Jersey Boy June 2013 | Page 44

Love at first bite

Mimi Tan, Jersey City, New Jersey Photo by Barry Epstein
The task that was now pressing was to get an apartment in Manhattan. Not an easy assignment but it would make it so much easier to attend my graduate program and its 6 month practicum in two of the biggest hospitals in New York City. I was dating several girls at the time and living up in Tuxedo Park sharing an apartment with Eddie Pacio. I signed up with one of the realtors on the upper East side and gave my obligatory $ 100 non-refundable fee. I was encouraged to hang out as often as possible at their office as they routinely presented a key for vacant apartments. They would announce the address and whoever was at the office and had paid the realtor fee was able to visit the apartment. This usually involved a small group as we would walk down to the address and up a flight or two of stairs. Many times we opened the door and peaked in to see a possible murder scene from an Alfred Hitchcock movie. A filthy looking apartment that appeared as though someone was murdered in. Sometimes we didn’ t even make it through the doorway as we got the picture loud and clear from a distance. This went on for weeks and sometimes it was the same group of people.
I noticed a very pretty Chinese girl that looked highly sophisticated. She was wearing some very expensive clothing that revealed several logos. One on her belt, her umbrella, her sweater and more. I was intrigued. On one of our apartment hunting excursions I asked her if she would like to have a quick slice of pizza with me and she said sure. Things got a bit strange when I saw her put salt in her coke. I didn’ t say anything at the time but noted it for the future. She seemed quite nice and a bit naive to New York Life. She said that she was from Singapore which I had no idea where it was. Most of us in NJ or NY think that Asia is made up of China and Japan and that’ s it. We had a good chat and I learned that she too had come to town to study at a travel agent school near Times Square and that she was staying with her Aunt in Greenwich Village in the interim until she finds an apartment that she will share with her girlfriend from Singapore.
BARRY STEVEN EPSTEIN- PhotoAutobiography DRAFT 44 of 156