This happened sometime in the early 90's...around lunchtime..I'm in midtown Manhattan, walking towards Grand Central, when an elderly couple ..from the midwest...asks me for the best way to get to a church in the South Bronx. Last time they were in NYC was in 1942..they were married in that church a week before he shipped out for the North Africa landings..they hadn't been back since..they wanted to visit.for their 50th anniversary I knew the area (I grew up in the Bronx)..I doubted the church was even open, if it was still standing.....and the area looked like Berlin after the war..I gently suggested to them it wasn't a safe place to visit..and that it might ruin their memory. He thanked me, but said he'd like directions while he'd think about it. I told him to get a $100 bill..hail a Yellow Cab..tear the bill in half...give half to the cabbie to take him there, and WAIT for them and the other half when he brought them back to midtown.
To this day I often wonder what they did..
We had talked about going to a Yankee game but they only had night games and our host suggested we not. He said it would “probably” be okay to go down there in late morning or early afternoon so we went around 1030 or 11, and it was okay. I did notice there was one guy at the Polo Grounds Towers that eyed us when we were walking in but when we went to the home plate marker and took pictures he pretty much lost interest.