Sunset on Great Jones Street

Tuesday night, I met two old friends, Anna & Chris at Chinatown, a restaurant at the corner of Lafayette Street and Great Jones Street for dinner. The spot formerly was the Time Cafe.

We sat outside and enjoyed the view. There's a parking lot across the street, and in the rear of the lot an old chapel abuts the property on the north side. You can see the outline of stain glass windows on each side of the building. This chapel was part of City House, one of the largest orphanages in the world. My grandfather, Thomas E. Pryor, spent time in City House between 1909 and 1916. He also lived in Mount Loretto a working farm orphanage in Staten Island on the Raritan Bay until he was emancipated.

Sitting there, I thought of my grandfather in the orphanage across the street 100 years ago. That close to his lonely place with my old friends connected me to him. I sent my warmth towards his spirit.

Here is a link to "Lonelyville," by Garland Jeffreys off his terrific 1992 album, "Don't Call Me Buckwheat."

http://mp3lemon.org/song/389963/Garland_Jeffreys_-_11_-_Lonelyville

Picture Book

Had lunch in Chinatown with my LaSalle Academy teacher, Patrick Cullinan . In 1969, Pat realized Geometry was not my strength and he graciously bent a straight line to get me out of the path of summer school. God bless him.

We caught up and had fun. Pat's a terrific photographer and a large part of his work can be found at his photo web site: http://pcullinan.smugmug.com/.

In his pictures, he caught an era going through seismic changes in the East Village (1968-1973). Pat loves New York City history and it visually takes off in these photos. All b&w shots were taken by Mr. C.


















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ps walking around after lunch, we circled the old Collect Pond foot-print. I believe the building at the n/e corner of Bayard & Baxter Street may be one of the few walk-up seven story buildings in NYC.