in the courtyard, the Rodins, the Monets, Mondrian, Van Gogh. Sometimes we would go to another museum; I remember the Frick, a place I might never have known about if I hadn't been taken as a kid.

We'd attend the ballet, I think. New York City Ballet, more than ABT. I remember only seeing "Midsummer Night's Dream" by NYCB. Did we go see Alvin Ailey or Dance Theatre of Harlem? I can't recall. I saw Nureyev in my life, but in New York? I don't remember.

I remember seeing Hall Holbrook as Mark Twain at, was it Carnegie Hall? Oh my gods. He was a young young man. It was enthralling. Hartford folks can claim a strong tie to Twain, as one of our best landmarks was the Mark Twain House, a major high Victorian pile of a house museum.

I remember eating pretzels from street vendors, but not chestnuts. My friend and cousin Joy asked me about that. We never tried the chestnuts. They were, perhaps too alien? We didn't now from chestnuts, though we walked through piles of something called "horse chestnuts" at home during Fall. Didn't we?

We went to the Rainbow Room (watch that snickering over there) which was exotic for us. It was high up, on the 65th floor. We went, I think, for drinks. Mom and dad might have been in their whisky sour stage. I had Shirley Temples. My sister might have too, or might have passed the age where that was fun and been too sophisticated for fake cocktails. The view was extraordinary for us (no, we never did go up the Empire State Building. I still haven't) nor out to the Statue of Liberty. This might have been as high as we got, though Mom, in later years, went with Howard to dine at the World Trade Center. So apparently my fear of heights was not inherited from her! Did we eat dinner there? I don't remember. I don't think so, just drinks and off we'd go to somewhere a tad more affordable. While it closed a while back, I just looked it up and the Rainbow Room might be getting remodeled and reopened. I don't know if I'd go back. I'm not much on Shirley Temples any longer.

I remember cheesecake, so I must remember Lindy's. That might have been our next stop, as I am sure we ate there. Maybe we ate at the hotel - I don't remember where we stayed. I know where our parents ate and stayed when they went alone to New York and brought back matchbooks and such. And don't snicker at Mama Leone's. They liked it. We probably tried a Chinese place or two, since we knew we liked Chinese food. (yeah right. Like so many New Englanders, our idea of Chinese food was sweet and our pork, chow mein and what was called Cantonese food. But it was a start, okay? The South Seas was a big deal birthday restaurant for us in West Hartford. Oh boy, egg rolls and plastic leis. And drinks in coconuts. Oy.)

I remember one year i received this amazing present for what must have been Hanukkah; a big fake fur hat and a matching fake fur muff, THE thing to wear for a trip to New York. Which I did. The muff was great - the hat's string would not stay tied (there were pom-poms on the ends. It was a great ensemble. Stop snickering over there. I was what, 9?

We went shopping at Takashimaya. I had a passion for things Japanese, and would find little things and giggle when I saw how many were made in China or even better, in the US. Ah, authentic Japanese souvenirs!

The best image I hold of these trips, while Rockefeller Center was so perfect an image, and while I can still see the stage for "Midsummer", and the showroom at Steuben Glass, what stays more than anything was something we saw as we walked down the street in Manhattan. What's lost is the specific. Was it the Japanese tourist office? Japan Air Lines? It probably was not an embassy, but on the corner of the street, there was a building with a lot of glass. It was two or three stories high, I think. And it had a Christmas tree (which, as someone passionate about things Japanese, I found odd, but never mind). The joy of this tree was that it was decorated - at least as I recall - completely with origami ornaments. No tinsel here. No blinky lights. Origami presents, and origami doves. Origami balls and wreathes and bows and gingerbread men and whatever goes on a Christmas tree. It was the best.

So from a tourist who hasn't been a tourist in New York for many years, thanks. If I get the chance to be a tourist again, i know that I will return to some places i loved (probably have to get to Moma and hte Frick again) but I know many of these places are gone. That's okay. I know that I will have to visit The Algonquin Hotel (I know, but I do. I don't have a lot of places I need to see, but this is one) and I will have to visit the Plaza to say hello to Eloise. Beyond that, I'm okay leaving memories as memories.

So what do roast chestnuts taste like? Did I miss anything?