City Sidewalks (Encore)

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Speaker 1 Welcome to bedtime stories for everyone

Speaker 1 in which

Speaker 1 nothing much happens.

Speaker 1 You feel good

Speaker 1 and then

Speaker 1 you fall asleep.

Speaker 1 I'm Catherine Nikolai.

Speaker 1 I write and read

Speaker 1 all the stories you hear on Nothing Much Happens.

Speaker 1 Audio Engineering is by Bob Wittercheim.

Speaker 1 We are bringing you an encore episode tonight, meaning that this story originally aired at some point in the past. It could have been recorded with different equipment in a different location.

Speaker 1 And since I'm a person and not a computer, I sometimes sound just slightly different.

Speaker 1 But the stories are always soothing and family friendly. And our wishes for you are always deep rest and sweet dreams.

Speaker 1 Now let me say a bit about how to use this podcast.

Speaker 1 Especially at night, your mind can spin and spiral with thoughts,

Speaker 1 and you need a way to lift the needle off the record

Speaker 1 to find some stillness and peace.

Speaker 1 And that's what the story is for.

Speaker 1 I'll read it twice, and I'll go a little slower the second time through.

Speaker 1 Just follow along with the sound of my voice and the simple shape of the tale.

Speaker 1 And before you know it, you'll be waking up tomorrow, feeling rested and refreshed.

Speaker 1 This is brain training. With practice, we're creating a reliable and automatic response in your nervous system.

Speaker 1 And all of that means that over time, you'll fall asleep faster and return to sleep more easily.

Speaker 1 Our story tonight is called City Sidewalks.

Speaker 1 It's a story about an evening looking into shop windows filled with holiday displays.

Speaker 1 It's also about miracles made in gingerbread,

Speaker 1 realizing when something is good,

Speaker 1 and the hushed excitement in a theater as the movie is about to begin.

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 switch off your light.

Speaker 1 Set down anything you've been looking at.

Speaker 1 Snuggle down into your sheets and pull your comforter over your shoulder.

Speaker 1 You are safe.

Speaker 1 There's nothing you need to remember or stay on top of.

Speaker 1 You can let everything go.

Speaker 1 I'm watching over.

Speaker 1 Take a slow, deep breath in through the nose

Speaker 1 and let it out through your mouth.

Speaker 1 Again, breathe in

Speaker 1 out with sound.

Speaker 1 Good.

Speaker 1 City Sidewalks.

Speaker 1 I'd seen it up on the Theatre Marquis the week before.

Speaker 1 I'd been coming out of the candy shop across the street

Speaker 1 with a bag full of peppermint starlights,

Speaker 1 and as I stopped to wrap my scarf twice around my neck,

Speaker 1 I saw on the sidewalk opposite a bundled-up person with a telescoping pole,

Speaker 1 carefully placing letters up onto the wrap-around marquee.

Speaker 1 Letters that spelled out the name of an old favorite Christmas movie.

Speaker 1 It was in black and white, with a cast of elegant Hollywood stars,

Speaker 1 and I remembered watching it as a child every year with my family, like clockwork.

Speaker 1 Back then,

Speaker 1 we rarely had a cabinet full of movies to watch,

Speaker 1 and I would scour the paper to see when it would air, and mark it down on the calendar pinned to the back of the basement door.

Speaker 1 Specials then

Speaker 1 were truly special,

Speaker 1 and now I could watch it up on the big screen.

Speaker 1 I stood,

Speaker 1 smiling up at the letters as they were slid into place,

Speaker 1 and took a peppermint from the bag

Speaker 1 and unwrapped it from the cellophane.

Speaker 1 I placed the red and white swirl of candy on my tongue,

Speaker 1 and pulled my hat a little lower over my ears.

Speaker 1 I loved the feel of the cold air around me,

Speaker 1 the clean smell of the snow piled around tree trunks and letter boxes,

Speaker 1 and the sweet, minty taste of the treat.

