X-New York Gal

posted by Evi on Nov 15

I’m not sure exactly how I found my way to the office since I wasn’t very familiar with the city, having been there only a few times with friends. My guess is that I met Mr. H. on the train and we rode in together.

My first position with GAB was receptionist which entailed phones, filing and more phones. The office was one moderate sized room with the insurance adjusters – all men – on one side and us gals on the other. At 18, or I could have been 19, I was very shy and wore braces on my teeth. My self-esteem wasn’t exactly up there with the rest of the world. I was pretty quiet and afraid of my own shadow, let alone all these people I had to deal with, but that changed pretty quickly. Working with all these men turned out to be great fun and my self-esteem began to soar. Too much so. I found out I was actually cute – braces and all – and all the guys liked kidding around with me.

I also found out that if you timed your lunch so that you got to the elevator when one of the guys was waiting for one, the chances of being treated to a meal were pretty good. Back in those days the guys always paid.

I even made friends with the women in the office. I guess they were more charitable than I, because every time a new young thing was hired, I started off by hating and snubbing her. Eventually though, we’d become friendly.

Much later on, I found out that there had been a bet going around the office when I first started working there as to how long I would last. Because I was so shy when I started, no one thought I’d be able to take all the joking.

The office was in the Fisk Building at 250 W. 57^th Street and a Chinese Restaurant – The Yangtze River – was located on the ground floor. This eventually became an after-work meeting place. A group of us would hang out at the bar for awhile and many a time my mother would be pissed off at me because I got home late, feeling no pain.

But my time at the GAB was the most fun I had at any job. Unfortunately I left there and took another job, this time in downtown Manhattan. But that’s another story for another day.

The last time I made a trip to NYC, maybe 10 years ago, the whole area had changed. The Yangtze River was gone and a store – I’m not sure if it was The Gap – had taken over.

But at least I still have my memories to fall back on. And every once in a while I’ll visit them again in this blog.