One of my favorite sights: the ultra-expensive jewel-box jewelry store with million dollar bling in the plate-glass front window while on the corner outside a hotdog-pretzel-seller at his cart is sending up smoke clouds as he fires up his grill.
It costs to walk down 5th Avenue at Christmas. Dollars to the unique percussion performer who makes jazz rhythms on trash can lids and inverted plastic buckets; dollars to the Salvation Army Bell Ringer who has brought her own sound-system with hip hop music to which she dances, while still ringing the bell; $4. for a small bag of roasted chestnuts, [if you have ever tried to make them, they’re worth this price]. All this payout doesn’t leave enough for the chocolate-covered strawberries they are making in the window of the chocolate shoppe.
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The Rockefeller Center tree is up, in this picture, unadorned. How lovely it would be to leave it naked of lights in its natural greenness. The size. Look at the 18′ tall statue of Prometheus below the tree to do the math. It can measure 90′ tall. The lights are on as of 30 November.
*Love* the description of 5th Avenue. Once I experienced the store designs and the miracle of seeing very high-end jewelry. I say “miracle” because it was totally outside the world of a country woman.