Dag för dag: Resealbumet "NYC revisited" av Busylizzy

Eric Ferrara is the great, great guy that besides authoring the book "A Guide to Gangsters, Murderers and Weirdos of New York City's Lower East Side" (http://gmwbook.com) also is the founder of the Lower East Side History Project as well as one of its' extraordinarily engaging guides.

The Lower East Side History Project is a non-profit organization with a dedicated mission to research about, document and preserve the all to fast disappearing history of the greater Lower East Side. Besides an exellent historical database accessible through their website, they offer walking tours in the area. The professional and NYC licensed guides are dedicated community members, authors, educators and historians - all native or veteran New Yorkers.

The guides are specialists in each of their areas, and let me tell you - I have never listened with bigger ears. I knew that Allen Ginsberg lived around the corner from my apartment, but Bugsy Siegel, Al Capone, Lucky Luciano and John Gotti? Places I had passed by a hundred times that had been headquarters for all kinds of sordid events, and the original adress for the Black Hand in Little Italy is the place where I now can go shopping for a handbag. These tours are real gems!

I had really dreaded going back to East Village, so much is changed and it now mostly feels like a large college frat party, instead of the alternative artist- and activist place it once was. Or maybe I should have said had become? From a historic point of view I learn that this change is just part of the cycle, as this area has always been under constant change, and trying to freeze time will just make for a dead place. But still - some of the history HAS to be preserved as we otherwise will forget. We need to know where we come from in order to know who we are and where we are going, isn't that so? A 20 year old russian immigrant Clara Lemlich speaking at Cooper Union made 20.000 women garment workers go on strike, an event that gave womens suffrage and workers rights a momentum forward. Historical events forming the world I live in have happened on my very doorstep. I should know this. I am a woman and a worker. Going back became more of an empowerment than a silly trip down memory lane. I am happy I came back. Using the Village as a measuring tool I can also see I have grown. I have changed. Thank God!

Lower East Side History Project website
http://www.leshp.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=1

When I moved to New York in the late 80's, one of the first things I had to do was to get a telephone line. I headed up to what was the New York Telephone buildning on East 13th street. The lines were long and gray and oh, so slow. When you have to spend the better part of the day standing in a line like that, you either languish on your own, or try to make some friends. Are you nice enough, the person in front of you will save your spot when you make a deli- or bathroom run, or even better, invite you to share their packed lunch. Behind me was a couple that spoke no english, but in front of me there was this russian family with a son that spoke some english. We immediately struck up conversation and at the end of the day we had swopped our first phone numbers. A few days later I get a phone call from my new found friends. I am invited to their house for dinner - would I come? I am a sucker for everything foreign and have never met any russians earlier. I immediately accept the invitation.

A few days later I am greeted by the son as I arrive to what must have been Brighton Beach or Sheepshead Bay subway station. We walk to the apartment in an adjacent complex where we meet the rest of the family. As we enter the building I am overcome by all sorts of wonderful smells of boiling pots, and immediately feel at home. I have yet to learn how to cook and I appreciate every time I eat a real homecooked meal. This proves to be a real treat. I remember sitting around the table, plastic covered chairs, pink table cloth, the mother with her big russian bleach blond hairdo and me gulping down my very first real bortsch. I don't remember the conversation much, but although it definitely was a struggle we had lots of laughs and it was a wonderful evening.

Since then, I've made many russian friends and had many more wonderful russian eating experinces. I so wished to re-visit this part of the city, so of course we had to come down to what is called Odessa by the sea.

Being a sunday, the boardwalk was packed with people. The older generation occupying the seats facing the wonderful stretch of sandy beach, women with stern faces and hats and men playing chess. Now, eating out in one of the restaurants along the boardwalk is not a budget travellers option so we continued along the boardwalk all the way to Coney Island and instead had the must have frank at Nathans. These days I make a killer bortsch myself.