Tenements and Tribulations
We moved to Greenwich Village in the mid-1980s, and at every landing of our fifth-floor tenement walk up there was a nose-full of tantalizing smells. This was in the very Italian section of the West Village, full of tenements that we called “V.I.V’s” or “Vertical Italian Villages.” The older folks, who sat out in front, chatting and fanning themselves in the summer heat, we referred to as the “stoop people.” I suspected that their gossip could sometimes be cruel but was grateful that they were watching out for us. Next door to us lived a woman named Millie who was very warm and friendly when we first moved in. The smells from her kitchen were the grand culmination to all the other appetizing aromas from the floors we’d pass on our... Read more...
