Title: Share your Memorable Meeting Moments for next issue by Jan 20

Author:

Section/SPIG: Community Health Planning and Policy Development

Issue Date:

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Did you have an interesting experience when you last attended an APHA Annual Meeting? Did it start a spark, or in some way add value to your life? Will you please share it with CHPDD members in the January issue? It could be an experience during an APHA meeting, or while you were attending the meeting. Please send in a brief story about 2-3 paragraphs by Jan. 20, 2006 to Priti Irani at <pri01@health.state.ny.us>. Here is one experience that I can share.

I skipped the Tuesday afternoon session at the 1999 APHA Annual Meeting in New York City to visit Takashimaya. I used to take a pottery class then, and my teacher said I should go and see the Japanese tea cups displayed at the store.

Takashimaya is a narrow, four-story building on 5th Avenue at 53rd street. The pottery was on the 3rd or 4th floor, and it was simple and beautifully displayed. It was not as expensive as I expected, but I did not buy anything. I explored the other floors - clothing, flowers, scents - it was quiet, minimalist, elegant. Finally, I landed in the basement in the tea room, which was filled with chattering women. The atmosphere in the tea room was different from the rest of the store. I remember, I picked a packet of peach-flavored tea leaves for $8, and handed it to the girl at the counter. She spent 15 minutes with her back to me, and handed it to me in a large triangular cream-colored paper bag, with the packet of tea nested among soft pastel tissue. The bag probably cost at least $8. I emerged from the store, through a door opened for me by the doorman, feeling like a million dollars. I still have the bag.