Who Taught You To Be a New Yorker?
Interesting question. I feel movies and TV shows give people ideas of what New York life is like, but of course there are also individuals involved.
What I first heard of about NYC when we visited when I was eight was how much it had changed from my mother, who lived in the NY area from her birth to her marriage around 1941.
I remember we went to the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building and the United Nations, etc.., and we visited old friends of theirs in their Manhattan apartments.
"It's all too crowded now," was my mother's major judgment.
When I came to NYC in 1963 to attend NYU, my mentors about City life were natives I met mostly living in the new Weinstein dormitory near Washington Square.
Surprise, surprise, almost none of them intended to live in the City after graduation...favorite destination: Vermont.
My best friend at college however was from Philadelphia, and while he reveled in the sophistication of the City, he never once intended to make it his permanent home.
"Too hard to live here," he noted, saying the housing scene alone was impossible-- crummy rent controlled places or newer expensive ones. "Feast or famine," is how he described it.
He went to graduate school at Stanford and liked Palo Alto as a "way station"....but to my horror I found out he and the young woman he had just married right after he graduated went off a mountain road on their honeymoon in Europe-- one on those awful hairpin curves in Romania.
Later, most of my NYC born friends had a pretty cynical view of life in the Big Apple and bemoaned how it was "going to the dogs." Not all of them felt that way, of course, and one of them still lives here today...where she is quite happy.
Since nothing is so sure as change here and that famous "New York Minute" where local landmarks disappear overnight, etc., has been going on pretty strongly from the 1970's.
What my life until now has taught me about New York is mostly what NOT to do, and the necessity of stubborn persistence in everything you hope to do or accomplish no matter what kinds of setbacks you have. There are a lot of people who will offer help to those in trouble here, too, and I have needed that very badly at on point in my Life and still work on the "support network" of people and insitutions that are immensely helpful sometimes.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Play
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(Amy Pearl/WNYC)
In today's "Metropolitan Diary," a man writes about how a native New Yorker taught him how to properly eat a bagel. We ask: Who taught you something about how to live in the city? Post your story below, or calll 212-433-9692...
@BrianLehrer my first landlord, by trying to not give me my deposit back. (He lost)
— Megan McCoy (@GoTeamMegan) January 27, 2014
@BrianLehrer People who broke into my car three times over a span of 6 years: not even quarters should be left visible in your car.
— Yüksel Günal (@yuksel_gunal) January 27, 2014
@BrianLehrer My workmates. And it was mostly a matter of feeling comfortable in cabs and not being afraid to yell at strangers.
— Chris Kissel (@Chris_Kissel) January 27, 2014
@BrianLehrer my first landlord, by trying to not give me my deposit back. (He lost)
— Megan McCoy (@GoTeamMegan) January 27, 2014
@BrianLehrer ppl on buses/streets: opened doors, helped carry box, gave up seats when pregnant. It's all about sharing public space.
— Gabby Hedlund (@gabbyh) January 27, 2014
Post by Brian Lehrer.
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