811 day on Today

The City was still hot and muggy in the wee hours of Wednesday morning as the Queen and I made our way east on 49th street heading for Rockefeller Plaza. Even at 4:30 am there are still folks out on the streets especially Near Times Square. When we arrived at our destination there were already 5 or 6 people in line and I could see more arriving as I looked down the street through the early dawn haze. The things I do for work, people would never believe. Before too long we were as many as 100 people all dressed in the same black tee shirts, sipping the free coffee and mushy doughnuts that NBC supplies to the daily mob that populates the fence during the broadcast of the Today show.

Right around 6:30am the production assistants let us into the plaza and we took up positions around the crowd fences. On and off during the show, the camera man would make a sweep of the crowd but every time they got close to us, they went to commercial…rats. I did get to shake hands with full time weatherman and part time Columbia County resident Al Roker….(I did wash my hands after) but that was my only brush with fame for the morning. All in all it was quite an experience and the few seconds of air time we got to promote “Call 811 before you dig” was worth thousands in national advertising.