Bayside station’s accessibility is with ramps, not elevators, eliminating a maintenance headache.
WHERE: Crocheron Park, Bayside, Queens
START/FINISH: Bayside station, Long Island Rail Road (Port Washington Branch, fully accessible)
DISTANCE: 1.9 miles (3.1 kilometers)
Photographs by Michael Cairl and Jordan Centeno. Map courtesy Google Maps.
I advertised this trip as a walk along the Joe Michaels Mile foot and bike path along Little Neck Bay to Fort Totten in eastern Queens. My friend Jordan and I set out from the Bayside train station along Bell Boulevard, Bayside’s commercial spine and restaurant row, to Crocheron Park, from which we would take the footbridge over the Cross Island Parkway to the foot path. I didn’t know beforehand that the footbridge was accessible only from within the park. At the end of 35 Avenue there is a steep staircase without handrails up into the park. I remembered that we had passed a shallower set of steps, also without handrails, so we backtracked to and climbed those.
A short distance from the top of the stairs I stumbled on some uneven pavement and fell on my left side, right onto my metal water bottle (it wasn’t hurt), giving me some bruised ribs and “road rash” on my left hand. When I was able to get up, Jordan and a passerby helped me up and onto a nearby bench, and Jordan cleaned up my road rash. Slowly we made our way out of the park to Bell Boulevard and the local bus to a lunch of some great Greek food at Taverna Kyklades.
Map of this walk. X marks the approximate spot where I fell.
I’m glad I didn’t do this walk by myself. It’s more fun to go on these treks around the city with someone, and I could not have got up by myself after falling. Some takeaways from this walk:
I’m grateful for everyone who has ever joined me on a walk.
Since I’m more likely to fall on my weaker left side, wear my water bottle sling on my right side.
I need to be ever mindful of where I walk, going at a safe pace and remembering to lift my feet.
Parks Department, add handrails to those stairways.
Early on in stroke recovery I realized that every day was not going to be better than the day before, so I had to focus on the trend, not fret over the day-to-day, and take my positives when I can. That perspective is just as valid today as it was then.
On our way to Crocheron Park we passed Corporal Stone Street and a street co-named for Geri Cilmi. Wondering who these people are or were, I had to look them up. From a contributor to Kevin Walsh’s great website Forgotten NY (https://forgotten-ny.com/2008/06/bayside-part-1-queens/):
Charles B. Stone was killed on the front lines in France on October 30, 1918. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He was my father’s uncle. His mother, Augusta Wheeler Stone, and sister, Marion Stone, lived in Bayside. Augusta Stone was a long-time member of the Altar Guild at All Saints Episcopal Church in Bayside. My father, Charles Edmund Wolcott, was the son of Marion, Charles B. Stone’s sister, and Edmund Wolcott.
I think Charles B. Stone was employed as a courier on Wall Street before enlisting in the Army and was a Junior Member of the Bayside Yacht Club. He was only about 20 years old when killed.
Geri Cilmi was a longtime science teacher at Public School 41 and seems to have been a remarkable person I wish I had known. A story about her is at https://qns.com/2014/06/street-to-be-co-named-for-bayside-teacher-who-died-from-cancer/. From that post: “Former P.S. 41 science teacher Geri Cilmi’s motto to her students in the Bayside school was ‘You get what you get, and you don’t get upset.’”
One day soon my ribs won’t hurt and I’ll be back exploring the city, chastened and slowed down a bit. I often forget that stumbling and falling is part of my journey in recovery and in life. I might not like this but I’m allowed to stumble and fall. Onward!