I'm Massapequa . I was in the city all the time. In 1976 I was 13, the round trip fare was $4.00 to Penn station. Then I would take two subways to Grand Central to get a train to Westchester. My best friend lived there.

That was scary, the city was seedy. I remember a street fair on 8th or 9th by broadway being filled with XXX movies, and topless dancer bars.

I would usually be in the village. Washington Square park. I felt like such a dorky tourist there. But I loved the avant garde atmosphere. You could smoke pot in public, and people watch.
I was at every concert venue: MSG, the Palladium, CBGBs, Roseland. I remember those. Central Park free concerts Lazar Rock at the Hayden Planetarium.

The train took back to Long Island I blew the dirt out of my nose, bathed, and reminisced.

Years later I got to know the conductors of a train I took all the time. It was the 4:30diesel train from Bay Shore to Jamaica. An empty train. They had a lot of seniority.

I asked them which is the worse train to work. I thought Saint Patty's day or New Year's Eve. I was wrong, it was anytime the Rangers and Islanders played at the garden.