mother<\/em>\u2019s friends, Sylvia and Luis Reichman, were good enough to take us to brunch, which is always the way to start off a holiday.<\/p>\nEveryone told me that the big thing to do in NY on the 4th is go shopping, which sounded strange, but when in Rome\u2026 So I tried, but Kings Highway, a big shopping district, was a ghost town. What were my friends thinking?!<\/p>\n
On my earlier Spring trip, I had discovered the best ice cream in the world at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, under the Brooklyn Bridge, which is my favorite structure, by the way. Always fascinating. I begged my mother to go there with me, but even my own mother deserted me. This day was making me want a twin even more than I already do!<\/p>\n
So, I ventured to the Bridge on my own that evening, figuring everyone would be in Coney Island (the other side of Brooklyn) for the fireworks. Two minutes into the trip, I realized I was starving and felt weak, and couldn\u2019t get to the fabulous ice cream fast enough.<\/p>\n
When I got to the area, it was a zoo. Turns out, all of Brooklyn (and Jersey, Philly, etc.) gathers there because there\u2019s a giant deck where you can watch the Macy\u2019s fireworks! Who knew?!!!<\/p>\n
All the cops were unusually nice, and by some miracle, I got to park right in front of the River Caf\u00e9, which is adjacent to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, which is on the deck. I couldn\u2019t believe it! (And neither can the Nervous Nellies of New York, who say you can\u2019t park anywhere, anytime.)<\/p>\n
It was 8:55PM, and I ran around to the front of the ice cream bungalow, thinking I\u2019d grab a cone in time to watch the show. Then the reality–there was a line of about sixty people! And to make it worse for me, everyone seemed to have friends or family with them, which made me a tad lonely, although I knew I didn\u2019t need another person to help me eat or see.<\/p>\n
I talked a little to the guy behind me, Jorge, though we didn\u2019t even do names at the time. His girlfriend, Sophia, showed up and said she thought they had just vanilla left. I said, \u201cOh no! I have to have Peaches and Cream!\u201d And went on for five minutes about how delicious it is.<\/p>\n
I finally got to the door at 9:25PM, just as they were about to close it, and the fireworks started. Everyone around me crushed into the place, but I made the executive decision that, although I was starving, craving the ice cream, and COULD make it through the door, the fireworks were more important because how often am I going to get to see the Macy\u2019s ones in person? And so close-up?<\/p>\n
So, I very reluctantly dropped off the line and stood on the top step of the stoop to watch. The girl next to me, Faith, said she was desperate for ice cream and that she was the first to get shut out. I was telling her my journey there, and that I had to give up the ice cream I had dreamed of since April, when I saw her look behind my back and gasp.<\/p>\n
So, I turned around and saw a cup coming toward me and heard someone say \u201cPeaches and Cream.\u201d It was Jorge, who had gotten inside and surprised me with it!!! I couldn\u2019t believe it! I thanked him profusely and tried to re-imburse him, but he just walked into the night. A truly kind, generous stranger! I said, \u201cA Fourth of July miracle,\u201d and started crying, (as I\u2019m doing now even writing about it.)<\/p>\n
Faith said, \u201cDon\u2019t cry, you\u2019ll get me started, too.\u201d I said she must share my good fortune. At first, she protested, knowing how much I wanted the ice cream, but I insisted. I knew how much she wanted it, too.<\/p>\n
So, we got an extra spoon and happily chowed down. Sharing it made it taste that much better. And I\u2019m a firm believer in paying it forward.<\/p>\n
And one of the managers, named Lahsen, came out, and gave us cards for a discount on our next visit. And he lived up to it, and more, when I returned two days later with my mother. He gave me a taste of the ice cream as it was being made, before it\u2019s frozen. I don\u2019t even love vanilla ice cream, but that is the best substance I’ve ever tasted!<\/p>\n
Later that week, I was perusing a Reader\u2019s Digest of my mother\u2019s. It said New York is the most polite city in the world. I would not have believed it if it weren\u2019t for my true Fourth of July Miracle.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory at Fulton Ferry Landing Pier
\n718-246-3963 <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A RECENT FOURTH OF JULY \u201cMIRACLE\u201d \u00a0 [As the summer is winding down, I want to share with you one of my favorite July memories, from 2006. I got to tell it on my show that summer, and write about it for my Beverly Hills People column, but, for those of you who missed it,<\/p>\n
Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brooklyn_Bridge1.jpg\" "\\"Brooklyn_Bridge\\"")
<\/a>I hadn\u2019t spent a summer in Brooklyn since I was a teen-ager, (I spend parts of the other three seasons there,) so when I wound-up there for 4th<\/sup> of July, I didn\u2019t know for sure, but I was pretty certain that none of my New York friends were fun enough to celebrate. I love them, and they\u2019re fun at other times, but not this holiday.<\/p>\n