JEANNE BRAGG, Post Columnist
Posted: Sunday, October 18, 2009 7:30 am

I am visiting my grandchild in New York City as I type.

Today as Tommy and I were riding the bus to see Monet's Water Garden
Exhibit, I said: "Oops ... I have a column due today. I haven't even thought about it."

I decided to write about New York City again. I LOVE writing about New
York City, and surprisingly it's the subject about which I receive the most favorable comments.

Before saying, "Buy local," I do buy local. I buy little here. But there are things to do and visit here like nowhere else in the world: the Metropolitan Museum, the Garment District (I sew), Times Square and half-price tickets to national theaters. It's unlike anywhere else I've been and I savor it when I'm lucky enough to be here.

My New York daughter Anne would probably love to live close to her family, but her husband has survived three cuts in the financial industry in four years and he still has a job. Anyone who still has a job has been blessed.

Anne and family recently moved from Midtown to the Upper West Side.
Now there's a grocery store two blocks away with almost Tennessee prices. She e-mailed me to say they have Pillsbury refrigerated Pizza Crust (made in the Boro?), Jimmy Dean sausage and cream cheese for $1.79 for 8 ounces. The last cream cheese we bought in midtown was $4 or so. I'm still reeling.

A Whole Foods Store just opened three blocks away. Anne can take baby Jeanne in a stroller and meets other moms in the baby-food section. She can have groceries delivered from another vendor if she calls a day in advance. Although expensive (in my opinion), the quality of delivery is superb. She can have sushi, pizza, Mexican food and even a bottle of wine delivered with no service charge. The convenience trumps the pricing in many ways.

In the west 90's we have been lucky enough to park our car on the streets. In Midtown, the only option was a ($$$$) garage.

As visitors, Mom and Dad have to take the bus a lot farther to get to their favorite haunts: Mom's, the garment district, Dad's, the tourist haunts. Dad loves celebrity sightings.

The move has been an adjustment. But Central, Riverside, and Morningside Parks are nearby for them. They moved to the Upper West Side because it's better for a family. But it's also difficult to take a baby everywhere you go. All mothers have that issue, in a city or not, but it seems particularly daunting here.

If Anne wants to do laundry, she has to put the baby in a harness, put dirty clothes in the baby stroller (for carting) or lug three laundry baskets to the basement. She then goes down the elevator and walks 10 steps to get to the laundry room. Repeat the procedure again to put wet clothes in a dryer: ditto once again when they're dry.

If she visits the pediatrician, she has to dress Jeanne for the weather (hopes it's not raining) and get gear all mothers pack for outings. But instead of dumping gear in the car (and leaving what she doesn't need inside) she transports everything on the bus, in a cab or on the subway. Ditto on the way home.

I carried baby Jeanne in a harness while we shopped for apartment gear. A 20-pound baby gets very heavy after about two hours. You mothers know.

Tomorrow we'll be leaving.

We'll say goodbye, share hugs, share some tears and take lots of
photos. I'll make notes of things to mail (Ro-Tel, Bisquick and Chili
Mix), and Anne will pretend she's not homesick.

I'll pretend like it's okay to leave.

But I think we'll both be praying a silent prayer that the time will come soon when they're really Southern children yet again.

'Til next week.