Just Whistle While You Work

Flor
Caracas, Venezuela
reveler

It’s a given that New York City moves at breakneck speeds, hence the term, “New York minute.” People are always rushing: commuters dash madly to slip past through the closing doors of the subway, pedestrians sprint wildly to make it to the next side of the street even when the walk sign is flashing red, and bike messengers zap through the narrowest gaps between taxi cabs and delivery trucks. For a city that’s known to never really sleep, New York functions at its own maddening pace unparalleled in any other city in the world.

Yet, amidst this crazy hustle and bustle, there is a certain New Yorker who stays calm and collected in the face of New York minutes. Her placidity with the way she works, even in the most extreme of weather conditions, has made Flor the local newspaper vendor favorite of hasty New Yorkers speeding through Madison Square Garden. They adore her so much, they actually take a few seconds’ pause out of their automatic routine to pick up their daily paper, smile and say a word of ‘hello’ or two.

So what’s Flor’s secret to garnering the admiration and love of these snappy denizens? There’s a lot, actually, but her biggest advantage would have to be the catchy theme song she composed, her trademark jingle that’s known to have made an entire block of passersby surrounding her newspaper stand sing along to the jolly tune with her several times already.

Flor has been a mainstay on the corner of Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street for the last 7 years, a familiar sight and sound to commuters rushing to Penn Station inside the massive Madison Square Garden. She arrives at her newspaper stand approximately a few minutes before 1 pm each day and stands there until she closes shop eight hours later. Her equally energetic daughter, Carolina arrives a couple of hours after, to help her mom hand out the papers especially during the late afternoon rush hour.

As soon as Flor croons to her trademark jingle of New York Post and the New York Times…Daily News! her loyal customers flock to her stand and pick up a copy of the day’s periodicals, with Flor calling each one of them by the moniker she has devised for them. Her personal favorites are “Sexy Legs” (for a very svelte lady business executive who is among Flor’s biggest fans), “Beautiful Eyes”, “Sexy #1,” “Sexy #2,” and the best one of all, “Mr. Papi Chulo.” For non-regular customers and the general clients, Flor addresses them “Mister” and “Miss,” but not without a smile on her lips and a twinkle in her eyes, of course.

To reciprocate her pleasing disposition in handing them their daily serving of news, Flor’s customers have taken to calling her all sorts of terms of endearment – “Sweetie,” “Mami,” “Miss Lady,” and the most appropriate one of all – “The Singing Newspaper Lady.” Carolina explains that at their house, there is a large shelf that holds all of the gifts, cards, and souvenirs Flor has received from her beloved customers all over the years which she treasures dearly.

On this sweltering Friday afternoon, Flor is radiant with a huge grin on her face as she turns to her daughter and remarks something fervently. Carolina nods her head, a smile also spreading on her lips. She then translates her mother’s words, “I love this place and this location so much that I feel only GOD would take me away from this spot. I love my customers so much and I enjoy my job a lot that I do my best to do it with much originality and kindness and love that come from my heart. I want if ever I am to die my ashes should be spread around this area. You see, if you just learn to appreciate and enjoy what you do, and it could be something really simple or something really big, you will never call it ‘work.’ “

A short while after, a family of four arrives with a little boy and a little girl rushing up to Flor and wrapping her up with their tiny arms in a tight embrace. The late afternoon rush hour is coming to an end, yet hundreds of straphangers still zip by, with a few of them stopping by Flor’s stand to pick up their paper. One of them flashes her a wide smile as she hands the gentleman his change in less than two seconds. Inside Flor’s apron are rolled up singles by the bundle, already segregated into certain amounts for easy exchange.

Carolina points out that that is also one thing why customers appreciate her mom a lot, with the way Flor has maintained an efficient system of newspaper handing and change giving that affords them the least amount of downtime in their hurried pace.

Adds the mother of the two children, both of whom Flor has seen grow up from their tender days as babies to their hyper ages of 5 and 3 respectively now, that the reason Flor is such a big part of these commuters’ daily lives, not just as their newspaper vendor but as their dear friend is that she never changed ever since she started doing this. She always wears the same smile every single day, and no matter the weather, no matter how awful her day has been, she always her cheery song to make even the most impatient New Yorker’s minute, a pleasing, albeit short one.

———-
a note from *the storyteller:

To hear Flor’s jingle, check this video out. Or better yet, go stop by and tell her “Hi” over at her stand right outside MSG on Seventh Avenue, closer to the corner of 32nd Street.