The City . . .

At first, the mere height of the buildings and the ambience those buildings created, as contrasted with green (not rural-lush) flat, expansive suburbs, was the most impressive feature of the city to my eyes.  Granted, I lived no more than two blocks away from the city line, but this was ‘downtown’;  the heart of the big city;  the center of both cultural and business activities as well as (and it really is, these days, a business) medical and health professionals.  The latter was precisely what brought me to the city on one of the earliest trips I took there in memory.  It was a doctor visit for my mother, or my father (I can’t remember precisely which) although my feeble recollection does place my mother more prominently in the picture. It had then, as it does now, its own very specific aroma, look and feel which is both grimy and exotic at the same time.  The very same attractively fascinating allure continued to taunt me many years later when my first ‘legit’, full-time employment was taken at a prominent, downtown location and I found myself spending increasingly larger amounts of time there.
Although I have spent the preponderance of my professional life making my livelihood in the city, I realized this very day, just how much of that original allure still has a hold upon me.  The city has changed drastically in many areas in the interim, but just enough historical architecture remains to flood the mind and body with the thoughts and stimulations that I first experienced more than half a lifetime ago. I don’t often stop to contemplate it, as we fail to do with regards to most things we experience on a routine basis, but I find that ‘downtown’ still possesses a magical yet elusive quality that can both attract and appall at either separate or the very same time. These mysterious but desirable qualities do, and will always to my mind, make it a truly wonderful place.

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OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
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My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

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