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My Big Apple
Akiko Miyake
Kansai Toast Masters' Club One summer evening I flew from Boston
and reached Lagordia Airport after dark to find New York city was in a
black-out. A thunder-bolt had struck the main wire-line to provide the
electricity. Since New York is a notoriously dangerous place, I would have
been really scared if I had not learned how trustworthy the people are
here. I was guided with other passengers to the bus going to Port Authority,
which is the terminal of all bus-lines, and from there I took a taxi to
my hotel.
Soon I began to see some volunteers were waving their torch-lights which substituted the traffic lights. New Yorkers call policemen "cops." So these volunteer citizens who acted like policemen in emergency are "citizen cops." Some white teeth flashed in the dark. Sure they were all blacks. They were enjoying the importance of their duty, smiling and working, working and being very happy! Yes, we can trust them at crisis such as this black-out.
The following morning, I switched on the TV news program. The newscaster reported how very low was the crime-rate on the previous evening. Thieves, robbers and pickpockets are abundant in this city, "But last night, they all took voluntarily one night off." I laughed and cheered for these kind and cooperative thieves. But I agreed heartily when the newscaster concluded, "This is a great city!"
I t was in l966 when I first learned about the greatness of New York. I was then a graduate student at Duke University, North Carolina. I finished my Master program in June, and acquired a grant for the Doctor's program which would start from September. So I had to survive the summer by working in New York. Riding a night bus from the South, I crossed the Hudson River early in the morning. How painfully I was excited, having in my pocket only seventeen dollars and an introduction letter addressed to a Japanese businessman. Yet within the next twelve hours I found a job in a construction company and settled down in a comfortable room at an YWCA. Was I just awfully lucky? The truth was that people were incredibly helpful.
Soon I realized that most of the emigrants coming to New York had just enough money to survive the first week, exactly as I did. Everybody is then very courageous or has to be. This is why everybody is very glad to take care of new comers. Once I was standing around at a corner of a small restaurant. Suddenly one of the waitresses came out and said, "If you want to work here, we can offer you a job." Oh! Dear little soul. She worried if I had any dollar for my supper.
Soon I found my own apartment. Walking along the neighborhood of the Union Theological Seminary, I was stopped by a lady from Peru. She was a school teacher, and planning to be away for summer. Could I come to live in her apartment? She asked, because she sublet a room to an old Japanese gentleman who had lost all his memory. I accepted. The gentleman was definitely an intellectual and still had his own bank account, being very independent, too. A few years later, when he died, I received a letter from the Peruvian lady. She paid for a Catholic funeral for him given in Spanish language.
(2001年11月12日 関西トーストマスターズクラブ 例会 スピーチ原稿 B-10
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