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The woman who would speak to us was older, long brown hair draped over her small shoulders. She sat across from an older man, sparse white hair running in a moat around the castle of his bald spot. They were engaged in fervid one-sided conversation that mostly involved the woman; the man did not look amused. My family had taken [...]
September 10, 2001, was a rainy day in New York. There was precipitation throughout the afternoon and early evening. 0.5 inches. The warmest day of the month. Humid and wet. I exited from my East 10th Street apartment at 9:00 a.m. and headed toward Veselka’s on 2nd Avenue. My breakfast of a bagel and coffee came to $2.11. I gave [...]
My Martz Trailways bus rolled into Manhattan from Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1969, landing me in Port Authority. I dragged my big, ivory-colored, plastic suitcase up the escalator, stepped onto Eighth Avenue and a cab screeched to a halt at my feet—a lucky break, since I hadn't the vaguest idea how to hail one. I had been discovered by an affable, [...]
In the Manhattan telephone directory "white pages," there used to be a page that came just before alphabetical listings of names, addresses, and phone numbers. Along with a list of Post Office addresses and a map of City zip codes, it featured the Manhattan Address Locator. A simple looking table, it performed a kind of magic, allowing you to take [...]
Bellevue was a dark castle in my childhood imagination. In grade school, long before I knew that my own mother had once landed there, my classmates and I spoke of Bellevue in a chilled whisper, as the place you’d end up in if you lost your mind. A straitjacket and a padded cell would be your lot, and you’d live [...]
