Scene and heard

In the summer of ’81, one of my lifelong friends, now a Lawyer, was down on his luck and sharing an apartment on 2nd Street by Avenue C. The area is called Alphabet City, but back then at least, Cockroach City might have been more appropriate – certainly more descriptive.

While I paid my one and only visit to his rather too humble abode, one of his roommates changed the channel on their electric radio and, in disgust at the several roaches that scurried across the face of the radio, heaved the thing out of the open rear window. It probably landed on a rat!

I was asked if I wanted some food and respectfully declined. Before cooking anything, the oven had to be turned on to the full 550 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes. I discovered why. This is one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen. The oven was opened, and a couple of dozen little roaches, their backs grey charred and bubbling, smoke billowing from them, scampered out of there and disappeared I know not where. I was too busy being revolted to notice! As food was then put in the oven, my decision to refuse the hospitality seemed very wise indeed!