New York City - 10/06/80 - 7:30 p.m.

 Weather has been gorgeous, light chill, blue skies, wonderful. 

Did the Liberty Ferry to the Statue of Liberty (it's huge) after eating pastries and tea with C (my host/2021) before viewing her school building and dropping her off at her class. Took the subway downtown with P (my hosts boyfriend/2021) and took the ferry . Went to the top of the statue (long climb), took 20 pictures on  film we paid too much for and get high on Liberty Island (how bizarre). 

Saw the immigrant museum which contains the 1st Torah used at Dachau after it's liberation among other things (it's contained in the pedestal of the statue). How the hell our government got said Torah is beyond me. 

We took the ferry back, on board bought J (my roommate in S.F. during those years/2021) the most tacky Miss Liberty I've ever seen and proceeded to go downtown via Battery Park, where I got my pix taken on a sculpture by P. We then found Wall Street and the Stock Exchange (very weird) then all manner of wonderful (real cheap) clothing and Woolworth type junk shops and sidewalk sales off Wall Street and Broadway. Bought an obnoxious shirt and wonderful web belt. 

Ate lunch at Kentucky Fried and then walked (a long way), down to the Village. Played, had a drink at my first NYC gay bar and bought cards at Greetings, a wonderful card shop. Stopped in the Unicorn Shop as well, a slightly overpriced old clothes store. 

We had a blast today and my feet hurt but such is the price we pay. 

I intend to see Shelly Berman's show on Wednesday and I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road at the Circle in the Square on Friday night, playing on Christopher Street afterwards. 

Had a nice dinner, made by C this evening and intend to go out to one of the neighborhood bars tonight. Laundry on Thursday is a must. Will be going out dancing on Thursday night which should be a blast!!! Will go to 42nd Street, Broadway etc. tomorrow and maybe finish the Met (who knows).

Having a wonderful time even though C has boring roomies (which are sitting next to me here in the room) but these situations can be worked out. 

Got hold of S (C's old roommate), will meet her on Saturday so the week should round itself out well. 

2021 Discovered, whole cleaning out drawers, one of my favorite photos I have ever had taken of me. I am in jeans, boots and a trench coat, which is flapping the wind, smoking that joint on Liberty Island. It is heavily damaged but I will probably hang onto it forever. I do wonder, judging from the coat, how we managed to light that joint with all that wind.   

 

New York City - 10/05/80 - 10:50 p.m.

 Last night, Christopher Street after having dinner this small party at the seminary C's (my host/2021) friend G lives in. He looks gay, goes to gay palaces and professes to be straight. Ah well (kinda cute too). Anyway, Polk is more fun than what I saw of Christopher. At least the street. Polk is busier with different and diverse people - it's also brighter, more street lights and bars and such.

Coming home my numb brain hosts decided to take the #1, transfer to the express and then transfer back to the #1, therefore saving time. After leaving the #1 we discovered the express wasn't running. This at 1:30 in the morning when I was suffering from jet lag city. (also, we smoked some pot and got toasted on sangria). I bought 3 small ceramic pins (3 for $5) off a street seller, G bought a pink flamingo ceramic pin. Well, eventually we got home and to bed. 

I was the first too rise this morning among the three of us, about 1 p.m. P (C's boyfriend/2021) and I went down to the Met. The Egyptian temple is quite impressive. I will have to go back to view the 19th century art gallery. There were 3 full rooms of Degas' painting and sculpture. I was in heaven, brain cells bursting by the thousands. It was incredible. In one opulent bedroom from a palace in Venice P remarked, "Well, if you've got this far you sure as hell are going to get laid". The furniture and "things" were nice but when we got to the art works it was getting late and we didn't have time to do them justice (hence my going back later). The costume gallery was closed off till November, I was a little bit wrecked about that, but otherwise it was a wonderful trip.

Came back home via Central Park West (hot apartment houses) and 97th street to Broadway, bought salad makings and came home. We bullshitted, cut C's hair and then dinner was served. We proceeded to eat ourselves into a stupor (chicken, stuffing, small amounts, green beans with almonds, or some kind of nut) then I brought out some weed and P and I proceeded to get high as everyone else turned it down, which was a real wreck from the stoneheads I am used to. Her roommates are nice enough but they are the normal intellectual students, the kind that tend to drive me up the wall. Heavy into politics (there are a couple of other topics which even I cannot decipher here, and it is my own writing!/2021), and such, and also discussed (in great detail) medieval history. One argument was whether there were more Edwards or Henrys on the English throne (how relevant). There is no answer as the two debaters could not come up with a mutually acceptable date for the beginning of England (what fun). I will be spending mucho time away from the apartment. 

