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The Moth
Katherine Russell Rich: What Goes Up
00:15:02
A writer’s uptown friends won’t believe her dating adventure with a New York City fire fighter, but in the end a NYFD t-shirt proves them wrong. Katherine Russell Rich lives in Manhattan. Her second book “Dreaming in Hindi: Coming awake in another lang...
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- [00:00]
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Dan Kennedy
Welcome to the Moth Podcast. Hi, I'm Dan Kennedy. The Moth features true stories told live without notes. All stories on the Moth Podcast are taken from our ongoing storytelling series in New York and Los Angeles and from our tour shows across the country. Visit themoth.org this week's story by Kathryn Russell Rich was recorded in New York City in September 2003.
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Kathryn Russell Rich
So until several years ago, I was on this straight ahead trajectory. I was first a magazine editor, then I was magazine writer and I only dated tortured magazine writer guys. And in short, I owned a lot of black and I was beginning to feel like a cliche. So I really felt like I had to shake my life up. And I got sent by the Times over to India and I fell madly in love with the weirdest thing and it was I fell in love with like studying Hindi. And so I came back and I started studying and I think this is, you know what, I just really want to go over there for a year and learn Hindi. And so I set plans in motion and I thought, now I'm going to throw my life up in there and do this. And I wasn't entirely off track because I did get a book contract. Oh. But I was going. And so about a month before a couple of my friends decided to take me out, a couple of my girlfriends to say goodbye. And we go down to the East Village, this little restaurant, and we're having a great time and the Guy at the bar who's a junkie ODs, but he doesn't really, like, die on the floor. He does that junky, like. So the waitress says, what do I do? And we said, you have to call the police. And she said, no, he's going to get in trouble. We said, no, no, you really have to call. He could die. So she does, and we're eating, and a troop of the most gorgeous firemen come walking in. So they're not interested in the junkie, you know, they're like. Want to just flirt. And, like, I'm actually really shy, but I'm this new person who's going to go off to India, so I'll do anything now. And I'm flirting and they're going like, oh, ladies, this is like dinner theater for you. And the junkie's just, like, ignored. Well, then the most gorgeous of them, the fire lieutenant, comes over to the table and he says, how's the food, ladies? And to my absolute shock, I find myself going, why don't you join us? And he goes, why don't you go on a date with me? And I go, all right. And I was just like, I couldn't believe this. And they leave. And at all the tables, we suddenly realize they're all women out on the town. And they're all going, hey, were you guys flirting with the firemen? We're like, yeah. And they all start going, I like that one. I like this one. And my friend Trish, in from out of town, goes, I like the junkie guy. We said, you can't like the junkie guy. That's like, you're not allowed to do that. He's gotten up and run home. He's totally fine. So lo and behold, the phone rings and it's Fireman Pete. And he asks me out and we make plans, and I meet him in this Italian restaurant. And I mean, this guy looks like a Tuscan painting. Blond, Italian, really, really gorgeous. And we meet and we're just from two different worlds, but we're having so much fun. Like, he tells me about his uncle, Johnny Bellumsa, who's in the mob. I never heard about a mob guy. And then he starts telling me about when he one time carried a dying baby out of a building. And he went to hand it to a journalist, and the guy wouldn't take it because he was on duty. And he said, later that guy came up and asked for an interview. And I went, yeah, I'll give you one. And I was like, just seeing journalism from this Other side. And then he just can't believe I'm going off to India. He said, I've never. You mean, like with elephants? And I'm like, yeah. And I'm feeling frisky. So I write his name in Devnagari's script, which I thought was so cool. He was just like, oh. And so at the end of the evening, he says, well, I gotta stop by the fire station. And I knew he's like this Italian horndog. He wants to show he's on a date on Saturday night, but that's fine. We go down, he goes, I'm going to get you a T shirt. And he brings me a T shirt. But then he's really there just to show the fire guys, and they're not there. So we had to sit in his car for 40 minutes. And finally this big truck comes roaring up. They all get out. I meet him. There's a sweet little old fire captain chief guy, and all of them, and they're so sweet. And then he takes me to my apartment, and he goes, I want to come up. And I said, I don't know you that well. And he goes, no, I want to come up. And I said, no, I don't know you that well. So he said, listen, if I can, I live across from Zeckendorf, which has eight towers. He goes, if I can get us to the top of Zeckendorf Towers, will you go up and make out with me? So how are you going to do that? And he said, I have the fire key. So who would say no? So I said, all right. And we sneak by the guard, we go up. The fire key doesn't get us out. So I said, all right, I'm going home. He goes, no, no, no. If I could stop the elevator, would you make out with me in the elevator? Like, you bet. So we go in. We are making out. We are having such a good time. I've never acted like this in my life. I mean, I've worked at these staid magazines. I am just making out on an elevator. 