Speaker 1 That day I made a plan

Speaker 1 to pull together a few friends

Speaker 1 and make a date for a night at the movies.

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 tonight was that night.

Speaker 1 We'd met up by the city tree in the park.

Speaker 1 It must have been thirty feet tall and was strung with big, old-fashioned bulbs in red, green, blue, and orange.

Speaker 1 We had an hour till the movie started, and we decided to take a slow walk through the park and down the few streets of our little city.

Speaker 1 The trees around the pond were all strung with lights,

Speaker 1 and the street lamps were tied with huge red bows.

Speaker 1 We saw a line of kids and parents, their mittened hands clasped clasped and swinging between them, waiting to step into a tiny house on the edge of the park.

Speaker 1 It had a banner strung between the street lamps above,

Speaker 1 declaring that Santa was in residence this evening.

Speaker 1 We stopped at a street cart

Speaker 1 and bought cups of cocoa and coffee.

Speaker 1 The store fronts were lit up and decorated for the season,

Speaker 1 and we took our time going from one to the next to catch every detail.

Speaker 1 At the bookshop, they'd built a Christmas tree by stacking books flat on top of one another

Speaker 1 in a slow spiral as they rose.

Speaker 1 Their spines turned out to entice you with all the stories yet to be read,

Speaker 1 and wrapped in white lights.

Speaker 1 They'd also cut snowflakes from pages of old books, the paper an antique yellow, covered with sentences disappearing into the symmetrical designs.

Speaker 1 The record shop window had a display of players, starting with an old gramophone with a beautiful brass horn that was so shiny it might have been brand new.

Speaker 1 Laid out out beside it was a timeline of the evolution of this machine, from phonograph to record player

Speaker 1 to the most modern turntable.

Speaker 1 In fact, the newest ones seemed to tip their hats to the older ones with small details in their designs.

Speaker 1 And around all of them, records were carefully scattered or strung from wire hanging from the ceiling,

Speaker 1 calling back to moments and memories along the way.

Speaker 1 We spotted a record we'd all owned in high school,

Speaker 1 and I was sure one of the players,

Speaker 1 one that closed up and could be carried like a suitcase, was the same one my mother had when she was young.

Speaker 1 She'd passed it to me, and from from time to time I opened it up

Speaker 1 and played the forty-five s tucked into the case's pocket.

Speaker 1 She'd written her initials on the labels as a young person to keep her siblings from swiping her favorites.

Speaker 1 And the pencil marks were still there.

Speaker 1 We sipped our drinks and walked on.

Speaker 1 The cafe on the corner was doing steady business,

Speaker 1 the booths all full as people raised glasses to toast

Speaker 1 and pointed out favorites on the menu.

Speaker 1 I watched a group at a table as a cake covered in lit candles was set in front of a blushing but smiling teenager.

Speaker 1 Their windows were ringed in twinkle lights,

Speaker 1 and each held a shining menorah with six candles burning.

Speaker 1 The toy shop had gone all out,

Speaker 1 building a display with a fireplace, set in a fictional living room.

Speaker 1 There were a dozen little ones crowded around it to look at its tall Christmas tree, with piles of wrapt presents all around.

Speaker 1 There was even a plate of cookie crumbs, and a glass of mostly drunk milk, and the heel of a shiny boot just visible inside the fireplace, as St. Nick slipped up the chimney.

Speaker 1 As we stood behind them, I found myself looking not at the display, but

Speaker 1 at their faces reflected in the shop windows.

Speaker 1 Some were pointing, pressing fingers to the glass to call out some hoped-for item,

Speaker 1 And some were silent,

Speaker 1 their eyes wide and moving slowly over the scene.

Speaker 1 I remembered a moment like this from my own childhood.

Speaker 1 It hadn't been the idea of so many gifts that had left me in awe.

Speaker 1 It had been seeing a world built into a window,

Speaker 1 a daydream made real,

Speaker 1 that made me stop in my snow boots and stare.

