LOST: CAPTAIN AMERICA; FOUND: GREEN BLOB

Many years ago, I saw the movie The Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith, on an airplane.  I think it was a return trip from Asia, so many hours on the plane, I could only sleep so much and eventually decided to watch a movie to pass the time.  I didn't see the whole movie, probably started watching a quarter of the way in.  I knew that Will Smith's character was homeless and got stuck with a son, tried to go to job interview, slept in homeless shelter etc.  I didn't catch the ending either but there was a scene that made me sad.

Supposedly Smith's character, Chris Gardner, was trying to get to a homeless shelter in time for something, maybe dinner, maybe curfew, but he was in a rush.  He dragged his son along and when they were hurriedly crossing the street the little boy dropped an action figure of Captain America in the middle of the road.  There was no time to turn back, they had to move along so the kid was crying the whole time.  Or at least that's what I recall, I haven't seen the movie again since then.  The toy meant a world to the little boy and it was gone.

Yesterday, as I was out CityStriding, near the end I crossed Flatbush Avenue Extension near Dekalb Market, from the L.I.U. side to City Point.  Coming from the other side of the street, there was a group of women each with a kid or two.  Some kids were in strollers, others were held by the hand by the, supposedly, mothers.  One of the walking kid dropped a green blob toy, probably one of those that you can get from a toy vending machine.  For 50 cents, or maybe $1 now, you get this toy that comes in a half-dome, maybe with a folded paper teaching you how to play it, or not to eat it.  The kid immediately shouted but the mother just went on crossing the street with the group, pulling the boy along.  I quickly scooped up the toy and made a U-turn to give the toy to one of the woman in the group, then turned again to continue my trip.  I think the boy was happy to get his toy back.  He may have a lot of other toys at home but at that time, that little green blob was his favorite.