East Side, West Side 03/14/00

Mim spent the summer of 1966 doing a residential theater workshop at Greenwich Village's renown Circle in the Square Theater.  Peter (her brother) and I went up to see her in a workshop production of, as I remember, Edward Albee's "Two for the Seesaw." 

As I recall, Mim had one line - someone asked her how her plants were doing and she replied, "They're growing."  Not much of a line, but she delivered it such panache, she, got a laugh.  I was (and am) very proud.

She had to be out of her NYU dorm by Labor Day, so Pete (my husband), Elsa and I trooped up to the Village in the van to bring her and her stuff back to BA. 

We were startled to find every street around Washington Square packed with artists - it was the annual Greenwich Village Art Show.  We were delighted.  Pete seemed especially proud to stroll about with his three womenfolk.  

A special moment was when we spotted Val Sigsted, there with his beautiful wood carvings.  I have no idea who was more startled – seeing him or him seeing friends from Bryn Athyn. 

For brunch (our first), we went to The Cookery, where Alberta Hunter sang.  I had my first taste of chilled strawberry soup. 

Looking back, I am so pleased that Mim gave us the opportunity to experience the Village in its hippie hay day.

That was the start of NYC as  a Lockhart playground.  For years, we returned each Labor Day Sunday  for the Greenwich Village Art Show. 

One year, in the late 1960s, the art show had pretty slim pickings.  It was the first time I saw oil paintings on black velvet.  To salvage the trip, Pete did the unexpected - driving us over each of the bridges connecting Manhattan to its opposite shores.  The Triborough, the Queensboro, the Williamsburg, the Manhattan, the Brooklyn, and we headed home via the George Washington (my apologies if I left one out, it was a while ago). 

Walking around The Village on that first extended visit, I never imagined that Elsa & I would be sitting in Washington Square in the early '80s as Mim received her bachelor's from New York University.

Mim was part of a program for non-traditional students.  She commuted from Bryn Athyn to night classes -- Mim has never been one for doing things the standard way. 

Elsa - to whom Mim occasionally turned for a lift to class – went up often enough that she became familiar with what we call the “back roads” of Manhattan.    Unlike Mim and yours truly, she was blessed to inherit her Dad's sense of direction.

Pete seemed practically clairvoyant to this directions-impaired woman.

When the two of us visited London for a week in the early '70s, people were come up to Pete for directions and he could set them right. 

You know, for a small town gal, I get a charge out of visiting the "Big City"  whether it be NYC, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, London, Chicago, San Francisco or my beloved Sydney.

Love to all - Nan

Strange - there's reference on the internet to Alberta Hunter being rediscovered in the 1970s, but no mention of her singing at The Cookery in the mid-1960s, which she most definitely did!  ~deev~