Friday, August 17, 2007

Old turf


Took a subway trip down memory lane. Visited the section of Williamsburg, in Brooklyn, where I lived while finishing university and then taught high school some 35 years ago. Took the subway from Manhattan, under the river, and there I was. The neighborhood is cleaner, the cars are in better shape, some of the buildings are updated and there's a cafe with an outdoor patio...but otherwise the place is the same: a Latino ghetto. One of the streets is now subtitled, "Avenue of Puerto Rico". I did see a few men who seemed gay, something I likely would not have remembered, since I lived there before I came out...even to myself.

Fella at the cafe counter where I ate lunch asked me if I was military. To my query why, he said it was the way I held myself when I walked. Several people have mentioned this to me in the last year, something about "gait" and "carriage". Hmmm. So thanks, Dad, for yelling at me all those years that I should stand up straight and hold my shoulders back.

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