My first Visit to NYC, True Story

 

Anna is reading a book that starts off of a young Englishman flying the NYC to sightsee, then at a spur of the moment take a bus to Ocean City, Maryland.  It reminded me of my first tip to the Big Apple:

New at NAS LAKEHURST, NJ,  being the latest low man on the roster I was assigned to sweep the hall way, opps!  I mean passageway.  The irst day there  was assigned to the 1^st Lieutenant  Department, which was the custodian department.  I swept and dumped garbage cans.

I was assigned a cubical that had 4 bunk beds, and 4 lockers.    Including me only 3 of the bunk beds were occupied.  One guy was on leave.  The other occupant introduced himself as Marlow.  Marlow was from Maryland.

We talked.  I asked him how far was it to New York City.  He said about 60 miles.  Have I ever been there?  No.  Wanna go tomorrow morning?  Sure.  The bus comes through the base.  We can catch it.

Which we did, the next morning.

Entering the big city  I could see clothes hanging on clothes lines that were stretched from apartment buildings to apartment buildings.  Wow!  This is New York City!

The bus entered the Port Authority building on 42^nd Street.

We walked up 42^nd Stret a few blocks to the Times Square area.  Lots and lots of people.  I think this was late August or early September 1963. 

The 42^nd Street and Times Square areas was very loud with blaring music and shouting men inviting people in their joints.  There was all kinds of lounges, eateries, side shows, etc.  It reminded me of a carnival atmosphere.  The visitors were enamored with all going on.  The non-visitors walked hurriedly; they had a mission.

Marlow wanted to look up and old buddy, so we took subways, walked down alleys, streets and I remember going through a courtyard surrounded by apartments.  We probably were in the Bronx or Brooklyn. He knocked on a door on the ground floor.  The wife of his friend greeted us.  The friend was out of town.  They talked awhile, updating each other and we returned to Times Square. We checked out a lot of things and then we began looking for a place to stay cheap for the night.

A middle aged nicely dressed man was close, appeared to be listening in on our conversation.  Finally, he stepped forward and said he could not help from hearing that we needed a place to stay overnight.   He said maybe he could help out.

He said in his apartment but he only had room for one of us but only one could  come with him and he would pay for the othe forfr a night at the YMCA.

I chose the YMCA.

Only a few blocks away was the SLOAN HOUSE YMCA.  At the counter the man paid for a room for one night.  Marlow and I agreed to meet at the Port Authority Bus station, the next day, Sunday.

 

The William Sloan House YMCA was a nightmare.  The small room was OK.  But it had no bathroom.  There was a central waterhole down the hall where men did their bathroom stuff.

The next morning I walked to Port Authority on 42^nd Street.

I had a long wait.  There was a bar.  When in Manhattan one should drink a Manhattan drink, right?  I had two.

With two Manhattans in me I got my nerve up to call an idol of mine, Harvey Kurtzman.  Harvey created MAD Comics book and left after about 24 issues.  At that time he was the editor of HELP! Magazine.  He would not too long in the future do ANNIE FANNY cartoon, along with my favorite MAD Artis Will Eldert for PLAYBOY Magazine.

Sitting in the bar’s telephone booth I found his name in the NYC telephone booth’s telephone book.  His address was Mount Vernon, NY, which I think is a suburb of NYC.  I called him and was surprised when I asked for Harvey Kurtzman and he said, “Speaking.” I  told him how much I enjoy his endeavors.  He seemed to be nice.  I bet he got a lot of nervy fan calls.

After that  we carried on one-line per letter correspondence for a couple years. 

Malow finally showed up and we took a bus back to the base.

In line for dinner at the chow hall that evening a guy I recognized working in an office where I swept came up behind me.  We nodded at each other and introduced ourselves.  His name is Don.

Don asked me what did I do over the weekend.  I told him about going to NYC over the weekend and a guy showed up and furnished where we stayed.  A smirk cam over Don’s face and he wanted to know the details.  We became good friends.

That’s All Folks!