Folk Hero #2417

36° Wednesday evening in Bohoken. It’s been an interesting 48 hours. I had done something I had never done before. I was number 45 and an extra on a TV show that was shooting in Lower Manhattan. Bill has done these things a few times and yesterday was my first.

Bill wasn’t doing it yesterday, I was going it alone. Bill’s guidance and suggestions definitely came in handy. At his direction, so to speak, I made some sandwiches because in the holding area, there is a hierarchy to eating lunch, and my class of employee was at the bottom.

There was enough food though. I went to bed early on Monday night, around 10 PM. Bill was on the road as I fell asleep. There was a plan for Bill to get access to the company La Carre, but that fell through. The alarm went off at 3:45 AM and somehow I had the foresight to set a different alarm for 4:00 AM.

I was stumbling around the apartment, showered, had one cup of coffee from the full pot that Bill programmed, and a jelly donut. I put on a charcoal gray pinstriped suit from Ralph Lauren which looks sharp if you don’t look too closely.

I wasn’t sure if I remembered how to tie a tie, but my four-in-hand skill came through to my chagrin. I don’t recall the last time I was up and active at 4 AM, I certainly don’t recall the last time without artificial stimulation.

The Hoboken PATH station is shut down for much-needed repairs for a few weeks. There are scheduled shuttles to nearby stations in Jersey City but they weren’t scheduled to start until the time I was supposed to be at the day’s location on Liberty Street.

That meant I needed to use a rideshare and it was fine. The car was on time and though I usually chat a bit with the driver, it was too early and I hadn’t had enough coffee to engage in conversation. I got out of the car at Exchange Place and descended the elevator and stood on the platform waiting for the next WTC train.

More people than I expected but I really had no clue. And the train was crowded but that didn’t matter since it was only a 10-minute ride from New Jersey to Lower Manhattan. It was still dark out at 5:30, and no one else was on Broadway.

I liked it though I was guessing at where I was supposed to go. I scanned the map online a few times so I had a general idea. I got to the sidewalk of where I was supposed to be but not the entrance of where I was supposed to be.

I lingered and eventually asked a woman by a door and asked her if she was with the show. She wasn’t. She worked construction but pointed me in the direction of where I should go, a security desk down a ramp. I signed in and was sent to the holding area.

There were a handful of people and we were there before the people who were to sign us in for the job. They showed up and I sat at a table which filled up with nice enough people. Some were union, others were non-union like me. I could have gotten some coffee but I didn’t think about it.

To pass the time I pulled out the blank book which was last written, on October 16, 1983. About 2 years after it started. It wasn’t like this here blog, with a near-daily entry. Some friends were made, some friends fell off, and some friends died. My world, while a bit more expanded than the people in the world I was in then, was still quite limited. I was still in the closet to most everyone except the guys I was fooling around with.

I felt like an anachronism putting pen to paper while everyone else was on their phones, tablets, or laptops. I eventually put it away and pulled out my phone. We were called out to a plaza where it was February, cold and damp and a touch windy.

I was set up with a young man from Ukraine, Stepan. He was a good guy, still learning the English language. We got along nicely and did what we were told, which was to stand here and look there. Now do it a few times. Then wait until this or that could be done. Yes, there is a lot of waiting around. I’d like to know what that’s like when the weather is nicer but this was not that.

Still, I got through it. Stepan, a few years younger than me seemed to be in considerable discomfort. The time crawled and we, the people were shuffled around, to holding, to the street, back to holding then back to the street, this time to walk around back and forth so the drone camera could shoot some footage.

That gave my group the name of ‘the drone people’ which came in handy when we were back in holding and spread out among other extras. They could just yell out ‘I need the drone people’ and about a dozen of us would follow their lead.

There was a problem with the herders. They weren’t public speakers and it was difficult to hear them direct or instruct us as a group. I usually followed the people I recognized and followed them.

Lunch appeared and the hierarchy was in place. Union first, crew next, and then the plebes. There was enough for everyone and I held back since I did have a sandwich that Bill suggested I take and I did and I ate it.

Things wound down after that, it was around 2 PM. A few more walking down the street scenes where I made the acquaintance of a gent named Chris who was funny and affable. We had a few laughs and we strolled up and down Liberty Street.

Then it was back in and after a short while, some of us were dismissed. I hoped to see Chris again to say adieu but he was nowhere to be found. I was back on the PATH to Exchange Place. A very nice bus, Van Hool which Bill has driven. I was the only one on the bus besides the driver for about 15 minutes.

Then it was back in Hoboken. I had been up for about 12 hours and not much coffee. The cold and damp did a number on my legs and they felt stiff as I walked home. Then it was four flights up before I was able to relax and decompress.

Bill came home after that, and Mike called eager to hear how the day went. Bill was understanding and knew exactly how the day went on a set. Mike was most attentive. I’ll do it again if asked.

Since I was a businessman type, I wore the suit I wrote about earlier, some shoes and thin socks which generally are fine on cold days provided you have somewhere to go and won’t be outside too long. But no, next time if the climate is anything like yesterday, I’ll wear thicker socks, which won’t be seen on camera anyhow. Lesson learned!

The day before tomorrow

35° on a Monday evening. It’s been quite a day. Had a dream last night or rather this morning that included a guy I hadn’t thought of in about 9 years and I never thought of him sexually but in the dream, it was quite sexual, and surprisingly he played the role of a top.

In the dream, I was quite forward when meeting him. He was not as tall as me in the dream or real life. In retrospect he may have been a mash-up between 2 men that I worked with, both from the financial worlds, Wanker Bankers or Putnam Lovell NBF or the Algerians from Alger Mgmt.

In any event, I did try to make this guy happy and he seemed indifferent. Then once again I found myself thinking of Bratty McGrotty and that spoiled whatever good feeling I might have had and flipped the script to depression and disdain. Yes, I am still reeling from my dismissal on November 4.

I really have to get over it. I discussed it with Bill and he was bothered by the fact that I never sent the email to the Department of Labor, OSHA, or Leticia James. It’s still in the outbox and could be sent at any time.

I did hear from a group that I had been in contact with for the past couple of weeks. They express interest, I reply in kind and then they say ‘Forget about it’ It’s a pas de deux we’ve been doing for a while now.

Well, today they said they were interested and it went further than it has gone before. And it all seems to be set up. I cannot say anything more about it not but you, dear reader of this here blog will eventually find out.

It may involve a lot of waiting around and I intended to buy a notebook to write notes in but did not when I had gone to the supermarket. So I found a blank book that I was given in 1981, 44 years ago. I just checked and the first entry was from the first night of driving across the country with Perry Dedovitch.

We stayed at a KOA but skipped out before paying. Not out of malice but more of not knowing what to do. I wrote about my dislike of corn since we had seen quite a lot of corn fields not knowing how many hundreds of miles we would be seeing.

My memory outside of my written word was hearing Billy Squire’s ‘The Stroke’. Since I have to get up crazy early tomorrow, that means I will be going to sleep crazy early tonight. The body clock gets thrown out the window. The things I do for a buck.

I am of course, anxious. It’s my first time and I want to get everything right. Bill has been down this road before and has been most helpful, guiding me through the signposts and also blocking my access to the ledge.