self evident

This week my kids are gonna be in a play.  This winter the focus of 5 grade is immigration and my son is gonna be a "hobo".  He asked me to get him a "news boy hat".  I took a little Q and A for me to figure out what to buy.

There are many places to buy hats, but in NYC we have a "hat district".  Broadway in the mid 20s is all about hats.  So I got on the R train for a quick trip to the lower midtown.  I was not sure where to get off 23rd street or 28th street.  It was obvious when the train stopped at 23rd St.  It was Self Evident.  This must be where to buy hats, the Subways Station is adorned with mosaics of hats.  However, I had to walk all the way to 26th street to find a hat store.
There were more hat stores all the way to 30th Street.

Lucky Trading had piles of hats.  I would provide a hyper-link to Lucky Trading, 1145 Broadway, but according to The Google it does not exist.  (I am shocked).


So I got my son a news boy hat.

When I walked in it brought me back about 30 years.  I was there before. Not that exact store, but one on the same block. Back in the day I had a summer job at a Longeyeland  beach club.  I was a "chair boy"  (insert The Flamingo Kid joke here).  I figured if I was gonna spend my working day on the beach I needed a good had.  I did not know what is was called but I was seeking a French Foreign Legion hat.  I walked into a place like I was yesterday and took the hat to the cashier.  The dude looked at me like I was nuts and said "Dis is a wholesale place, ya gotta buy a dozen."  Without batting any eye I just said "Can you tell me who buys them in bulk, so i can go there and just buy one?"  He grimaced and just said Five Dollar, cash".  He put the money in his picket.


After I bought the hat I took a walk downtown.  I figured I would walk till I got hungry.  I found my self near the World Trade Center Construction Site.  It is currently the biggest construction site in the United States. For the macro view of that click here.  But yesterday I noticed the micro.  I saw this truck of re-bar.  It is labeled  "WTC Tower #4"

I don't know where I am heading with this.

But I felt that religion should be Self Evident.  If god wanted me to do stuff, I would already know what to do.  When I saw that tag on that steel for one little moment I wanted to do more than "have good thought for it".