Thanks for that, Missouri Mud: And yes, Amos, Greenwich Village was dirty. New York City was dirty. If you lived there, you tuned that out, real quick. I still remember a wonderful New Yorker cartoon of a woman standing by an elegantly set table in an outdoor terrace of a penthouse calling to her husband , "Hurry up and eat your soup before it gets dirty." Same with derelicts and down-and-outers. I din't find them any more or less prevalent in Greenwich Village. Certainly, they were less ubiguitous than in Times Square or Houston Street. One of the reasons I decided that I wanted to get out of New York City was because you almost have to become oblivious to the suffering around you in order to survive, emotionally. Like a nurse in a health care center. You can't live if you are constantly upset by the suffering of others. At the same time, I felt at home the first time I walked the streets of the Village. It did feel human-scaled to me. Heck, you could even dawdle in the Village. Try doing that on Park Avenue and you'll be run over. I also found the Village very welcoming to the confidence-impaired. And I was the poster child for that. There was a sense of comaraderie (sp?) that was mostly real. When the first rumblings of the Folk Boom strated running through the Village, most people were genuinely happy when a friend was offered a recording contract.

Like most places and times, Greenwich Village in the early 60's encompassed the best and worst of people. It was all part of what made those days special.

Jerry