As a young child, I had no idea people lived in other places besides "The City". After all, it dominated every facet of my world. Our parades were shown on every major t.v. network, like The Macy's Parade on Thanksgiving, and The St. Patrick's Day Parade in March. Even though these days are national holidays, I always saw my city on t.v. Sesame Street looked like any block in Brooklyn (I like to think it greatly resembles Park Slope :), and The Electric Company back in the 70s had a multi-ethnic cast (remember the Asian-American girl with the Crystal Gayle long hair?!). And it wasn't just t.v.
The biggest, most famous movies in the world were set in New York, a list that's far too long to write, like
King Kong and
Taxi Driver, with New York actors like
Robert DeNiro
. Beloved and adored cartoon characters, like Bugs Bunny, were voiced by Mel Blanc in a distinctly urban voice, reminiscent to me of my grandfather, an Irish-American Con-Ed worker from Brooklyn, who worked in the lower East Side, an area where Yiddish was widely spoken. I can bust out a bunch of words I learned from him, like "meshugga", "shiksa", and a decent "Oy Vey!" that's full of feeling, to the surprise of some. Broadway plays, operas, Lincoln Center for The Nutcracker and ballet,
The Rockettes,
The Harlem Globetrotters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Guggenheim, commonplace to kids from the area.
That was just entertainment. Magazines and catalogs were adorned with models who worked and lived in New York, shot in studios in Chelsea or with city backdrops at locations around town. My cousin was a model and sometime girlfriend of DeeDee Ramone, voted "Best Legs" 1976 (or '77? Suzy, forgive me!), by an underground 'zine that catered to the punk scene. Like every New York girl, I had a fling with modeling, though I was too short for haute couture. And thankfully so, because I was already deeply immersed in my college education. Still, I took a runway walk class, got ripped off by a small-time NJ photographer for some photos, was rejected by Elites' receptionist right out of the elevator and told to go to the Petites division around the corner (bailed on that), booked a shoe show at
The Javits Center with a less prestigious agency, then blew it off, as teenagers on summer break are wont to do. I had to make money, so I worked and hung out with friends. A kid from high school was already appearing in commercials as an actor, mostly famously for a board game ad, and dancing friends were auditioning for companies in the city or programs.
My parents met at a jazz club in The Village (that's Greenwich Village, in downtown Manhattan), and went to poetry readings during their courtship. Your parents didn't do that? Huh. I got a dose of reality in the 5th grade, when I wrote an essay about it for Miss O'Brien, a very young and earnest substitute teacher. I really liked her, but she took a red pen to my story, crossed out the word "bar" and replaced it with "restaurant", or something like that. The change riled me enough to give me the courage to go up to her desk after class and inquire about her alterations, a rarity for such a shy girl like me. She explained that it wasn't polite to write something like that, and she was making my story better. She was sure my parents wouldn't like it. I think I even went home and showed to them, and they laughed. She may have been a local from the area we moved to, a suburb which was still quite isolated and rural back then, surrounded by farmland, and accessible to New York City only by a local highway that still has no lights on it, courtesy of a national parkland designation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palisades_Interstate_Parkway
Songs were written about our fair city, broadcast on every radio station, famous anthems like "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra. Everyone knew the Yankees and their iconic players, regardless of locale. My grandmother watched them at the stadium as a girl, and she's 96. Compared to most Americans, we have a long history. People come from around the world to see our attractions, like the tree at Rock Center, Radio City, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State, and the late, great Trade Towers. These weren't local attractions. I knew that because they were in such crowded areas, I had to hold an adults hand so I wouldn't get separated. The people on the streets spoke all sorts languages, people of every size, shape, and color that represent humanity. My first real boyfriend in high school was originally from Puerto Rico, though fully Americanized, and I had friends from Ghana, England, and the south of France. To this day, I have trouble in homogeneous and less diverse zones of our country. Where are the rest of the people?
The bubble from
The Land of Oz finally burst for good in college, amongst a surfeit of Long Islanders. The girls' floor in our dorm was filled with sorority sisters who simply traded their town from downstate to upstate New York, sporting the same baggy Champion sweatshirts and topknot ponytails held in place by velvet scrunchies. I was horrified by their singularity and conformity, a herd mentality that signalled an utter lack of courage and individuality. If this was what was out there, I'll pass. I had the good fortune to meet a group of kids from the North Shore who skateboarded, surfed, and spent summers clam digging around bonfires on the beach. Cool. That I could roll with. I'm a beach kid who spent summers swimming the ocean of Long Beach Island. The first time I went to their dorm room, some great artist had pencilled an amazing drawing of
The Ramones on the floor, at the entrance to their suite. Home sweet home.
 |
| From 1989, in front of Galway Cathedral. |
I went on to travel a great deal. I got struck young and early by a restless wanderlust. Before the age of 19, I had already been to Amsterdam and Ireland, the first among my crowd to travel overseas, and in pre-Euro days. I would return to Ireland, travel through Italy, have a brief work stint in Germany, with side trips to Paris and Amsterdam, again. I would take incessant road trips around America, desperate to see what else was out there. I've found similarly sexy vibes in cities like New Orleans and Montrèal, but when you're from a place like New York, you come from a fabled land that's up there with London, Paris, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. Along with our many visitors, people come to our town laden with a head full of prejudices and media programming. Rest assured, most of us are normal, we just have a vision that's as grand and impressive as our skyline. My excessive nervous energy has been replaced by a contentment to be settled in a small town, in one of the largest cities
in the world. Happy trails to you!
The biggest, most famous movies in the world were set in New York, a list that's far too long to write, like King Kong and Taxi Driver, with New York actors like Robert DeNiro. Beloved and adored cartoon characters, like Bugs Bunny, were voiced by Mel Blanc in a distinctly urban voice, reminiscent to me of my grandfather, an Irish-American Con-Ed worker from Brooklyn, who worked in the lower East Side, an area where Yiddish was widely spoken. I can bust out a bunch of words I learned from him, like "meshugga", "shiksa", and a decent "Oy Vey!" that's full of feeling, to the surprise of some. Broadway plays, operas, Lincoln Center for The Nutcracker and ballet, The Rockettes, The Harlem Globetrotters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Guggenheim, commonplace to kids from the area.
Songs were written about our fair city, broadcast on every radio station, famous anthems like "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra. Everyone knew the Yankees and their iconic players, regardless of locale. My grandmother watched them at the stadium as a girl, and she's 96. Compared to most Americans, we have a long history. People come from around the world to see our attractions, like the tree at Rock Center, Radio City, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State, and the late, great Trade Towers. These weren't local attractions. I knew that because they were in such crowded areas, I had to hold an adults hand so I wouldn't get separated. The people on the streets spoke all sorts languages, people of every size, shape, and color that represent humanity. My first real boyfriend in high school was originally from Puerto Rico, though fully Americanized, and I had friends from Ghana, England, and the south of France. To this day, I have trouble in homogeneous and less diverse zones of our country. Where are the rest of the people? 