Speaker 1 If we can make dreams real,

Speaker 1 why don't we?

Speaker 1 Why save it for a window or a week?

Speaker 1 I must have gotten lost in my memories there for a while,

Speaker 1 and found an arm threading itself through my elbow,

Speaker 1 and a friend pulling me on down the street.

Speaker 1 At the bakery the front window was filled with gingerbread houses,

Speaker 1 and as I looked at them I realized they were, in fact, a replica of the street we were standing on.

Speaker 1 There was the bookshop,

Speaker 1 with its tree made of tiny biscuit books.

Speaker 1 There was the window of the record shop,

Speaker 1 and an intricately iced row of minuscule record players.

Speaker 1 The cafe held tables full of gingerbread customers

Speaker 1 and a matching menorah carefully showing six candles.

Speaker 1 The toy shop replica must have taken ages and a team of people to pull off with so many details to pipe into place.

Speaker 1 Snowy white icing pooled on the gingerbread sidewalk, and my eyes followed it down to the last stop in the row of confections,

Speaker 1 the movie theater.

Speaker 1 We all spotted it at the same time,

Speaker 1 and I looked at my watch to see we had just a few minutes till the movie started.

Speaker 1 Run, run, run, Rudolph, I called out to my friends, as we linked arms and hurried down to the theater.

Speaker 1 Minutes later, we were settling into our seats, sharing popcorn and peppermints back and forth,

Speaker 1 and waiting for the lights to go down.

Speaker 1 In the crowd around us, I spotted a few people with Santa hats, and had a feeling most of us could recite this movie line by line as we watched.

Speaker 1 Our faces shining just like those of the kids looking into the toe shop window.

Speaker 1 I realized I was in that moment doing something I truly loved.

Speaker 1 And I'd built a habit over the years

Speaker 1 that when I caught myself in an instance of pure happiness,

Speaker 1 I'd take a slow, deliberate breath,

Speaker 1 and be sure to be in my body,

Speaker 1 feeling the tingle of my own merriment,

Speaker 1 to plug into my senses and soak up every drop of the experience.

Speaker 1 When good things happen, it's important,

Speaker 1 even in small, simple ways,

Speaker 1 to notice them with our whole hearts.

Speaker 1 As the theater lights dimmed, my friend leaned across to me, stealing a piece of popcorn and whispering in my ear,

Speaker 1 Is this the one where Carrie Grant ice skates, skates?

Speaker 1 Or the one with Suzu's petals?

Speaker 1 Zuzu's petals, I whispered back,

Speaker 1 and we smiled up at the screen.

Speaker 1 City Sidewalks

Speaker 1 I'd seen it up on the Theater Marquis the week before.

Speaker 1 I'd been coming out of the candy shop across the street with a a bag full of peppermint starlights

Speaker 1 and as I stopped to wrap my scarf twice around my neck

Speaker 1 I saw on the sidewalk opposite

Speaker 1 a bundled-up person

Speaker 1 with a telescoping pole

Speaker 1 carefully placing letters up on to the wrap-around marquee

Speaker 1 letters that spelled out the name of an old favorite Christmas movie.

Speaker 1 It was in black and white, with a cast of elegant Hollywood stars,

Speaker 1 and I remembered watching it as a child

Speaker 1 every year with my family,

Speaker 1 like clockwork.

Speaker 1 Back then,

Speaker 1 we rarely had a cabinet full of movies to watch,

Speaker 1 and I would scour the paper to see when it would air,

Speaker 1 and mark it down on the calendar,

Speaker 1 pinned to the back of the basement door.

Speaker 1 Specials then

Speaker 1 were truly special.

Speaker 1 But now

Speaker 1 I could watch it up on the big screen.

Speaker 1 I stood, smiling at the letters as they were slid into place.

Speaker 1 I took a peppermint from the bag

Speaker 1 and unwrapped it from the cellophane.

Speaker 1 I placed the red and white swirl of candy on my tongue,

Speaker 1 and pulled my hat a little lower over my ears.

