...from the 42nd Floor. From my desk, I could look past the Office Manager's desk (who faced me) outside of the tall windows onto the Times Square billboard and the busy streetscape down below. To my right was the Hudson River. I saw the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center every day.
In the lobby was a card & gift shop, as well as Fritzl's Coffee Shop (which went out of business before I moved away!) Below, on the concourse level, was the Beanstalk Cafe. A large silver sculpture which represents a sundial still graces the plaza today. The white marble concourse leads to other shops and restaurants at the subway level and the F train subway platform which took me to Forest Hills and midtown Manhattan during the workweek. It also leads to Rockefeller Skating Rink, just a few blocks away from the office. The McGraw-Hill Bookstore was also at concourse level.
On one side of the building was a circular tunnel with a waterfall along both sides. There was a Labels for Less clothing store on 49th and the Dish of Salt Restaurant was on 48th Street. Across Sixth Avenue was the Simon & Schuster Bookstore. Just up the street is Radio City Music Hall. The Time-Life Building is on Sixth Avenue, where the Exxon Oil Co. had an office and a band once played protest songs outside about the Exxon-Valdez oil spill! (1989)
Valdez, ALASKA: Home of the Trans Alaska Oil Pipeline, 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay. (Follow me there! Follow me there!) THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY REMAIN THE SAME.
(Sarah Palin's Alaska, TLC TV, 8-9pm, January 9th Episode: a trip to Valdez, where her husband used to work. The series is available on DVD from TLC TV website.)
