Last month I had to be in the NYC office so I did something a bit daring: I took Da Chimpz with me for some road-tripping and sight-seeing. I did have a full day of work to complete, but we did get some time to walk around Manhattan. I was impressed to hear them say they wanted to see the things they've heard Alane and me talk about over the years: WTC, Katz's Deli, and... Morgam postal facility?

Actually, we went to the West Side to walk a bit of the old High Line, now transformed into a pedestrian walkway. It was very cool, as cool as it looked on the documentary we'd seen about it. We walked north to where the walkway ends and the abandoned railway el continues -- further north along the main line and east along the short spur that used to connect that main line to the USPS.

We stopped there and I reminded the boys of what they'd heard from Grandpa Vito -- about how his father Giuseppe used to unload mail off those trains, first as a Post Office employee and then as a worker for the Central System.

These days the derelict structure no longer connects to Morgan, and the opening where trains used to pass has long been bricked up. It wasn't the typical family memory one hands down across the generations, but this wasn't the typical summer vacation.

It occurred to me that most fathers take their sons out camping to share with them knowledge of the woods. Instead I took my boys to the big city and shared some glimpses of their roots.

And fed them pastrami. That part they'll remember.