Welcome to the first Street Snippet for 2024-2025. Here’s the real-world story on where the opening line, “I thought I could make it. I really thought I could make it,” was heard.

I was walking up 8th Avenue at about 20th Street last week when I saw two women looking down on a crumpled figure of an elderly woman on her knees, grasping tentatively to the bottom of a parking meter. The women were afraid to get near the woman, standing at least three feet away from the angular praying mantis of her figure grasping the meter pole. They were both saying to her, almost in unison, “Are you ok? Are you ok?”

The woman was folded in half, down on her knees, her head almost touching the sidewalk, as she grasped the bottom of the parking meter pole. She was definitely not ok. I knelt down beside her and put my ear close to her mouth. Without looking up, without opening her eyes, she whispered, “I thought I could make it. I really thought I could make it.“

… and that’s the line for the beginning of your story. Let your imagination roam. How did she get there? Where was she going? Did she ever make it? I look forward to reading your story.