Tomorrow Liberty Island and (hopefully) Christopher Street again to pick up some cards and the like. Both of these activities with P. So much to do, so little time. I'll have to come back again (hopefully with more interesting people) to play another day. Its' a nice place to visit but I'm beginning to feel like I wouldn't live here (at least not this far uptown), but I'll have fun and explore by myself. ah well, till tomorrow.

2021 As a teen I got a cosmetologists license and at this point was managing a department store beauty salon, hence the cutting hair remark. I did edit this post lightly because 40 years after I wrote this even my own handwriting was impossible to decipher. I did make a return trip to New York (2 in fact ) but not until 1994 and 1995, oddly, staying with a couple I had met in Key West who lived exactly 4 blocks away from where I stayed during this trip.

New York City - 10/4/80 - 7:00 P.M.

 Arrived 6:00 a.m. (left 15 minutes late, still got here on time). Slept for the day, took a leisurely time waking up (2 p.m.). About 3 took a leisurely walk around the Columbia campus and then paid an awe inspiring visit to St. John the Divine. Beautiful stained glass, vaulted ceilings, embroidered and jeweled vestments along the sides. I was impressed. Massive brass doors depicting religious scenes, especially enamored of the "Creation" series, almost surreal, very geometric. 

Mom and A(my mom's husband/2021)had a special joint of $200 an ounce grass waiting for me last night. A got wasted in the car on the way to the airport. R (my sister/2021) was there as well (surprise), C (my host/2021) and P (her boyfriend/2021) met me at J.F.K. and we promptly got lost in the N.Y.C. subway system. 1 hour trip turns into1 and a half hours. Fun! C likes her household this year, this is heartening. Still want to figure out what gives with P and her, ah well. 

Most impressed (I reiterate) with St. Johns - will send M and P (my brother and sister in law) a postcard or something from there. Going out to dinner with one of C's friends tonight in the village. Will write what it is about after it happens. Must iron my blue cords, I feel real attractive in them. Laundry mid week is going to be a must I fear.

Meanwhile back in 2021 - I've given relationships in parentheses followed by 2021 to make things as clear as possible. Obviously I really liked those blue cords although I have absolutely no recollection of them. I guess they fit my young ass well. 

New York City - 1980 - Introduction

 Over the past months we have been spending quite a bit of time, effort and frankly, money, on our home, a 9th floor condo in Chicago. We have upgraded our kitchen appliances and  been acquiring new furniture to replace our old  as well as planning and mapping out further changes to come. We have recently both "semi-retired" rarely working more than 3 days a week. We now spend more time in our home than we did before. As a friend of mine put we are "nesting".

As a part of this process I was emptying out and going through the contents of an old blanket chest in preparation for the delivery of it's replacement. Among an assortment of items I found a journal from a trip I took to New York City in 1980, I was 22, just a few days shy of my 23rd birthday. 

I have decided to post these entries on this site, it did start as a place to record my memories of all the trips I have been fortunate enough to experience after all. The entries will remain exactly as written when I discovered them. I will resist the urge to edit. I prefer to present them precisely as written, from the perspective of almost unimaginably young eyes chronicling an era long past. 

As is my habit I will not identify anyone by name, instead using initials for the people that shared this experience with me. Hope that doesn't get too confusing! Here goes!

Transition

 It's gray outside yet still mild enough to have our windows and balcony door open as fall places a stronger hold on the city. Summer to fall is a slow, gentle transition. Many claim fall as their favorite season. 

I am transitioning with the season, learning to understand and embrace my new world of semi retirement. Pre pandemic I worked, often under extreme pressure, full time. During my younger days, when I was in retail management, this sometimes meant 6o hour weeks. In my 20's, living life as what would now be called a gig worker, I was sometimes putting in 50 hour weeks. It was what I needed to do financially, but that is another story. 

