NYC Childhood

I'm not a native but am friends with a couple of natives and to answer your specific questions:

schedules were important but not as much in the summer

yes, bikes on certain streets, the park was very fun in the summertime

certain neighborhoods were forbidden, some friends at school couldn't go to my house because of My neighborhood (UWS)

Took the bus alone, trains later in HS

I have vidid memories of my dad picking me up as we walked down a sidestreet, so that the rats wouldn't bite me (this was during a garbage strike early 80s). He also taught me to cross the street when there was a crazy looking person coming towards us.

And fond memories of spitting on cars off the Brooklyn Bridge.

In LA, we used to have Birthday parties in the local park if our yards were not big enough (or our Moms were too anal).

Could you have B-day parties in CP?

In 1967, our neighborhood in LA got a 7/11 with a slurpee machine. Did NYC kids do slurpees?

You grew up riding the subways running with people

Up in Harlem, down on Broadway

You're no tramp but you're no lady talkin' that street talk

You're the heart and soul of New York City

And love, love is just a passing word

It's the thought you had in a taxi cab

That got left on the curb

When he dropped you off at East 83rd

Oh oh oh

(Oh oh oh)

You're a native New Yorker

You should know the score by now

(You should know by now)

You're a native New Yorker

New York girl, ooh ooh ooh

Music plays, everyone's dancing closer and closer

Making friends and finding lovers

There you are lost in the shadows searching for someone

(Searchin' for someone)

To set you free from New York City

And, whoa, where did all those yesterdays go

When you still believed

Love could really be like a Broadway show

You are the star, win the applause

Oh oh oh

(Oh oh oh)

You're a native New Yorker

No one opens the door

For a native New Yorker

(Runnin' pretty, New York City girl)

Ooh ooh ooh

Native, native, native New Yorker

Where did all those yesterdays go

When you still believed

Love could really be like a Broadway show

You are the star

You're a native New Yorker

You should know the score by now

You're a native New Yorker

You should know the score

You should know the score by now

You're a native New Yorker, oh oh oh

(Native, native, native New Yorker)

Where is Charlie? This thread is a wonderful invitation for him to share some of the fabulous experiences that molded/shaped him and enabled him to become New York's most glamorous shop bottom.

Does Brooklyn count? It sure as hell wasn't "Brooklyn" then. Never get too close for someone asking for directions. Bikes in the streets as long as it wasn't fancy. But did walk back and forth from school from 2nd grade on by myself. Transit strike, garbage strike, milk strike, newspaper strike, teachers strike, only main drags cleared after snowstorm (1977?), and of course blackout. Subway to and from school in the city from 12 on (1981?) which was an education in itself - saw my first and second dead body that way. Lunch of a slice and a soda for a buck and the Catholic school kids blew up a glass store front every 4th of July. Good miss it.

So Brooklyn got fewer services than Manhattan?

Queens, Bronx, SI welcome, too

Just during snowstorms. It was sort of cool, all the streets were impassable so you could walk where you want. People were making all these great ice sculptures and I even think the schools closed.

Lived on Fifth...never walk on the park side after dark, they jump out at you.

Born and raised in Staten Island. I had a wonderful childhood (80's/90s), lived in a suburban neighborhood in a house with a yard and a pool, and only 30 minutes from Manhattan--the best of both worlds! I was lucky because my parents took me into "the city" practically every weekend (the Staten Island ferry carried cars pre-911). We'd go to museums, see shows, wander around Central Park, etc. However, like I said, I was lucky--to a lot of kids on Staten Island, Manhattan may as well have been a different world.

When I was 13, my parents started letting me go to Manhattan by myself. That seems young when I think about it now, but I was very mature and responsible for my age, and kind of a nerd, so I'd take the express bus into the city and go to a Museum or the Library of Performing Arts or a matinee. We had relatives in every borough in every type of neighborhood, so I was pretty street smart at a young age.

At 15, I dropped out of high school and started working in theatre. At 16, most of my friends were much older and a bit sophisticated, and I'd go out to bars all over the city with them. NEVER got carded back then, I think I get carded more now. Drank a lot. At 17, surprise! Came out of the closet. At 18, I was almost raped on the street one evening walking down 8th avenue in Chelsea, and have had anxiety/panic issues ever since. At 19, I was partying it up at nightclubs and doing mountains of cocaine. At 20 I gave up on theatre and landed a very high paying office job. Wasn't glamorous, but can't complain with that money.

My story would be far different if I wasn't in NYC. I wouldn't trade any of it for the world. It wasn't all sunshine and roses, but it was my New York experience.

Shit, sorry for my autobiography guys, I'm a little tipsy.

Grew up in the East Village Chelsea (parents were separated) and we road our bikes on the sidewalk. I also started walking myself to school in the 4th grade (mid-80's), We were allowed to go out for lunch in 5th and 6th grades at my school (Ray's Pizza!). I started taking the subway freshman year to get to HS. My mom didn't want me going past Avenue B in those days and I tended to obey her. I was a timid and boring kid.

The East Village and Chelsea, I meant to type.

I'm guessing people in Queens and Staten Island swam in outdoor pools in parks. I'm guessing Manhattan people had indoor pools for summer fun.

R12, honey as long as you swallow, it's okay

Interesting, R11. I'd like to hear more stories.

I was molested.

I was born and raised in Queens; Briarwood to be exact. It was toward the end of the line on the E/F train. It had a mix of apartment buildings and Archie Bunker styled houses. I grew up in an apartment so we didn't have a backyard to play in but we made do with the school playground and the park spaces we had. My parents pretty much let me run wild on my free time but the rule was I had to back home for dinner, around 6:30-ish.

I was allowed to ride on the subway starting around 12 years old. I used to go to the East Village to hit the record stores like Tower & Bleecker Bob's (where I could get UK imports) and then go to comic book shops like Forbidden Planet and the Batcave. I ended up going to Stuyvesant HS on the LES so I commuted to school on the subway, making sure to catch the train by 6:30 am so that I was at school on time. I learned early on what school things I could push off until the commute to school like studying for tests or any reading that was due later that day. I went to Columbia U so I stayed in NYC for my entire education.

I think growing up in NYC taught me early on how to be independent and to learn how to handle new and different situations but I do feel a bit of envy for people who grew up in a house with a yard or went to a university that has a "proper" campus and got to experience the whole college living thing.

My female cousin now 63 grew up in Greenwich Village and went everywhere either on foot, cab or on the subway including going to school out in Riverdale. We stayed with her stepbrothers in Brooklyn Heights in 1972 and I was 12 and took my grandmother ALL over Manhattan on the subway and I was just a flyover punk from the Midwest. My cousin never experienced crime until she left NYC and went to school in DC.