New York can be a cold unforgiving city, but people do find love here every day. Sometimes loves creeps up in you in the cheese section at Zabar’s or wraps its arms around you while you’re picking up dog poop in Riverside Park (love is sneaky that way.)
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we’ve excerpted a few stories of love on the Upper West Side, in the form of Missed Connections posts on the classifieds site Craigslist. The site allows users to post messages for people they saw but did not connect with. The messages are a window into the romantic urges of Upper West Siders.
One man wants to reconnect with a woman he first met at the compost tent at the 79th street Greenmarket about 7 or 8 months ago. Her name was Shay, but he’s not sure how to spell it. “I go to the Market almost every Sunday to shop but always spend extra time to look for her. I’ve never seen her again :(”
One woman is looking for a brown-haired blue-eyed woman wearing sweatpants who she saw when they exited the 2/3 train at 96th street on Sunday. “Every time I go to the train now I have an eye out for you. Everything about you was beautiful and interesting. I don’t know what I’ll do if I see you again, but I find myself thinking of you daily, and would like to say hello sometime.”
Another man is longing for the lady he saw at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Her husband might not approve, however. “I had wanted to tell you, even though you’re married, that you are one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen. I wanted to, but you left before I had the chance.”
A woman is seeking a man she saw spreading salt (to prepare for the snow) with his bare hands near Symphony Dry Cleaners on Broadway and 95th Street on Feb. 3. “I advised you ‘Wear Gloves Or It Will Hurt Your Hands’ to which you responded so kindly repeating twice, ‘Thank You Sweetie.’ It was then I couldn’t help but notice your blue eyes and up to this time of night have not forgotten you.”
A man looking at a woman through the window of a subway “wagon” on the 2/3 train (a wagon must be a train car). “You standing and holding the pole and hopefully from what I think, looking at me.” She left at 72nd street.
A woman on the 2/3 train “a while ago” made chitchat with an alluring stranger, but now she’s kicking herself for turning her attention to her phone. “I wish I had spoken to you some instead of writing emails.”
A man who saw another man at West Elm: “You: Very Handsome Asian Gent. Me: Black Uniqlo jacket and grey and orange scarf. Short salt and pepper hair.”
The Upper West Side missed connections site is here. If you see other good ones in the weeks ahead, email us. And Happy Valentine’s Day!
Photos by scatto felino and lguanasan and simo.
This is the sweetest story. Thank you. We must keep our wonderful UWS alive with love always!
Aww so cute. Great article. Hope at least some of these people reconnect. 🙂
Very sweet… It’d be a lot easier on all of these people if they’d just been armed with a deck of Cheek’d cards from https://cheekd.com– it’s kind of the modern day answer to real life missed connections!
This should be a regular column – this is great!
Re: “…wants to reconnect with a woman he first met at the compost tent at the 79th street Greenmarket… I’ve never seen her again”
Maybe try looking UNDER the compost?
Re: “…through the window of a subway “wagon” … (a wagon must be a train car).”
Yes, indeedy, especially if you grew up in Germany or many another European country.
Re: “…Sometimes loves creeps up in you in the cheese section at Zabar’s…”
Yup, that creamy Brie just makes one swoon with desire; but you hold back to avoid making the Stilton jealous……