European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 08, 1963, Darmstadt, Hesse Paivi there i itt for contemplation ,. And Telf sex Previlon in Village. A Gary p. Gates Dpi staff Wal str one Day according to legend i european violinist emerged from the subway station it Sheridan Square in the heart of Greenwich Village la new York and. Not knowing where to was med a bearded passerby How can i got to car Negie Hall practice. In practice came the a tavern called Google a casual bartender dressed in Blue jeans and san dais passes out matchbooks exhorting co existence while scrawled on the Wall of the establishment is this provocative re minder peace the Corner in a Coffee House obscurely named cafe wha a teen age girl her pretty yes hidden behind dark sunglasses explains to her male compan Ion what bores me about your friends is their sicker than thou these isolated anecdotes help. In their weird Way. To keep alive the image of Greenwich Village As America s most off beat those who View it from the Rutilde the Village is a montage of narrow picturesque streets which curl and weave like Drunken snakes through lower Manhattan the people who live there Are usually referred to u bohemians or beatniks two All inclusive terms used to describe struggling artists. Intellectual malcontents or without causes and less easily defined neurotics who Wallow to Gether in this uninhibited Playpen of eccentricity. Like most stereotypes this one is largely distorted. It is the View from the other Side of the looking Glass. Those who live within its reflections regard the Village a the Best of All possible worlds. What 1c Greenwich vol life More than anything else perhaps it is a state o mind like zen buddhism and the new Frontier. Or As one shrewd observer was inclined to put it. Greenwich Village is like a Rorschach lest. How you feel about it reflects what you re really like. For better or for worse there is no denying that it still la the Bohemian Cap ital of the nation America s answer to the left Bank in Paris and the Soho Lection of London. The Peculiar Charm or Greenwich Vil Lage la that there Are at the very least Post 12 four distinct groups which each in its own special Way contribute to the life of the Community. They Are 1 the immigrant working class 2 the bohemians 3 the Madison Avenue types 4 the tourists. What makes the situation amusing la that each group is convinced the villages its rightful property and that the others Don t really what makes it doubly amusing is that there was a time not too Long ago. When none of them belonged. During most of the 19th Century the Village was a quiet fashionable Community inhabited by some of new York s wealth Iest families. Out of this tranquil Environ ment for example there emerged the James Brothers not Jesse and Frank but William and Henry. But when the in my Grants and Low income minority group began pouring into the area the Blue bloods cleared out. Shortly be Ore world War i the bohemians arrived in clusters and the other two groups followed like night after Day. One of Henry James More readable novels is a Fine portrait of life in the Village before All these gothic invasions took place and so to borrow a phrase from Shepro Pylelo of Google a these four groups now coexist in amiable discontent. How they do it is More than half the fun. The immigrant working class there is a joint on sixth Avenue called pm lilo a whih serves the Best pizza in the Village. You place your order with a Cook who does t understand English anymore than one such meal has been pre ceded by u squabble Over whether the stuff was ordered with mushrooms As the Cus Tomer contends or with sausage As u is about to be served. Like baseball umpires the Cook at Emillo a always wins. The clientele almost entirely consists of italian labourers who Are forever greeting each other Wilt a salutation that seems to cover everything from i to How s i our wife they extend a suspicious nod to customers from one of theother Village groups who May have wan dered in. There Are Many bars like this in the Village where the italian labourers who live in the neighbourhood gather during their Leisure hours to preserve the customs and off beat \ if up Woith Englon Square i playground of the Village and or Minui of we Fol language not of the old country especially but of the old Village where their fathers settled and lived in peace until As a Reg ular customer at Emillo a once put it All these crazy people moved Down her and began taking the bohemians one of the great advantages of living in the Village if you happen to be a Bohemian is the endless Opportunity for self. Express Lon which often manifests itself i strange ways. For example Google a with us peace swings exhortation in t the Only tavern enjoys a flourishing literary reputation. Scribblings of rare profundity can be found All Over the neighbourhood. Some Are political editorials like Juk digs nepotism and the Day col another Persona favorite is a nostalgic Gem composed by an aficionado of world War h Kilroy was White horse tavern is a Good place to catch up on your Reading and Bohemian scratching also have been carved on the Walls of Julius and sic. Fan the bohemians do most of their the stars and stripes drinking and scrawling in the daytime when All the other Village group Are Pur suing lives of Jull respectability at work ,.in a evening the bohemians Retreat like gophers into the Coffee houses to while a their poverty and the various masterpieces they til in tend to Start working on some Day. I i � Coue scores of serious and dedicated artists who live in the Al be but they Seldom have much time to Coffee houses and taverns " � at the Coffee houses that the male bohemians meet up with their of Lejca. Some of these Chicks Are unemployed actresses and such who have been around Lor a spell while others Are recently arrived refugees from Suburbia who after usually before the night is Over a Folk song is Sung or a poem is recited and this or vie by Beuer. And finally when the boredom be. Come unbearable they top out into the
