125th street mural

I am riding now taking a serpentine route through Harlem now on Madison Avenue. I'm in a bus equipped with wifi as I return home from a three day trip to NY to visit my brother. Soon we will be turning crossing 125th street, it of the famous Langston Hughes poem called 125th Street Mural--often just called, "What happens to a dream deferred."

It is taking forever to get out of Manhattan. We left at 4 from Madison Square Garden on a Friday so, go figure, the traffic is horrible. I could have walked the 90 blocks in an hour and we are now 45 minutes from when we started.

After we boarded, the driver delivered the bus version of the stewardess speech leaving out the part about the flotation devices. Bathrooms in the back. No loud radio playing. Hold onto the railings as you walk up and down the aisles.

At the end of the talk he told us that the bus would not leave until everyone on this Boston bound journey chanted, "Let's go Yankees." The Red Sox are in the Bronx this weekend playing the Yankees in a three game set. At this clip I will get home in time to see the Sunday contest.

It does still surprise me how pervasive sports is in our society. My brother and I had lunch Wednesday at a place called Ben's and there we saw a number of patrons adorned in baseball jerseys representing their teams. That night we went to a sports tavern that was packed on a Wednesday and we could have selected any one of a dozen other such restaurants within a two block radius. We take a walk in a rural part of New Jersey yesterday and see two walkers/joggers wearing gear from football teams to which they apparently have some allegiance. And today, the bus driver, knowing about the Red Sox rivalry, ribs we Bostonians by telling us to chant Let's Go Yankees. When one of the riders chirps up with the requested chant, the driver's riposte is "Boston fans are such traitors."

I will have time to blog about the entire olympics which ends mid August, by the time this bus leaves the Bronx.