Speaker 1 I loved the feel of the cold air around me,

Speaker 1 the clean smell of the snow piled around tree trunks and letter boxes,

Speaker 1 and the sweet, minty taste of the treat.

Speaker 1 That day I made a plan

Speaker 1 to pull together a few friends

Speaker 1 and make a date for a night at the movies.

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 tonight was that night.

Speaker 1 We'd met up by the city

Speaker 1 in the park.

Speaker 1 It must have been thirty feet tall,

Speaker 1 and was strung with big, old fashioned bulbs in red, green, blue, and orange.

Speaker 1 We had an hour till the movie started,

Speaker 1 and we decided to take a slow walk through the park

Speaker 1 and down the few streets of our little city.

Speaker 1 The trees around the pond were all strung with lights,

Speaker 1 and the street lamps were tied with huge red bows.

Speaker 1 We saw a line of kids and parents,

Speaker 1 their mittened hands clasped and swinging between them,

Speaker 1 waiting to step into a tiny house on the edge of the park.

Speaker 1 It had a banner strung between the street lamps above it,

Speaker 1 declaring that Santa was in residence this evening.

Speaker 1 We stopped at a street cart

Speaker 1 and bought cups of cocoa and coffee.

Speaker 1 The storefronts were lit up and decorated for the season,

Speaker 1 and we took our time going from one to the next

Speaker 1 to catch every detail.

Speaker 1 At the bookshop,

Speaker 1 they'd built a Christmas tree by stacking books flat on top of one another

Speaker 1 in a slow spiral as they rose,

Speaker 1 their spines turned out to entice you

Speaker 1 with all the stories yet to be read

Speaker 1 and wrapped in white lights.

Speaker 1 They'd also cut snowflakes from pages of old books,

Speaker 1 the paper an antique yellow covered with sentences, disappearing into the symmetrical designs.

Speaker 1 The record shop window had a display of players,

Speaker 1 starting with an old gramophone,

Speaker 1 with a beautiful brass horn

Speaker 1 that was so shiny it might have been brand new.

Speaker 1 Laid out beside it was a timeline of the evolution of this machine,

Speaker 1 from phonograph to record player,

Speaker 1 to the most modern turntable.

Speaker 1 In fact, the newest ones seemed to tip their hats to the older ones,

Speaker 1 with small details in their designs,

Speaker 1 and around all of them,

Speaker 1 records were carefully scattered,

Speaker 1 or strung from wire hanging from the ceiling,

Speaker 1 calling back to moments and memories along the way.

Speaker 1 We spotted a record we'd all owned in high school,

Speaker 1 and I was sure one of the players

Speaker 1 one that closed up and could be carried like a suitcase

Speaker 1 was the same one my mother had when she was young

Speaker 1 She'd passed it to me

Speaker 1 and from time to time

Speaker 1 I opened it up

Speaker 1 and played the forty fives

Speaker 1 tucked into the case's pocket.

Speaker 1 She'd written her initials onto the labels as a young person

Speaker 1 to keep her siblings from swiping her favorites,

Speaker 1 and the pencil marks were still there.

Speaker 1 We sipped our drinks and walked on.

Speaker 1 The cafe on the corner was doing steady business,

Speaker 1 the booths all full as people raised glasses to toast

Speaker 1 and pointed out favorites on the menu.

Speaker 1 I watched a group at a table as a cake, covered in lit candles,

Speaker 1 was set in front of a blushing

Speaker 1 but smiling teenager.

Speaker 1 Their windows were ringed in twinkle lights,

Speaker 1 and each held a shining menorah,

Speaker 1 with six candles burning.

Speaker 1 The toy shop had gone all out,

Speaker 1 building a display with a fireplace,

Speaker 1 set in a fictional living room.

Speaker 1 There were a dozen little ones crowded around it to look at its tall Christmas tree

Speaker 1 with piles of wrapped presents all around.

