Hardcore Luxury® -- Always 100% USA

New York City Surprise

One of the fringe benefits of WeatherWool is that it affords me the opportunity to speak with people all over the USA and Canada and sometimes other countries too. Almost all the people I speak with are men, and a lot of them are country boys. It naturally comes up that I've spent the great majority of my days very near -- or in -- New York City. And frequently my telephone-friends will say something like IT'S SO CROWDED ... SO MANY PEOPLE ... HOW CAN YOU STAND IT!!?? ... this has played out well over 100 times, I'm sure ... and my answer is always the same ... HALF OF THOSE PEOPLE ARE WOMEN ... and the reaction is also always the same ... GEE, NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT IT THAT WAY ... Suddenly NYC doesn't sound so bad!

That reminds me of another NYC story that I could have sworn was already on the website, but I don't find it ......

In 1976 I was 22 and living in Manhattan's famous and crazy Greenwich Village. NYC was and is a magnet for young people and particularly for those who grew up nearby, as I did, in Jersey.

Just before deer season, I'd been living "in town" for a few months and realized that I qualified for a New York State Resident Hunting License. The Resident License was $6, I think, and the non-Resident License was around $35 ... that difference would cover about 2 weeks food ... a really big deal.

The usual way to demonstrate residency was a driver license. But a new driver license would have been money out-of-pocket, and a delay. Somehow I found out that a notarized statement, backed up by utility bills, was enough to prove residency for purposes of a hunting license.

So I walked up to a PHONE BOOTH and looked up notaries in THE YELLOW PAGES. The first name I spotted was Dr Freddy Alvarez. I called Dr Freddy and explained and he said to come on by. When I asked about his fee, he said DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT.

Dr Freddy was an attorney, and I don't know what kind of doctor he was, but he was definitely not your usual New York City doctor or lawyer. He had an office in midtown Manhattan, right on Times Square, and to my amazement he also had  a side-by-side shotgun leaning against the wall next to his desk!

Dr Freddy typed up my statement -- hardcopy on a manual typewriter, of course, this is 1976 -- and we signed it and dated it and he embossed it with his official Notary Seal and wished me Good Luck. When I asked again how much I owed him, he repeated DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT. I hope Dr Freddy's having a great time somewhere!!

 

27 May 2021 --- Ralph