11:30 on Saturday night. And finally I said, I really have to go. So we go down, and the doors open to a sea of angry people. Because what Fireman Pete wasn't thinking is there's something called the fire block. And if you lock one elevator with the fire key, you lock all eight elevators. And not only that, we were on elevator cam, so I'm not kidding. So. And they're gonna arrest us. I'm not kidding. They're so mad. They've gotten the Sniffy co op president bord out of. Out of bed. President guy out of bed. He's carrying a Pekingese who's looking aggrieved. And he goes, I'm calling the cops. So, like, what are we getting? And so this guy, he's from New York. So what does he do? He bluffs. And every time they say anything, he goes, what do you mean? Like, no matter what anyone said, he goes, what do you mean? And so the fire, the co op president, board's going. President's going, you can't do that. Well, he gets them all fighting. And then all of a sudden, he looks at me and he goes, run. So he grabs my hand and we run through the crowd. And as we get on my doorstep, you can hear the police. They've called the police. They're coming up the sirens. And he goes, now you gotta let me in. And I said. So I go, you're right. You're right. I gotta let you in. So we go up to my apartment, and we could see that there's the police right down below. And they're going. So this guy. And this is like, when I really knew I was no longer myself. He has me open the window and scream out, you won't take me alive. And then he has me add, coppers. You won't take me alive. Coppers. I. This is all true. I was so far out of my safety zone, and I was having the best time. So we start going out kind of. And all my friends are giving me, like. They're all these, like, snotty magazine people like me. And they're like, you're dating a fireman. And then they say, well, are there sparks? Stuff like that a lot? So I'm going, yeah. So I'm not really dating a fireman. Because the way that the magazine guys would always go, oh, I'm sorry, I'm on deadline. He would go, I'm sorry. A burning building fell on my head. It was the same thing. It was always like these. He had more burning building injuries than you've ever heard of every night. So we kind of really weren't. We were going up at night. And then I had to go to India. So he said, well, we'll write. I get over to India, and it's the fifth day of classes, and it's evening, and I go to pick up a friend who's living in the palace for these complicated reasons. And it's another story. And she said, the guy at the front desk says, she wants to talk to you. And she Gets on the phone and she says, you better come up here and see what's on television. And I knew it was. You could tell it was really bad. So I go up to her room just as the first tower is going up in smoke. And I'm like, oh, my God. And we sit, we watch all night. Second tower goes down. And then they say, all the firemen were killed who got there. And I'm thinking, oh, man, that guy. The fire station, it was like, right next to the World Trade Center. And I was just. I was so devastated. We all were, but it was just so surreal. And I go in the next day, and we're only speaking Hindi. And I'm like, you know, like, to me, a man of fire is known. And the woman, the teacher, says, I will be your mother, sister, friend. And it really was comforting. So finally, I don't know what to do. And I start emailing all my friends, and they all email back and go, we were all wondering that. We were wondering. We're trying to find out. And they'd been calling, they'd been emailing. Nobody could find anything else, as you remember. It was insane. So finally, my friend Jill's husband, who's 80, says, I'm going to walk over there and I'm finding out. And he did. He walked to the fire station and there was a guy there, and he said, Did Lt. Pete Sapienza make it? And the guy goes, who wants to know? A lady. So does he? Yeah, a lady. And he said, yeah. And the guy had gone to Italy that week. He had gone to Italy. I mean, never left the country, you know, and it was the week. So then, like about December, I decided, I'm going to write him. And he writes me back and it's, you know, he says, yeah, 92 of his friends were killed, including everybody we met, the old guy. Everybody was killed. On the plus side, he was getting raffled off on dates and, like, Staten island, he was on all this tv, like, fireman Greet America shows. And so then the whole year goes by. I get back, and now all my magazine friends are going, so you're going to go out with the fireman now? They want that. But now, Lieutenant Pete, he was busy before. Now he's a celebrity. He's only dating supermodels and actresses, right? So he will call me back, because, you know, if a woman calls, he'll call. But it was clear I was no longer in his league. You know, he's just not. It wasn't going to happen. And time went by and I started to wear like I was wearing colors for a while and then I started to wear black again and now I'm like half and half. And when I tell new friends this story, they can't believe I did that. You know, I slipped back into my old ways and I actually can't believe I did either. And I don't think I would believe it, except I have proof.
- [13:41]
Dan Kennedy
Kathryn Russell Rich lives in Manhattan. Her second book, Dreaming in Coming Awake in Another Language, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in July. The Moth is a non profit organization. Consider supporting our free podcast by by going to our podcast contribution page or by becoming a moth member@themost.org this holiday season, give the gift of the Moth. We have T shirts, CD compilations of your favorite Moth stories, including today's story, which is featured on Blue in the Stories about Smoke. Visit our website themoth.org where you can also learn about all of the Moth's upcoming shows and our corporate events and training program. And please tell us what you thought of today's episode. Tell us what you think of the Moth podcast in general. What do you love? What do you hate? What would you like to hear more of or less of? Email us@podcastthemoth.org thanks to all of you for listening. We hope you'll have a story worthy week. Podcast audio production by Paul Ruest at the Argo Network.
- [14:52]
Kathryn Russell Rich
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