[Dixielandjazz] Pickpockets

[Allan Brown]

Great story Pat,

When I was a young man I spent a summer working at a holiday resort in Pennsylvania. On a weekend break I headed off to the Big Apple to meet a pal. On leaving Central Park I was in an underpass when two intimidating guys stopped me and asked whether I wanted to buy some crack. I politely declined and was then asked if I had any money. Although I had a few dollars on me I really didn't want to be left with nothing as I was some way away from where I was trying to get to. The guys were most concerned that I was a foreigner in New york with no money, so they insisted I take a handful of change in order that I could make a phone call and get my friend to meet me. They insisted I take it, and I couldn't help but feel I'd mugged them! It was very sweet of them and it totally overturned any prejudices that I'd previously held.

All the best,

Allan

> Hi JIM,
> didn`t really mean to rundown Madrid. What happened to us could have happened  anywhere in the world. New York, London they are all the same . If you act as stupidly as we did you get what you deserve. We have knocked around a bit and this was an uncharacteristic lowering of our guard. Normally we would have been much more `aware`. I think that it was a case that we had only that day met up with our American friends, who were coming to stay with us in Alicante and we were so busy talking and catching up we lost the plot.
> 
> Sometimes things can work out well. We have a friend, a French girl who married an American and lived in the Southern States somewhere. One day she decided to take her fairly new baby to France to show to her parents. This girl was daft as a brush and away with the fairies most of the time. I would not have trusted her to find her way home from the corner shop. With no luggage and wearing only a summer frock,. it was warm down South, . she started out for France. Via New York which had several feet of snow. By bus. Arriving in NY she had to get to the airport.. Clutching her baby she wandered off into the uncharted wastes of New York where in the middle of some area where the cops patrol in pairs she was accosted by a 6ft black guy.He demanded money. She explained that she had no money and nothing of value but her plane ticket and told him that she was trying to get home to France. This potential mugger escorted her out of the rough area she was in back to where the taxies ran. Found a taxi, paid the driver to take her to the airport and wished her well and said goodbye.
> 
> Doesn`t it restore your faith in human nature.????????
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Pat (Back to the music before the police come round)