BE Ch 9 summary + ?

[David Morris]

Allen,

Nice to hear your memories about NYC then and there.   I spent a summer in
the City, 1981,  working an architect job, just above intern level (I was
getting paid),  biding time between undergrad and grad school, age 22,
sharing an NYU dorm room with a summer school undergrad there. The dorm was
on 5th Avenue just above Washington Square Park.  I spent many weekend
mornings drinking coffee in that park, watching the roller skaters.

One day during the week a friend and I decided to see how far up into the
Chrysler Building we could get, hoping to make it into the crown.  We just
walked in from the street and took an elevator up as high as it went, and
landed at what I think was the lobby of an office on one of the top floors
(it might have been a short corridor).  We found an unlocked stair door
which took us up into an attic space from which we looked back out at
Manhattan (I can’t remember in which  direction) from one of those
triangular windows!  We’d made it!

Those were also the early days of punk.   My NYU roomie and his buds were
 big into punk (but not the attire).  He had lots of 45s.  I never made it
to CBGB, but one of the women my age in the office played sax in a punk
band, and one very late night I ventured by foot deep into the
semi-dangerous West Village to see her play at a typical hole in the wall
dive bar.  Another one of my ‘81 Summer NYC adventures…

We also tried to get into the WTC bar at the top, but I think we didn’t get
in because we weren’t dressed for it.

On Wed, Dec 15, 2021 at 5:52 PM Allen Ruch <quail at shipwrecklibrary.com>
wrote:

> I loved the sway! One of my favorite things was to go to the bar at the
> Windows on the World.

[…]

> I had to work 24 hours straight. And in the morning, the fog covered the
> city below, you couldn't see anything but your brother the Chrysler
> Building, the only other spire large enough to poke up from the mist.
>
> I still do love this city.
>
> —Quail
>
> Great Luna song: "Going Home." (1994). Still makes me cry a little
> whenever I hear it:
>
> "The Chrysler building
> Was talkin' to the Empire State
> The Twin Towers
> Were talkin' to each other...
> Sayin' all is forgivin'
> I love you still
> And we're home, home
> Goin' home..."
>