Old New York, New New York

"I too lived, Brooklyn of ample hills was mine,
I too walk’d the streets of Manhattan island, and bathed in the waters around it,
I too felt the curious abrupt questionings stir within me."

And curious questionings they are, Mr. Whitman. Deb needs to know, for instance, where does one buy churros in this town? I needed to find something to try and make peace with the child since I’m clearly on my own here. She’s just a little kid with a deadbeat dad.


On the train going towards what I thought might yield churros results, I smiled at this woman and gave her the secret nanny solidarity glance.
She was wrangling two toddlers and I lacked my nanny prop of the child to indicate I was of her clan so I don’t think my united front registered with her but she was cheerful and smiling still.

Then my prayers were answered at the Metropolitan Avenue stop.



Churros, two for a dollar, right there in the subway! I tried to ask the lady selling them if she’d made them but she was too busy texting someone to answer my questions.



G train churros. How fantastico is that? I cannot take the child to Mexico to her dad but maybe I can bring a little of Mexico to the child.

Once more I arrived at Fort Greene and I meandered into DARE Bookstore, over on Lafayette Ave run by Desmond, the store’s owner-operator.



Desmond is another Jamaican transplant to Brooklyn, and has lived here for decades. He was chatting with another customer when I walked in and he said he was so grateful to have lived during the times he had. He saw his first tv when he moved to NY at age 17 and got to see a black man elected president.



But Desmond also said that he was about to close his store, which specializes in African American literature. His main source of income is the contract he has with the city department of education and he lost his account, along with about 100 other small contractors, when the city chose to use one giant megacorporation instead.

Desmond has plans though which involve moving to a warmer climate and building up his own publishing house, DARE Books. "I never expected anything from anyone", he told me. Perhaps in our Obama-victory nation, Desmond can soon afford the luxury of expectations.

This is Deb, living just enough, just enough for the city.