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Nostalgie de la boue, oui, c'est un terme assez apte.
My first trips to NYC, as a student, were great fun. I was totally enthralled the from the moment the coach passed the Lincoln Tunnel into those big bad grimy and fascinating streets. New York was highly textured then. The subway cars were often covered so heavily that you couldn't see out the windows. There were a lot of abandoned cars even in lower and mid-Manhattan streets. There were also a lot of homeless people living in what seemed like abandoned doorways in little lean-toos made out of cardboard boxes. Times Square was more iffy, and of course 42nd street between 8th avenue and Broadway was really sketchy. On one trip, a Con-Ed crew was working out of a manhole tent and as a couple of us students passed them by, one of them asked me if I was wearing a pistol. I said no; he laughed and said you should have a pistol walking around here.
I thought that was so New York; a pistol, not a gun. lol
Anyhow, as much fun as it was, as a tourist, and wannabe New Yorker, I wouldn't want NYC to revert to that era. Last time I was in NY was 2 summers ago with my wife, spent a week and enjoyed the beauty of it, and felt no fear anywhere we traveled, and we also enjoyed what countless other tourists do which they didn't 40 years ago, which is explore Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods, etc...
This city is now controlled by people who believe cops are more of a problem than perps. Let them reap what they’ve sown. You know who will benefit from this though? Cops! $$$$$
When people seemingly ignore the negative things about the past and "miss the old days," I think its that they really miss the hope they had back then for a better future.
Opinion: an abstract but on point way of looking through the eyes of the past. Well done.
CBGB was great. A proof that you can have a truly engaging, super creative, edgy, meaningful hangout in the middle of what then was a ghetto, but the club was safe for anyone. There was drugs galore in and around it (chiefly speed and heroin - crack was considered ridiculous; see Jim Jarmusch's 1983 or so movie Stranger Than Paradise - but there were straight-edge punks like me who never touched drugs or even alcohol... for us there was the legendary Fresca :-), some sort of citrusy seltzer water, the only other place I ever saw it except at CBGB was in a supermarket on Navajo reservation out West)... so, there were drugs, but no violence that I ever saw (and I was there on many weekends between 1983 and 1987), Hilly the owner would not have tolerated that, a violent criminal would have been booted and banned fod life. I just regret that I never saw the Ramones at CBGB (though I saw them elsewhere, they constantly toured Upstate, and played a lot on SUNY campuses, and I did see Joey Ramone hanging out at CBGB when not performing himself, since the club was basically his living room, he lived across the street), but by the time I got to the US (1983), CBGB was already famous enough that it was impossible (unless you were in Hilly's inner circle, which I wasn't) to get in for bands that by that time already had underground fame. But even the nights with garage bands that I got to experience were great.
Nostalgie de la boue, oui, c'est un terme assez apte.
My first trips to NYC, as a student, were great fun. I was totally enthralled the from the moment the coach passed the Lincoln Tunnel into those big bad grimy and fascinating streets. New York was highly textured then. The subway cars were often covered so heavily that you couldn't see out the windows. There were a lot of abandoned cars even in lower and mid-Manhattan streets. There were also a lot of homeless people living in what seemed like abandoned doorways in little lean-toos made out of cardboard boxes. Times Square was more iffy, and of course 42nd street between 8th avenue and Broadway was really sketchy. On one trip, a Con-Ed crew was working out of a manhole tent and as a couple of us students passed them by, one of them asked me if I was wearing a pistol. I said no; he laughed and said you should have a pistol walking around here.
I thought that was so New York; a pistol, not a gun. lol
Anyhow, as much fun as it was, as a tourist, and wannabe New Yorker, I wouldn't want NYC to revert to that era. Last time I was in NY was 2 summers ago with my wife, spent a week and enjoyed the beauty of it, and felt no fear anywhere we traveled, and we also enjoyed what countless other tourists do which they didn't 40 years ago, which is explore Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods, etc...
Opinion:
Glad you enjoyed your stay.
Please be extra careful if and when you return.
Because of the current policies ( thanks DeBlablasio )
you may truly need a pistol.
The best way I can explain it is that, as gritty and dirty and dangerous as it was, it was all kind of pure and honest and original and unforced. There were no cell phone cameras around, so people did what they wanted because they wanted to, not because they needed something to post on Instagram. The clubs were unmatched. AIDS wasn't a thing yet, and the sexual revolution was happening, so there were amazing swingers clubs like Platos Retreat that were more than just seedy sex clubs. They were beautiful and the people were friendly. I once got too intoxicated at a tranny club called the Barnum Room, and I was hugging a toilet in the bathroom. Nowadays I'd be rolled, or worse. Back then, a tranny actually put cold cloths on my head, called my friends in and helped get me home in a cab. There were all kinds of different people and they actually got along. Of course, there were certain spots of the city that you didn't want to walk through, day or night, but you knew where they were and just stayed away. Gangs for the most part didn't prey on innocent people. They stuck to their turf and fought each other. I met so many interesting people and had outrageous and unforgettable times. I miss it, but it can never be recreated in these times. I'm just lucky to have experienced it.
Opinion: We have crossed similar paths............thank you for your account...
Not true. I was "youthful" and in my social prime, as you say, well past this period in NYC's history, but the times changed.
Opinion:
The 70's and 80's made all feel youthful regardless of age.
Young and old on stage playing together. Awesome!
That is the experience missing today. The music directors
today push free diapers and a baby bottles on to mainstream..................
Opinion: We have crossed similar paths............thank you for your account...
Indeed, and we're from the same neighborhood and likely around the same age. Chances are we know (or know of) each other in r/l.
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