Q60 Blues ~ 1967

“Love is a hurting thing” played on the transistor radio pressed to my ear as I waited for the Q60 bus. Leaning on the wall outside Eduardo’s Italian restaurant, I wasn’t in love with any particular person but totally related to Lou Rawls words in the tune. It was September 1967, the previous month my family moved from Yorkville to Sunnyside for a bunch of ridiculous reasons that had nothing to do with my life. I was 13, and spending as much time as I could back on York Avenue but I had an 11:30 pm curfew on weekend nights. My father was an amazing pain in the ass – his stone look made me beg silently, “please hit me, and get it over with.” Earlier this week, I walked from an appointment on 38th Street back to Yorkville past the New York Daily News Building, Tudor City, the Chrysler Building, and a row of old law tenements on 51th Street and Third Avenue that my grandfather saw from his third floor window across the street in the apartment he was born @ 1900.

When I reached the 59th Street Bridge I walked up the Roosevelt Island Tram platform and took pictures of the old Trolley Kiosk that sits in front of the bridge’s entrance on Second Avenue. I rode that trolley from Manhattan to Queens then back again to Manhattan with my father on its last day of service in April 1957. That’s when I became addicted to the aroma of baking bread floating over the water from the Silvercup factory in LIC. Every time I pass the bridge, the kiosk, the bus stop, a swell of mixed feelings come up and I never know which way they are going to lead. After the bridge, I took some photos of tenements on their last legs in the mid 60s on First Avenue and a couple of photos of St. Catherine’s Park and Julia Richman.

Here's a link to photos related to locations mentioned above.
"Yorkville: Stoops to Nuts" storytelling show is coming back to Ryan's Daughter @ 350 E. 85th Street. next Wednesday night, April 3rd @ 7pm. Our last show was standing room only, we plan to top it. Our amazing April 3rd artists: Tricia Alexandro, Michele Carlo, Luke Thayer, Adam Wade, Eric Vetter, Alex DeSuze and Seth Foster. I'll host and tell an old Yorkville yarn. Free Event!

Please drop by Cornelia Street Cafe in the West Village to see my photo exhibit "New York Scenes from a Bicycle," on view through March 31st. Framed work and my book, "River to River: New York Scenes from a Bicycle," are for sale at the Cafe, my prints are for sale at Thomas R. Pryor Photography - my book is available online through Amazon.