I think I was about seventeen or eighteen when I made this picture. My cousin Elliot and I drove up to Spring Valley, Long Island to where we were staying. The next day we went into the city and just walked around … except for our lengthy stop at the long gone and lamented Crazy Eddie stereo store.  We ended up walking out with Elliot’s new and largest /heaviest stereo receiver I had ever seen/picked up and carried.  The Pioneer and its box had to weigh at least seventy five pounds … maybe more! All I know is it took two of us to carry the beast! Somehow we managed to get it to our car that was parked in some garage that wasn’t nearby at all.

But for the rest of the day and part of the next one I spent my time meandering around Manhattan, with occasional breaks for some deli at Katz’s and Ratner’s. Ratner’s is also long gone, but I still have fond memories about how great that strawberry cheese was. So good that we bought an entire one to bring home in the car. Yeah, right … it never had a chance and was devoured long before we got back!  I used either my Pentax Spotmatic or Nikkormat … can’t remember which one I had then. Either way it was just a camera body and a fifty millimeter lens. All I needed, and all I could afford!

I had never been to New York before and everything was fascinating! I shot a couple of rolls and ended up with a few good pictures, but one in particular was a real keeper. I called it Husband Liberation for one of the signs the subject had attached to himself. The picture was made during the height of the Woman’s Liberation movement.  I never fully understood if this guy was serious or whether it was a joke, but I had to get the picture!  It’s something you would probably never see today … and for good reason!  Nevertheless I still enjoy looking at it and remembering my first visit to New York.

Feel free to hammer me if you must!

Stay well,

Michael