Growing Up Bank Street
Описание книги
A vivid memoir of life in one of New York City’s most dynamic neighborhoods Growing Up Bank Street is an evocative, tender account of life in Greenwich Village, on a unique street that offered warmth, support, and inspiration to an adventurous and openhearted young girl. Bank Street, a short strip of elegant brownstones and humble tenements in Greenwich Village, can trace its lineage back to the yellow fever epidemics of colonial New York. In the middle of the last century, it became home to a cast of extraordinary characters whose stories intertwine in this spirited narrative. Growing up, Donna Florio had flamboyant, opera performer parents and even more free-spirited neighbors. As a child, she lived among beatniks, artists, rock musicians, social visionaries, movie stars, and gritty blue-collar workers, who imparted to her their irrepressibly eccentric life rules. The real-life Auntie Mame taught her that she is a divine flame from the universe. John Lennon, who lived down the street, was gracious when she dumped water on his head. Sex Pistols star Sid Vicious lived in the apartment next door, and his heroin overdose death came as a wake-up call during her wild twenties. An elderly Broadway dancer led by brave example as Donna helped him comfort dying Villagers in the terrifying early days of AIDS, and a reclusive writer gave her a path back from the brink when, as a witness to the attacks of 9/11, her world collapsed. These vibrant vignettes weave together a colorful coming of age tale against the backdrop of a historic, iconoclastic street whose residents have been at the heart of the American story. As Greenwich Village gentrifies and the hallmarks of its colorful past disappear, Growing Up Bank Street gives the reader a captivating glimpse of the thriving culture that once filled its storied streets.
Оглавление
Donna Florio. Growing Up Bank Street
Growing Up Bank Street. A Greenwich Village Memoir
Contents
Foreword
1. Six Blocks of America
2. Opera on Bank Street
3. The Frydels
4. Mr. Bendtsen
5. Mrs. Swanson and the Browders
6. John Lavery
7. Grace Bickers
8. Lena
9. Sabine
10. Sid Vicious
11. John, Yoko, Rex, and Many More
12. Al
13. John Kemmerer
14. George and Gloria
15. Jack Heineman Jr
16. Jack and Madeline Gilford
17. Auntie Mame: Marion Tanner
18. Bella Abzug
19. The Jester, the Bishop, and the Eavesdropper
20. Stella Crater
21. Yeffe Kimball
22. Billy Joyce
23. Marty, Roz, and Marty’s Harem
24. The Many Kinds of Friendships
“You’re My Kind of Catholic” Friendships
“Old Village” Aristocracy Friendships
“The Old Country” Friendships
“Hell Hath No Fury like Bank Street Mothers” Friendships
“We’re So Cool” Friendships
“Standing One’s Ground” and Friendships
“Companions in the Arts” Friendships
“Just Because We Hit It Off” Friendships
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Works Consulted. Books
Articles
Oral Histories
Government Reports
Website
Film
Play
Archival and Unpublished Material
Index
About the Author
Отрывок из книги
Donna Florio
Washington Mews Books
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Tom and other grizzled Bank Street men leaned against number 51’s concrete stoop, passing the time. Regulars included Joe, a retired dockworker, and Mr. Hanks, who had been a fireman. They nodded to their neighbor, Tish, the nightclub performer, but rolled their eyes behind his back as he walked away. The commercial space on that corner was a tie-dyed clothing store in the 1960s and later a vegetarian restaurant. The old men disapproved of both businesses. Those dirty hippies do drugs, they fumed to my father. The old men didn’t want us bothering them, so they’d shoo us down to play spots like in front of the wallpaper factory at 59 Bank.
Since most Village kids under ten weren’t allowed off their block, after-school play groups were arbitrarily defined by address. We got excited when coal trucks pulled up to deliver their wares or when horse-mounted police officers rode by from the stable a few blocks away. We’d pet the horses, and sometimes I’d ask if I could sit on one, but the policeman always said no.
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