What If?
By Cory Bragar, Liz Alexander, Claudine Bitel, and Liz Worthy |
By Cory Bragar, Liz Alexander, Claudine Bitel, and Liz Worthy |
e were all on the verge of a nervous breakdown. We were in college. And it was semester time. The time of year you have wild dreams of becoming a bum on the sandy beaches of the Bahamas or moving to Seattle to start your own grunge band. Much to the relief of our parents, these great plans as of yet have not been followed through with, but we did have one wild and crazy activity we did do: we went to New York City the Saturday before Christmas. The native New Yorkers among us, Liz A. and Cory, had warned us of the mobs of people, the tourists, the mad shoppers that would surround us. But it had to be done. We had thought of it. We had put it on our "to-do" list and as the item above "New York trip" (finish 25-page-term-paper) did not look like it would EVER be crossed off, we decided we could substitute the trip and maybe send that paper-assigning professor a postcard. . . But what would we do once we got there? Christmas shopping? No. We didn't think we even had the endurance left to make shopping lists let alone shop. We decided we needed a mission. Something that would allow us to get to the heart and soul of New York City. Something that would allow us to interact with these mad shoppers, tourists, and native New Yorkers. Bypassing such zany ideas as loading a camera with a roll of 36 and taking pictures of people who looked exactly like us (although having a firm belief that there IS someone out there that looks exactly like you--maybe 2 or 3 or 20 even), we knew that after exams were completely over WE would no longer look like ourselves thus complicating matters. . . Finally, we hit on it. We'd bring along the IF book. If . . .(Questions for the Game of Life) by Evelyn McFarlane and James Saywell. It is a marvelous book filled with thought provoking questions. So that is what we did and here are the replies complete with candid photos. Sadly, none of the people look much like us. To our delight, however, we were all wearing the same smiles when we departed.
Okay, here they are:
Q.If you could cancel one vacation you have taken, lose all memory of it, and get your money back, what vacation would you choose?
Who: Bill, a tie sales guy
Q. If you could arrange for any two singers to record a duet together, which two would you pick, and what song would you have them sing?
Who: Ken, a fine street musician
A. Whitney Houston. Tony Braxton. "We Are The World."
Q. If you had written one song from this century yourself, which would you like to have written?
Who: June, a woman doing her Christmas shopping in the pictured toy store.
Q. If you were allowed to eat only one vegetable for the rest of your life, which one would it be?
Who: a street vendor selling pretzels
Q. If you could eat one food in any quantity for the rest of your life with no ill affects whatsoever, what food would you choose?
Who: Mickey Mouse.
Q. If you had to choose the title of your autobiography, what would it be?
Who: a guy in white convertible blasting Christmas music and slowly driving down the street handing out candy-canes and spreading holiday cheer.
Q. If you had to choose the color that describes you most accurately, which color would it be?
Who: a guy with his family in tow, exhausted from a day of seeing the sites.
Q. If you were to permanently give up sex for one thing other than money, what would you do it for?
Who: Adam from NY, NY.
Q. If you could be one article of clothing, what would you be, and who would you want to belong to?
Who: A toy store security guard.
Q. If you were in New York City the Saturday before Christmas with no obligations, how would you spend it?
Who: Four close friends: Cory Bragar, Liz Alexander, Claudine Bitel, and Liz Worthy
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© Trincoll Journal, 1996.