Getting Old and Getting Out
In New York City
byHerb Bardavid
This is Frank
Frank remarried and he and his wife are both retired teachers, active in the cultural life of New York City. I asked what he likes about the city. The city is always alive with activities. Getting out every day is important. This past January, he was diagnosed with a cardiac condition. He walks at least one mile every day to keep himself in good health. Being out in the city keeps you young. Frank also is interested in politics and social activism. We talked about the issues in the city that concern him.
Frank and his wife, Marcy, have been married for 41 years. They have two children, one lives in the same building, one lives just two blocks away. At age 74, he is in relatively good health, despite the recent minor cardiac condition. He understands that as we age, it is important to get out, do things that give meaning to our lives. Frank seems to be doing just that.
Frank is a retired New York City English teacher. He currently lives in an ILGWU co-operative apartment in the Chelsea neighborhood with his wife, Marcy. He was born and raised in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City, at a time when it was considered one of the toughest neighborhoods of the city with gangs and violence. Frank attended a progressive school from grades one to eight - Downtown Community School. The school was an experiment in cooperative education. Frank said that the school was not focused so much on academics as it was on the exploration of art, people and music. Pete Seeger taught music there. He felt it was a wonderful school which gave him a rich educational experience. However, he was at a serious disadvantage when he started high school because he was rated 4 grades below his grade level. From high school, he went on to Park College in Missouri. In college, he did a lot of partying and drinking although he did manage to graduate. He married while in Missouri, a marriage which did not last very long. He divorced, moved back to New York City. His ex-wife remained in Missouri.
In the 1980s, Frank learned to play the guitar and became involved in the folk music revival. He described this as an attempt to ignite folk music and restore its popularity to that of the 1960s. To that effort, he worked in a musicians' co-operative - Speak Easy - located on McDougal Street, in Greenwich Village They started a magazine called "Fast Forward" which was ultimately called COOP. While they were not able to ignite the folk music revival, the magazine is now in the Smithsonian Museum. Frank was clearly very proud of this achievement.
Frank played a song for me that he had written. The song, Failure to Evolve, was political in nature. I must say his singing and playing were of a professional quality.
