NDI Alumni News: Yasmin Jones ('92)
April, 2008
The Landmark on 71st and Broadway
Here is an idea for a future NDI Event of the Year: A Tribute to the 71st Street McDonald's.
I know I am not alone in my nostalgia about that Big Mac of a fast food refuge that nearly every Saturday served as the Russian Tea Room of NDI dancers. Yes, this is the place where many of the "Who's Who" of SWAT and Cel would refuel after class. Where dance steps were reviewed, friendships were mended and broken, and courtships seemed to run rampant.
It was there that, on a Saturday afternoon, one day after Valentine’s Day in 1992, Cel Team member and former school mate Jermaine Jones finally mustered up the courage to ask me to be his girlfriend. After weeks of strategically created opportunities where we could be alone, it was at the public venue of McDonald's where it finally happened. At a windowed table for two, he said the words I had been saying in my head for what felt like forever: ”Yasmin, do you want to…give me some of your water? – Just kidding. Do you want to be my girlfriend?”
What do you expect? I was 13 and he’d just barely turned 15! I immediately said yes and then turned over to Dufftin, Bianca, Trudy, Angela and the rest of our “counsel” throughout this process and said “finally.” Applause and shouting filled our corner of the restaurant. Ten years later, much of our NDI counsel was able to surround Jermaine and I at our wedding with similar shouts and applause, reminiscent of that great belated Valentine’s Day.
I am thankful for NDI getting me to dance with the "icky" 8th grade boys from Mott Hall, among whom I found my soul mate. But I am especially thankful for that cheap cuisine establishment on the corner of 71st and Broadway. Now, I encourage you to think back and recall your many memories in that famous Mc’Ds: break-ups, make-ups or breakdowns (Mike), whatever there were.
- Yasmin Jones
Alumni Association of National Dance Institute
NDI Alumna Yasmin Jones ('92) with husband Jermaine Jones ('92)
