Walking in Central Park – Read the Benches!
Autumn is not my favorite time, I prefer summer. I do enjoy the colors of the fall, and if the day is warm enough it can be very enjoyable. Yesterday was a warmish day and I decided to wander Central Park and see if any of the leaves had changed color yet. The leaves were just beginning to change, so that wasn’t very exciting.
Instead I started to stop at the many benches throughout the park. Many of the benches in the park have plaques with a message engraved on them. After a little research at home, courtesy of a New York Times article, I learned that the benches can be “adopted” for around $7,500. For this cost you can place whatever message you like on the bench.
Here are some the bench poems I came across with the parenthetical describing where the bench was:
Swede Johannsen,
You are an angel on my shoulder
And the love of my life!
Will you marry me?
(Sitting on this bench gives you a great view of the Sheep Meadow)
In Loving Memory of
Emil Weiss
His favorite place
In his favorite city
(This on was on a main drag but faced a statue honoring the Seventh Regiment of 1861-1865)
For Pia from Jack 8-3-07
Kiss today goodbye and point me
Toward tomorrow we did
What we had to do won’t forget
Can’t regret what I did for love
(Near Adventure Playground close to Central Park West and 69th Street)
These mini clips are probably sappy but they got me thinking about all of the people that live in New York City. What was their story? Did they choose the location of that bench? Why that particular message? I may have to start collecting these plaques… they are very interesting.
As a final side note… I think I found a celebrity bench. Also near the Adventure Playground was a plaque that read:
Peace
Alan and Arelene
Alda
I looked it up on Wikipedia and the actor Alan Alda is married to an Arlene… I wonder if there are more celebrity benches throughout the park?
Similar Posts:
- Sunbathing in Sheep Meadow
- Running Around the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park
- 50 Things to Love about New York City