Speaker 1 There was even a plate of cookie crumbs, and a glass of mostly drunk milk,

Speaker 1 and the heel of a shiny boot just visible inside the fireplace,

Speaker 1 as Saint Nick slipped up the chimney.

Speaker 1 As we stood behind them,

Speaker 1 I found myself looking

Speaker 1 not at the display,

Speaker 1 but at their faces reflected in the shop windows.

Speaker 1 Some were pointing,

Speaker 1 pressing fingers to the glass

Speaker 1 to call out some hoped-for item.

Speaker 1 And some were silent,

Speaker 1 their eyes wide and moving slowly over the scene.

Speaker 1 I remembered a moment like this from my own childhood.

Speaker 1 It hadn't been the idea

Speaker 1 of so many gifts that had left me in awe.

Speaker 1 It had been seeing a world

Speaker 1 built into a window,

Speaker 1 a daydream made real,

Speaker 1 that had made me stop in my snow boots and stare.

Speaker 1 If we can make dreams real,

Speaker 1 why don't we?

Speaker 1 Why save it for a window or a week?

Speaker 1 I must have gotten lost in my memories there for a while,

Speaker 1 And found an arm threading itself through my elbow,

Speaker 1 And a friend pulling me on on down the street.

Speaker 1 At the bakery, the front window was filled with gingerbread houses,

Speaker 1 and as I looked at them,

Speaker 1 I realized they were, in fact, a replica of the street we were standing on.

Speaker 1 There was the bookshop, with its tree made of tiny biscuit books,

Speaker 1 and there was the window of the record shop

Speaker 1 and an intricately iced row of minuscule record players.

Speaker 1 The cafe held tables full of gingerbread customers,

Speaker 1 and a matching menorah carefully showing six candles.

Speaker 1 The toy shop replica must have taken ages

Speaker 1 and a team of people to pull off

Speaker 1 with so many details to pipe into place.

Speaker 1 Snowy white royal icing pooled on the gingerbread sidewalk,

Speaker 1 and my eyes followed it down

Speaker 1 to the last stop

Speaker 1 in the row of confections,

Speaker 1 the movie theater.

Speaker 1 We all spotted it at the same time,

Speaker 1 and I looked at my watch

Speaker 1 to see we just had a few minutes till the movie started.

Speaker 1 Run, run, Rudolph, I called out to my friends

Speaker 1 as we linked arms

Speaker 1 and hurried down to the theater.

Speaker 1 Minutes later, we were settling into our seats,

Speaker 1 sharing popcorn and peppermints back and forth,

Speaker 1 and waiting for the lights to go down.

Speaker 1 In the crowd around us,

Speaker 1 I spotted a few people with Santa hats,

Speaker 1 and had a feeling most of us could recite this movie line by line as we watched,

Speaker 1 our faces shining,

Speaker 1 just like those of the kids

Speaker 1 looking into the toy shop window,

Speaker 1 I realized I was

Speaker 1 in that moment

Speaker 1 doing something I truly loved.

Speaker 1 And I'd built a habit over the years

Speaker 1 that when I caught myself

Speaker 1 in an instance of pure happiness.

Speaker 1 I'd take a slow, deliberate breath

Speaker 1 and be sure to be in my body,

Speaker 1 feeling the tingle

Speaker 1 of my own merriment.

Speaker 1 I'd plug into my senses

Speaker 1 and soak up every drop of the experience.

Speaker 1 When good things happen,

Speaker 1 it's important,

Speaker 1 even in small, simple ways,

Speaker 1 to notice them with our whole hearts.

Speaker 1 As the theater lights dimmed,

Speaker 1 my friend leaned across to me,

Speaker 1 stealing a piece of popcorn

Speaker 1 and whispering into my ear,

Speaker 1 Is this the one where Carrie Grant ice skates,

Speaker 1 or the one with Suzu's petals?

Speaker 1 Zuzu's petals, I whispered back,

Speaker 1 and we smiled up at the screen.

Speaker 1 sweet dreams