Saturday, June 13, 2015
Walter will always be for me the glamorous, dashing man who among other gifts, introduced me to Mahler. We used to listen to his Symphony No 6 and No. 9 in D from the Leonard Bernstein – NY Philharmonic record in his place on Riverside Drive in the 1970s. Then with this gloomy music as a soundtrack, we’d walk around his beloved Riverside Park in the winter with its palate of browns and grays. We were both wearing long, old mens’ overcoats, laughing at how beautiful everything was, how funny it was to be sporting these Bowery Bum coats with this austere music in our heads.
We were walking, again, in Riverside Park last September when Walter told me his cancer had come back. I said, “You mean, you’re going to see Big Bob (a college friend who died in ’06) before me? Walter said, “Yeah, me and Bob are going to have a big party up there.”
I’m going to go for a walk in Riverside Park this winter. If I wear an old man’s coat, it won’t be ironic. Thanks for being my friend, Walter.
