Long Ago Styles

I had moved to New York City barely two years earlier. My girlfriend and I had recently begun living together in a tiny apartment in Brooklyn. That spring and summer I played tour guide for her, taking her around Manhattan, Brooklyn and even out to the beach in Queens. I showed her the most famous areas in the heart of the metropolis, which of course included Central Park.

We went to Belvedere Castle which offered an overview of much of the park, walked around the Delacorte Theater and explored the Great Lawn. We were in our twenties, that era's version of Millennials. We were managing although money was never truly plentiful. Still, the city offered a never ending list of free things to see and do, whether in the Village or in Midtown where we both worked, or in the large green expanse where we stopped and took photos.

I have always thought that New York City is its most fascinating and memorable for young adults. We were like others, matching the city's energy and at the same time part of its fuel. Exploring its neighborhoods and districts, participating in its arts and culture, observing and communicating with other young people, learning information that could be useful for our careers and especially planting our own creative contributions was what we most wanted to do. It was our reason for being New Yorkers. Along the way, we recorded ourselves in the place we lived in by choice.

Looking back decades later at the guy in this picture, dressed in clothes that portray long ago styles and colors, there is a lot of him still present in the city although he looks much older and dresses differently. He continues to visit and hang out in all those places that were marvelous in the past and which remain essential today. Both he and the city have grown and altered their appearance, in some ways dramatically. But we both also remain, at our core, the same.