My favorite month of the year started out nicely with a Village Preservation event at La Nacional – The Spanish Benevolent Society on West 14th Street. “Celebrating the Revolutionary Village: 250 Years and More of Greenwich Village” with John Strausbaugh, author of
The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues, a History of Greenwich Village. I read Strausbaugh’s book many years ago, my copy filled with little sticky arrows highlighting notable names and passages. The lecture was a walk through time, from the early formation of the neighborhood to present day, with lots of little stories and anecdotes peppered in. It was a breath of fresh air to step back into the city history I enjoy so much. When it was over, I walked back to Union Square with another attendee, an older gentleman who has lived in the village for decades, and we shared our own stories: things I’ve learned through years of reading and things he knows from firsthand experience. It was one of those city evenings that reminds me why I love it here.
The #roaming efforts the past couple months have been low, especially lately as I nurse a lower back issue. I did make an excursion to an orchard in New Jersey, complete with hot apple cider, fresh cider doughnuts, and a stroll through a pick-your-own pumpkin patch.
I popped down to Soho at one point to check out a couple of shops and noticed this building on the corner of Prince and Greene Streets. All of its east-facing façade windows, except two, were painted on.
This past weekend, I took a long stroll to Astoria Park, hoping for some good leaf-peeping. The trees are not in their prime just yet, but it was a gorgeous autumn day nonetheless.
