Letter Home
17 August 1977Here is the promised longer letter now that I have some semblence of tranquility back in my life. I've found I'm very adaptable.
I'm still staying with my friends (Debbie Gilbert and Pat Gannon) and they're being very nice to me as people put them up for a while when they first moved here to give them time to adjust so they're more than willing to help others. I'm sure I'll do the same in the future.
The area we are in is called Park Slope because of Prospect Park a few blocks away. Most of the areas in New York are referred to by some name to give some sort of orientation. It's in Brooklyn which is one of the five boroughs of New York. The borough people think of as New York City is actually Manhattan and is just across the river about 10 minutes by subway. All the main business and shopping areas are in Manhattan. All the subways interconnect so you can get just about anywhere for 50 cents. I've been exploring and going to museums since I got here (and sort of looking for a job).
Park Slope used to be slums but people have started to rehabilitate the brownstones; it's become very trendy to move here and so it's become expensive, too. The residents are still mainly Black, Puerto Rican and Jamaican and poor. It's odd to see such wealth and poverty living on the same block. I suppose if someone was paranoid they would think this was a terrible place to live and have to have an armed guard to go to the mailbox but then a lot of people go through life with blinders on. Where else could I go to a Cuban restaurant one night, Haitian another, buy food at a Puerto Rican grocer, fresh fruit from a sidewalk vendor who doesn't speak English then hop the subway to Chinatown or Little Italy where the different cultures have mixed to the point where you can have a Jewish bookstore with a sign in Chinese outside and be waited on by an Italian Roman Catholic who has a sister who is married to a Rabbi.
There's quite a few people here from both Fort Wright and Bloomington so I always have someone to help me. It seems no matter how irrasible I am I always end up with friends.
I road out here with a friend, David, who lives in Ridgewood, New Jersey, about 20 miles away by train. I stayed with his family when I was out here at the beginning of summer and they let me stay there over the weekend when I first got here. His mother thinks I'm a bad influence because I dropped out of graduate school. She's very success oriented and the first thing she asked when we got there was did David graduate with honors. Seems as though she could of at least said hello how are you first. They've got his whole life planned out for him at some advertising agency and I think he's going crazy. They can have their swimming pool and neighborhoods without sidewalks and psychiatrists.
I have a wart on my right index finger.
It's rained the past couple of days so I've just stayed inside drawing and reading and looking at the want ads. (I really should get serious about looking for a job!). The people I'm staying with have a Welsh Corgy, which is the most absurd-looking dog I've ever seen: 1/3 collie, 1/3 dachshound and 1/3 rabbit. I think it's in love with me.
Say hello to Edna (my cat I left behind. I didn't name her, my brother Dennis did and she started answering to it). She's lucky she's not living here where the cats have to walk around on the roofs of buildings. There are a lot of dogs and a lot of what dogs leave behind on the streets and sidewalks. New Yorkers are always looking down, not because they're grumpy but to make sure they don't step in something.
Saw a naked man the other night when I came out of the movie theater. I don't think anyone else noticed.
The police caught Son of Sam but I'm sure there's some other maniac out there waiting for me. The parents of one of the victims want to sue the city for $10 million for not catching him sooner.
Riding on the subways is an experience: the map is incomprehensible and the stations smell of piss. As yet I haven't been stabbed to death but last week a woman was stabbed and 18 people standing next to her said they didn't see it.
There are a lot of very strange people running around loose here but I found out if you act strange too then they'll leave you alone. When drunks want to lie down on a subway seat they just make lurid comments to the people sitting next to them and the people all get up and and move to the other side and he lays down.
As usually, I'm not eating well and have started shooting heroin. I almost got caught last night robbing the drugstore around the corner and I'm thinking about converting to Judaism. Other than that I'm doing fine so don't worry.