November 1992. It is the day before Thanksgiving. I am in NJ visiting my parents. I am tagging along with my friends Maxwell and Patrick into New York City to visit our friend George. He had graduated college and got a job working for an insurance company in the financial district right next to the World Trade Center.
We take the train to the World Trade Center. When we get there, Maxwell reminds us that George said that he would meet us in the lobby of his building at 1PM and that if we were late he would take off.
We arrive at the World Trade Center at around 12:55. Because I have lived and worked in New York City, Maxwell and Patrick turn to me. I reply, “I don’t know where his office is!”
Maxwell says, “I don’t know either. Patrick, you’ve been there before.”
Patrick retorts, “Yeah, but that was over a month ago.” Time is limited and this was an era before cell phones, so I take charge. I quickly realize that there is no way Patrick is going to be able to find the direct route to the place from the subway. So we go up to street level.
We race around because time is running out. I try to jog Patrick’s memory by calling out whatever I see. “Okay, we’re headed down Vesey Street. Church St. is in front of us. The World Trade Center is to our right.” It is totally stream of conscious. Looking around I see John Heard in the Plaza. He’s about 100 feet away from us.
Now a lot of you are probably right now saying, “Who is John Heard?” He is not a star. He is a character actor. He has been in dozens of movies over the years. He was the lead in Cat People, Tom Hanks’ nemesis in Big and Macaulay’s father in Home Alone – To name just a few. But I am calling out everything I see and totally stream of conscious belt out, “So the World Trade Center is behind us. Oh look there’s John Heard. Patrick, does any of this look familiar?”
But my voice carries and he heard me and turns around! I see it out of my peripheral vision and turn back. Without missing a beat I shout back to him, “I loved you in Home Alone! Okay, Patrick, should we go down Church Street?”
Maxwell and Patrick are kinda like, “What just happened there?” Maxwell actually doubled back to get a look at who was that guy. And I think, “Maxwell, we don’t have time to be messing around! We gotta find George’s office!"
At the time I was focused on the task at hand which was not missing George. In retrospect I was surprised that he heard me and that I was able to avoid an embarrassing moment.
Later, Maxwell commented, “You know that guy has been in a whole slew of movies way better than Home Alone.”
“You know, I was just calling out what I was seeing and he happened to catch my eye. He seemed too far away to hear me. But I was wrong and had to pull something out my ass. That was the first thing that came to mind. My concern was getting to George. Not giving him a compliment.”
Oh, and if you are curious – we did find George’s office and get to him in time to make our lunch date together. And that is all that mattered.
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