I Lift My Lamp Beside The Golden Door – The Best of New York Trivia

Trim size: 210 x 148 mm

Synopsis   

IT WAS 4.20pm on Friday afternoon, November 6, 1970 when this writer, standing at Union Square, New York City, noticed an incident in which not a word was spoken but the meaning was manifestly clear. Two men had been selling fruit from the side of a truck when a police officer walked towards them. There was a sign indicating there was no parking beyond 4pm and the policeman looked at his watch, looked at the fruit vendors and jerked a thumb. The fruiterers gave the officer a filthy look, but immediately closed the side of the truck and drove off. It was far from a new vehicle and rumbled as it moved off; the rumbling echoing the fruiterers’ discontent at having their day ended. Ironically Union Square in 1976 became the site of a year-round Greenmarket where stalls of fruit, vegetables and artisan foods from farms and niche producers are set up to sell to the public.