We came out of the worst of the pandemic in fairly good financial shape, for which I am grateful. I got a job, after being laid off, where I work with a great product and am well respected. Since our expenses are low I realized that we could cover the costs of all our needs, and most of our serious desires, with me working only 3 days a week. This leaves me with the luxury of an excess of time. I, during my adult life, have had to keep life going, outside of work, with a minimum of this luxury. I have always rushed to cook, clean or grocery shop. There never seemed be enough time and wasting it, or whiling it away, was never an option. Now I'm working to slow myself down. To realize that, though it may be Monday and I return to work tomorrow, it is only for 2 days, and then there is more time after that. 

During the summer I was distracted, by afternoons at the beach, lakefront bike rides and free symphonies in the park. Now, for the next several months, these distractions will be gone and I must realign my time. I am trying to write more, you are thanked for your patience in advance. I cook, am delving further into our extensive music collection of cds and vinyl, which I care for with some amount of pride, than I ever have before and with the recent gift from a coworker of a Kindle he wasn't using, will begin to read as I have always wanted to, but had trouble finding the time. I want to explore classics, the "good stuff". I am looking forward to becoming acquainted with Hemingway and renewing my romance with Mark Twain. I want to experience more of the bare, raw masculinity of Jack London and the lyricism of Toni Morrison, although finding something by her I haven't already read will be a challenge. On occasion, at the gym, my workouts are less strenuous and lighter as my visits are a little more frequent. I am learning the comfort of staying in bed till 7 or 7:30, sleeping in for me, I am transitioning

It is an interesting journey, I thought of retirement, but when confronting it I found I don't understand it at all. I am learning to transition. 

2021 Symphony - 3rd Movement - Fall

 At this time of year the sky is still dark as I awake at 6. I see the red eye flights arriving and departing at the airport off in the west, their lights looking like fireflies in the dimness of the early morning. The air is cooler, even though sunny and temperate, beach days are a memory until next year when the afternoons  will once again be long, and the sun, sitting high overhead in the middle of the sky will be warm. The sun lies lower in the sky now. Now we form a different set of memories, colorful leaves, the scent of fires crackling in fireplaces and thoughts of the upcoming holiday season, hopefully more joyous than the last when pain, depression and fear of a silent epidemic held us in it's brutal, cold hand.  

I have gone to the theatre, a passion of mine I missed deeply. While the play wasn't all that great the theatre of the theatre was. A group of people, vaccinated and masked, once again sharing an experience. A group of people reconnecting with being the social animals that we are. Trying to reconnect with the feeling of being together instead of isolated and apart. 

Crawling From the Wreakage

 We have been left with the pile of wreckage the former president created of the United States. It has become, in many places, a soulless shell of it's former self filled with hate and cruelty. 

A young man of high school age, speaking about the death of his grandmother from covid, pleading with this local school board for a mask mandate, heckled by adults in the room. A parent attacked in his car by others after a school board meeting for asking their board to take the same action. 

People spout hate and hurl insults at a sitting president that speaks in a slow, reasoned way. They call him feeble and senile. Yet the former president they idolize suggested that if we stopped testing covid cases would go away. Suggesting that ingesting disinfectants might combat the virus forcing manufacturers to plead with customers to use the products only for their intended purpose. Spouted lies, hate, division and fear daily across social media platforms bringing us to the brink of civil war. A war that may still be fought.

We watch as a woman right to chose and all citizen's right to easy voting access are chipped away by state legislatures. Much of our judiciary branch, including the Supreme Court, has been stolen from us.  Judges appointed, many highly unqualified for their positions, put into place to ensure restrictive, ultra conservative decisions by the very same people that once complained of progressive judges legislating from the bench.

The media shares blame. Even the so called progressive media question and criticize the new administrations every move yet offer no alternatives. They are addicted to strife, chaos and division. It is "good television".  They could, if they desired, elevate the conversation. Debate, offer suggestions and alternatives, move us forward. Instead they throw gas on a fire which is close to, of not already, out of control. Because, you know, ratings and all. 

Can we recover or do we call the 250 year old grand political experiment, the United States, a failure. What is needed is empathy. Concern for the well being of people other than ourselves. Acceptance and tolerance of people of different colors, cultures, religions and ideals, just attempting to make their way through the world like everyone else. The country that once, with pride, called itself a melting pot needs to return to that value. We need to create a place where what is best for all is more important than what is good for the individual. Where we move forward instead of becoming stagnant or watch ourselves be turned into a political, social and ideological circular firing squad. 

We were once the United States. We are no longer. I fear we may never be again. I hope, for the sake of future generations it is not too late, that we will be able to repair, that this fear does not become a future reality.