Chapter 7
It was summer in the city and the lightness of spring was traded away for heavy, unfriendly air. Automobiles overheated. Crowded city dwellers had shorter tempers than usual while gentlemen and gentle ladies dabbed at perspiring foreheads with monogrammed handkerchiefs. The young soldiers who looked like boys playing dress-up in their fathers’ fatigues looked flushed as they did their sightseeing along the Manhattan streets. Even the pigeons were weighted down with humidity. Hats drooped, pompadours drooped, clothing, too tight to allow the wearers to breathe comfortably, drooped. Many sought relief in boxy bathing suits along the seashore, at amusement parks like Coney Island, under the blooming trees at Central Park, or by leaving the city altogether. Many ignored the tangible
