YOU HAD TO BE THERE

“A leader can’t lead until he knows where he’s going.” --actor Terry O’Quinn as John Locke in the series LOST 
 I received a sweet card from my Aunt Lela Gallegos-Armijo-Rego: Michael,  It’s nice when you’re near, but when you’re not, It’s nice to keep you near in thought! You haven’t been here in how long? I sure wish you could come up while Donna’s here (September 26 thru Oct 10).  I’d love to get her together with all of her favorite cousins.  You're one of the top ten you know.  I’d love to see you again. Do try, okay?  Love Aunt Lela God Bless. Take Care.  
I can also count on Reed Campbell for a postcard, too.  He was recently in Washington D.C.  There was a freak accident there recently: 
Shortly before 2 a.m. on this day in 1994, a red and white, two-seat, propeller-driven Cessna 150 flew low over 17th Street in the heart of the nation’s capital, banked leftward in a U-turn near the Washington Monument, and headed toward the presidential bedroom in the White House. 
Gliding just over the treetops, the Cessna passed over the fountain and the red cannas flowers blooming on the South Lawn, bounced off the grass just short of the mansion, crashed through the branches of a magnolia tree planted by President Andrew Jackson and came to rest in a crumpled heap two stories below the Clintons' unoccupied bedroom. The impact immediately killed the pilot, Frank Eugene Corder. 
9-1-1994  Dear Michael, We missed the plane crash at the White House by a few hours.   We did see the Vietnam Memorial...very impressive.  I am here for a family reunion.  The house in Minneapolis is still not complete—very frustrating.  I hope to be in S.F. the first of December and in Las Vegas on Dec. 18th.  I will write in detail...later. Best Always, Reed 
We had a fun BBQ on the roof here in Marina Del Rey with Jack and Gloria and some friendly Charles Schwab clients (of mine) named Bob and Sherry Tedeschi.   
And then, September 2nd arrived and mom and I left for NYC.  We did so much.  Luckily, I have experience of NYC from the times Alan and I had gone together.  I knew I could lead this tour for mom easily.   It’s hard to remember every little thing but we did it all.  You had to be there.  We had dinner at the CHINA GRILL across the street from the New York Hilton Towers (the hotel where we stayed).  Jack and Gloria always stay there when they go.  Jack still works in the jewelry business and goes to NY, Boston and Miami often.    Mom and I roamed around NYC and one of my favorite past times was taking a photo (of one of us) in front of a phone booth. 
“I’m telling you mom, one of these days there won’t be any more telephone booths so we need to take photos as a sort of time piece, a memory of what was.”  
She thought I was silly but we had fun with it.   It was fun to see the various advertisements on the phone booths as well.   “The advertisements will be time pieces, too...just wait and see,” I said. 
We walked and walked.  We made our way to Central Park where we sat on a bench and simply watched the many people walk by.  They were from so many places all around the world.  It was quite the metropolis.  I loved being under the trees.  Mom liked it too.  We found ourselves in the strawberry fields area of the park near the John Lennon IMAGINE memorial where we took photos inside a quaint gazebo.  We went to ZABAR’s for potato knish, pastries and coffee.   That was fun. “This is a ‘must do’ for New Yorkers, mom---to go to ZABAR’s!”   
There was a major ad campaign by THE GAP for KHAKI’s pants.  I had mom share her story of when she moved from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Oakland, CA and she had to wash and iron all of her brother's white t-shirts and khaki pants.  Who knew?  Andy Warhol even wore khaki pants when he was a lad.  We walked Fifth Avenue and checked out the Warner Bros. store and visited the Metropolitan Museum of ART. 
We took the Liberty Ferry to Liberty Island where we got off of the boat and explored Liberty Island.  We shared a fresh, hot pretzel with mustard while we were there.   It was fun on the ferry boat because we were among so many tourists speaking various languages.  Who knew where they were from?  I assumed various parts of Europe. We explored the GALLERIES LAFAYETTE department store.  It opened recently.  This department store is from Paris, France; so, it was fun shopping in there---we pretended we were in Paris while shopping there.  It was fun to explore the difference from this store to BLOOMINGDALE’s and MACY’s.  Yes, we went shopping at both of those places, too.  
I took the opportunity to photoshoot mom at various places.  Mom used to love Coca-Cola so whenever I saw COKE, I took a photo; I took a photo of her in front of a posh townhouse in the Upper East Side. “Mom, if you lived in New York—this would be your house,” I explained. I photographed mom near a car that had a decal on their rear-view window of VIRGINIA TECH UNIVERSITY.  And since mom’s name is VIRGINIA it was only appropriate.  Mom laughed.  Mom loved it. I photographed mom inside the FAO SCHWARTZ toy store.   We found a strange bookstore and couldn’t resist browsing there after our NORMA’s breakfast at the Le Parker Meridien Hotel. It was kind of foolish but I took mom to this famous PANCAKE HOUSE where they prepare these huge pancakes.  There’s no way we could eat it all—but it was all for fun.  Mom had no idea...but she couldn't take the sight of it.  We agreed that we prefer little silver dollar pancakes. Ha-ha. I took mom to the top of the Empire State Building.  She had a great overview of the entire city from there—as did I.   There was a Vietnam Memorial in Battery Park City and I took a photo of mom in front of the monument where there was a Private from the US ARMY listed by the name of ERMILO T ARMIJO (a definite distant relative).  That was special.   
And yet, we still had a Broadway Show to see!   We sure slept well at night with all of the walking, exploring.  We were looking forward to seeing MISS SAIGON on mom's actual Birthday night of September 6th.  How did we do it all?  I guess...you had to be there. 
“When mother was gone I was LOST.  I found music.” --actor Ed Stoppard as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (as heard in the 2007 film TCHAIKOVSKY: THE CREATION OF GENIUS)