History of the City of New York - Field Trip 10

Jack Finney "Time and Again" Tour

The "Time and Again" Tour was quite an interesting experience. It was led by Dr. Phil and we met at the famous Dakota apartments, the place where Simon Morley transported himself back in time and also the home of many celebrities, including John Lennon and Yoko Ono. After learning a bit about the history of one of the earliest apartment-style buildings for the wealthy, we then trekked to Strawberry Fields in Central Park. Coincidentally, it was also (I believe) John Lennon's birthday, so there was a small gathering of fans there to commemorate the deceased singer. After looking at Bethesda Fountain, we hopped on a bus on Fifth Avenue and hit the original Madison Square and Gramercy Park.

However, one thing I would like to note is that between these stops, Dr. Phil led us into a SUBWAY (as in sandwiches) to get a feel for the ambience of the era by looking at the pictures on the walls. The tour then came to an end at the infamous "House that Tweed Built" (NY County Courthouse). All in all, it was a little difficult for me to believe the truthfulness of Dr. Phil's knowledge of late nineteenth century New York due to the fact that his synopsis of the novel was filled with grammatical errors and inconsistencies in the action of the plot (for example, he mixed up the names of the characters). This was a glaring contradiction with his statement at the beginning of the tour that he had read and reread Jack Finney's works religiously (I think twice a year or more) which further undermined my confidence in him. Honestly, this was not the experience that I had been hoping for and I was disappointed that Dr. Phil did not talk more about the book and its relevance with each location.

by Hae Won Yun

The Dakota c.1905-1915		Bethesda Fountain c.1901

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