I just got back from the Mets-Cardinals game at Citi Field. Not surprisingly the Mets lost, 8-2.

Earlier today I received an email from my good friend Susan in Oklahoma with a link to some recently found video of New York City life in 1939. This was an important year in the city’s history. For starters, the World’s Fair began that April. I always think about that when going to Citi Field/Shea Stadium because the fair took place in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, located at the same subway station for what is now the ballpark. (The 1964 World’s Fair was held there as well.) April 1939 was the same month Lou Gehrig retired from the Yankees; three months later he made his “luckiest man on the face of the earth” speech on the Fourth of July. That September Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland, increasing tension in the city, though as you will see life as always has a way of going on. My favorite part of the video is the footage of the elevated subway lines (now gone in Manhattan) and the line of passenger cruise ships along the Hudson (gone as well) seen from atop Rockefeller Center. Still, much remains as it did seventy-four years ago. Alas I could not embed the video so check it out here. It is all of three minutes.

And Susan, we have not forgotten about visiting Oklahoma, and when we do we expect to be given the grand tour of the CIvil War sites. So start brushing up.