Model Boat Pond

When I was little, my mother felt there was a dress requirement for our annual Spring pilgrimage to the Model Boat Pond in Central Park. She’d dress me in my Easter outfit from that year, and lacey-topped white anklets and black patent leather mary janes. Last of all, she’d take out the ultimate in elegance from her top dresser drawer: my creamy white cotton gloves with the pearl buttons, carefully wrapped in yellowing tissue paper. With my little brother in tow, in his white shirt and tie and blazer, we’d take the Broadway bus down to 72nd Street, and walk through the park to the Model Boat Pond on the East Side, our dressy shoes clicking on the pavement.

After chasing my brother around the pond a while, I’d sit on one of the toadstools in the Alice in Wonderland statue there, and watch the model sailboats curving through the water. I never even noticed the men that sailed them from the shore.