New York City. Forrest Junior Said He

¶ … New York City. Forrest Junior said he would like to see me, but he didn't have time to come to Alabama, so we finally said we would meet in New York City.

New York City was amazing! It's really an island. I think New York City has more cars in it than all of Alabama and maybe Mississippi too. Maybe it's just hard to get all those cars off an island, so people just stay there. Everybody walks so fast, and they don't really want to stop and talk. I asked this policeman for directions, and he told me all right, but that was all he wanted to talk about. In Alabama we would have talked about three other things before we got down to business.

Forrest Jr. got us a room at a hotel down near the end of that island. He said the name of the hotel was the "Hilton Millennium." I looked at the sign and thought it said "Hilton Millionaire," but Forrest said no, that anyone could stay there. That's good. I didn't want to stay some place just for millionaires.

Well, we just had a grand time in that New York City. I got there on September 9, and Forrest was right there to pick me up at the airport. We took a taxi into New York City. Those taxi drivers drive very fast, but they didn't hit anyone. That driver reminded me of running the backfield for coach Bryant. Anything was ok just as long as you didn't get caught!

The next day we got up bright and early and started seeing what there was to see in New York City. We rode on the subways, which are underground trains. I always thought the best part about a train was watching the countryside go by, but I guess folks in New York City look at different things. We saw the Statue of Liberty, the biggest statue I've ever seen. We went to a place called the Bronx. The Bronx is really ugly in some parts but there in the middle it's so beautiful. They have a wonderful zoo. I made sure we went to see the chimpanzees. One of them looked just like my old friend Sue, but I know it couldn't have been her. We took a train to get to the Bronx, but it wasn't like trains that go to Alabama. I don't think they like grass and flowers to grow in too many places in New York City.

Well, we ended the day in China Town and had a delicious dinner! Forrest Junior tried to teach me how to eat with chopsticks like they use in Viet Nam, but I made a mess of it in Viet Nam, and I made a mess of it in New York City.

We got back to our millionaire hotel after dark, and Forrest said, "There's one more place we should go." We walked over to the World Trade Center. They were these huge buildings. Forrest Junior said that they were the tallest buildings in the country. I bet they were close to the tallest in the world. They just went up and up!

At the top of this one tower we walked out on the deck and I do believe we could see all the way to Alabama. It was kind of like things were turned upside down. If you looked up you didn't see many stars, but if you looked down, all the lights looked like a sky full of stars. Forrest said you don't see as many stars in a big city.

The next day we got up bright and early. We walked out of that hotel and went in the direction of "uptown," which is what Forrest called it. We stopped in a little shop and got bagels. Forrest says everyone eats bagels in New York City although I think I like biscuits better myself. We walked outside that bagel shop, and I looked back toward those towers and I saw the most amazing thing. An airplane flew right into that tower! It made a terrible explosion and everyone screamed. I surely was surprised to see that. It seemed to me that an airplane ought to be able to miss buildings as big as those towers!

Well, everyone was screaming and crying. The lady in the bagel shop cried and said her son worked in that building and how was he going to get out? I told her about all the elevators and I hope it made her feel better. We forgot all about going to Times Square to get a ticket for a show, and just watched that building burn, and you know what happened? It happened again - another plane just flew right into that other building! I looked at Forrest Jr. And said, "I just don't see how they could both be accidents." He said, "No, those weren't accidents," and he was crying too.