Manic Panic and Velvet Ropes
A list that recalls the unforgettable NYC of a past life.
I was out with a new friend last night who also grew up in NYC in the seventies and eighties. We had a feeling there would be a six-degrees type connection, if we just reminisced and mined our best stories over outdoor drinks for long enough. It took us a lot of circuitous humble-bragging and memory jogging before we made the connection that we had attended the same elementary school — P.S. 41. Jackpot!
I got home and saw Tree Langdon’s challenge to write a list. Fun! My memory is patchy at best, but there are a few highlights that have stuck in my mind from an unconventional, unpredictable NYC childhood.
Does a list define a life?
I was born in Manhattan in 1969. Right now, when NYC is suddenly so different, it feels like an exotic life that readers might enjoy a nostalgic peek into. Here’s a list of things I reminisce about sometimes that could only happen growing up in NYC in the seventies and eighties.
- We lived above a Jazz club called the Tin Palace on the Bowery for a year. The floor vibrated. CBGB’s was…
