Times Square

I've been in Times Square hundreds of times, but last Sunday, before and after seeing Of Mice and Men, I took a look around and soaked up the sights and sounds. The intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue, Times Square is the most-visited tourist attraction in the world, and perhaps nowhere else is there such a cross-section of humanity.

I first came to know Times Square in the early '80s, when it was still a crime-ridden cesspool. But, being fascinated with the tawdry and pornographic, I was drawn to it. When I came home from college I took the train to Penn Station, then hiked up to the Port Authority to take a bus home to Jersey. The bus station is always the worst part of any town, and 8th Avenue and 42nd Steet was no exception. The block of 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth was one of the worst in Manhattan, full of peep shows, porno theaters, and hookers. Some nights I would walk down that block just for the thrill of it, the equivalent of jumping out of an airplane for others.

I remember a place called Peepland, which I think is where the AMC Empire is now, or maybe Dave and Buster's next door. Peep shows were a favorite of mine--you bought yourself some tokens, went into a booth, inserted a token, and a door would slide up, revealing a window. A naked woman was inside, and if you tipped her (shoving a dollar bill through a crack beside the window) she'd push her vagina right against the glass. Later, I found a home in Show World, right across the street from the bus station, a Disneyland of sex. They had more elaborate booths, where the window was full-length, and you could talk to the girl. They also had live sex shows, and a theater where touring porn stars would perform. I saw Tiffany Mynx blow smoke rings out of her pussy there.

Times Square, since then, has been cleaned up, mostly due to Rudolph Giuliani and Disney. The porn theaters, including Show World, are gone. There were a few old-time palaces that were run down and showing porn or other schlock. They have been renovated, and one of them, now called The New Amsterdam, in the current home of Aladdin on Broadway.

There is a bit of nostalgia for the old porno Times Square, but it's certainly better for business, and besides, we can watch our porn at home now. There's no real replacement for the peep show palaces, though.

So today Times Square is kind of a perpetual carnival. A relatively new thing is the wandering characters, and I don't mean crazy people (they're still there, but not as many). Like Hollywood Boulevard, where unsavory people wearing costumes hustle for tips, Times Square has the same thing--Mickey Mouse, Betty Poop, Hello Kitty, Elmo, several Spider-Men. There was a woman in patriotic gear who I realized had nothing on top except for paint, surely pushing the law. For a moment I was outraged--children could see this! Until I remembered that I would have loved to see her as a child. One long time Times Square character, the Naked Cowboy, who wears nothing but boots, a hat, tightie-whities, and a guitar, is still there. There were two other guys calling themselves Naked Cowboy--either the original guy is franchising, or he failed to trademark himself.

Sunday was a beautiful day, and about six o'clock the Square was humming with activity. The sidewalks were elbow to elbow with people. Tourists everywhere, including many sailors--it's Fleet Week--and they were all over in their dress whites. A stage was set up at the south end, and a rock band made up of sailors were performing. When I get close enough I like to check out the patches on their arms, to see what ship they're on. Many were on the U.S.S. Cole, which was bombed in 2000. Glad to see it's back on the sea.

There's really no place like Times Square, for good or ill. It has been the gathering place for crowds for over a century--first called Longacre Square, then changed to its current name when the New York Times moved there in 1904. The Times has gone a few blocks away, but One Times Square is still the name of the building where the ball is dropped every New Year's Eve (and you won't catch me there at that time, no thank you). Before it was the crossroads of America, it was farmland, and not too long before that, probably good hunting ground for the natives.

America is represented by a lot of places, from the rolling prairie to the top of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific shore, but one can't help but feel that America can be found right there, right in Times Square.