Manhattan Lady Reprise (Ballroom Please) Poem by Gomer LePoet

Manhattan Lady Reprise (Ballroom Please)

Rating: 2.7


Ballroom Please Manhattan Lady Reprise (a short story)

After returning from my hectic 2 week journey. I showered, dressed, checked my phone messages, and decided to go dancing last Friday night, hoping it wasn't too late and maybe, just maybe I could get real lucky, and catch my Manhattan lady at the Audubon Ballroom, a place she liked to frequent when time permitted, and the place where we met. The ballroom was located across the street from the Hilltop Park on Broadway Ave between W165st and W166st in north Manhattan, just south of the George Washington Bridge, in Washington Heights. I had not talked with Sonya for several weeks because of business matters that required my going out of town, and of course Sonya had her singing career that required an awful lot of her time. We had exchanged voice and emails, but it seemed we just kept missing each other.

The Audubon, built in 1912 doubled as a theater. Over the years it was the site of many opera, pop, rock and roll, stage plays and whatever. One of its biggest employs was as a vaudeville stage in the 1930's. The dance hall with its tables and booths and live entertainment, mostly jazz performer was on the second floor. The building had one of those old operator required elevators. Although it could be manipulated most easily without the assistance of a trained operator, on Friday and Saturday nights it was usually manned by one of the elders of the performers there. Many times it was still operated by one of the old Vaudeville comedians who could hardly even walk at this point in his life, but still was sharp as a tack when it came to comedy. As I got on the elevator I knew from the previous hundred or more times I had entered this elevator, I was going to have to play the game with Jimmy the operator. He asked, of course knowing there were only 2 floors, “what floor sir? ”. I reciprocated with my customary answer of “Ballroom please”. Of course Jimmy's response, the only response he ever gave, “I'm sorry sir, I did not know I was crowding you”, was greeted with the usual chuckle from the crowd in the elevator. It was the routine, it was a cool routine, and I love it and old Jimmy too.

Jimmy opened the elevator door, and there in all her beauty and charm was my Manhattan Lady. She glanced up at me as I exited the elevator, and gave me that perfect smile that was her trademark. The world was good again. I was good again.

Gomer LePoet

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