Steel Balls Rain Down on Bryant Park

One thing you can always count on New York City is that nearly everyone is willing to share their opinions and offer free unsolicited advice.

I ran into a telling example of that yesterday when I decided to have lunch in Bryant Park. The park has scores of steel picnic tables and when the weather is nice, people from all walks of life converge on the area for a variety of activities.

I was eating lunch close to the entrance of the park when I noticed a homeless gentleman heckling a city worker who was in the process of emptying the trash. It seemed that the homeless man didn’t think that the parks and recreation employee was moving fast enough.

He started urging the employee on saying,” Let’s move it, c’mon, c’mon, I got a schedule to keep!”

“Step it up, step it up, you’re putting me behind!”
Bryant Park's Motivational Speaker

To his credit, the city worker never batted an eye and continued to work through the strange words of encouragement that were befalling him.

Venturing farther into the park, I witnessed a group of about twenty people lobbing steel balls into the air. I picked one of ball-chuckers and asked him what he was doing. He sat down and explained the legend of the French game called “PETANQUE!”

He said that city officials were getting bogged down by complaints because people were betting big money on Speed Chess in Bryant Park.

In an effort to squelch the "Betting on the Bishops issue," the city yanked up the tables engraved with chessboards and replaced them with a pair of Petanque fields???

That’s right – PETANQUE!

One of two petanque fields at Bryant Park

It’s a French version of Bocce Ball bringing together New York locals and French Immigrants onto this shaded field of battle. They toss metallic balls at a smaller ball known as the jack or as the French say, “cochonnet.” Each person has his or her unique stance and it brings out a large audience of French-speaking people.

Striking the PETANQUE pose

My only question is --- what’s supposed to keep the chess gamblers from infiltrating the Pentanque Park? I think the authorities thought this one out. Angry French guys schooled in the art throwing large steel balls should be more than enough to keep out the riffraff, even in New York City.