St Martin

Walking up 8th Avenue we came across a street barred off from traffic by no less than 9 baton twirling and very insouciant New York cops and so naturally we turned into the street to see what was going off.  Luckily for us it wasn't a riot, but a very local celebration of St Martin's Day -  St Martin apparently being a great fave with people from South America.  An image of the saint had been brought from the neighbourhood church and was being carried a short way up and then down the narrow street by a strange and very slow sideways shuffle.  Most of the people carrying the image were no spring chickens and one poor chap looked fit to drop with the strain.  When the image had to be turned around to parade up and down the street a supervisory type man struck a huge gong to direct the movements of the bearers.  Frankly the sudden loud clash seemed more likely to give them a heart attack.

The image was followed on it's several trips up and down by a small and somewhat discordant  band and by several people wearing the ethnic clothing of their region of origin.  People threw flowers and everyone appeared to enjoy themselves hugely in the great friendly atmosphere.

Speaking of local neighbourhood things, we were astonished to hear, and see for ourselves, that what famously used to be a significant feature of Manhattan, Little Italy, has now reduced to one street, Mulberry St, which is really little but a fairly short row of restaurants.  The remainder has been taken over by their ever-expanding neighbours, the Chinese.  China Town is huge and still growing.  Away from the tourist area of Canal St where all the knicknack shops and eating houses are located we saw considerable poverty.  One good thing was that all of the little 'parks' and squares were taken over by old Chinese people playing MahJong and cards and a very obscure Chinese game that we just couldn't puzzle out.   A park full of gambling pensioners makes a nice change to yobs loitering round the kiddie swings tho  :O)