It was , the year 1962. I was a high school student in New York City.

I walked into Spiro's, my favorite cafeteria located at East 72nd Street and Second Avenue in order to have a delicious dish dinner: filet of sol washed down with a tall glass of strawberry malted shake.

Watching my weight at at 19 was not a concern.

Out of the windows I watched the people going by. This area was officially known as ,Lenox Hill was never boring because if you enjoy the sports of people watching this was the right place to be. It was a real melting pot,as a lively place where you could eat a different ethnic dish every day thanks to the diverse populated mostly by people of German Hungarian,Italian and Chinese blood.

It was not surprising to run into celebrities, executives , models, movie stars in the bars, supermarkets or just walking about just like regular mortals like you and me.

I spotted Liza Minnelli, a couple of times on Madison Avenue.

Jackie Kennedy is my list of sightings too.

Did they notice me?

I remember eating the best spaghetti and meat balls in New York at an Italian restaurant frequented by maffia capos. It's said that every saturday night the maffiosi and some corrupt policmen came in for the pasta and pick up their pay offs which were in envelopes stuck underneath the tables , in cash of course.

It's said that if you wanted to set up a shop in the neighborhood you had to pay a commission to the Godfather in order to avoid any kind of trouble.

Did you hear that Mario Puzo?

If you like hamburgers you would have loved a place nearby where you could pick your favorite out of a list of 50 such as Mexican burgers, Italian burgers, Indian , etc.

Every saturday night I went out to dance polka or for a romantic dinner with my Californian girl friend by candlelight and serenaded by gipsy fiddlers

Enough for nostalgia let's get back to Spiro's where our story began..

So here I am about to taste my fish when a tall and slender figure comes in and sit right next to me.

I could not believe my eyes.

Tony Perkins!

He orders a hamburger de luxe .

I was very shy and did not know if to say hello , ask for his autograph, ask him a few questions about Psycho.

Or maybe ask him to introduce me to his beautiful sister Millie who I admired a lot.

I said to myself: " This is New York City , you are supposed not to get excited about anything. Extraordinary happenings is a routine here. Only excitement is for out of towners.A few days before Natalie Wood was being filmed in the area.

I saw Don Ameche many times coming out his apartment.

I even remember Robert Kennedy campaigning in the neighborhood or President John F. Kennedy in his open limo being driven to the Carlyle Hotel also in the area.

So I decided to keep cool and ignore him.

I finished my dinner left.

Out on the street I consoled myself by by saying inside my brain:

"Well I was also a celebrity among my relatives and schoolmates."