299. I WENT TO HAVERSTRAW

I WENT TO HAVERSTRAW
...Where I stayed two weeks in the old Cedar Hotel,
overlooking the concrete ships in the Hudson - those
leftover transport-hulks from World War Two. The
story that crazy guy told me in the hotel lobby : they used to
fill them up and send them down the Hudson to New York
Harbor but no one ever knew why. All the locals scratched
their heads - concrete ships with concrete hulls. Who's
ever heard of such a thing? It worked for a while, and then -
for whatever reason - the idea was abandoned, and the ships
were just left in river. They became quite the attraction.
Kids played in them whenever they could. The town
finally had to make them off-limits.
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That was when I was living alone.
The small windows had curtains which
blew in the breeze. I always left them open
to catch the river-air. It was a nice, Springtime thing
to do. One day a bird flew in. It stayed. For a few
days I had a 'guest' I actually enjoyed.
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Who'd ever heard of such thing?