| I consider myself the foremost historian on life in | | | | Occasionally men found a mentally disturbed |
| Greenwich Village in the Fifties and sixties. Many | | | | woman who had sex with the whole |
| of my younger years were spent observing and | | | | neighborhood, but it was difficult to get a date |
| enjoying its night life. After finishing my factory | | | | with her. This was the way things were and it is |
| job at midnight I unwound by drinking beer with | | | | not surprising that people got fed up with those |
| the out of town visitors. They were an interesting | | | | rules. Greenwich Village became the battleground |
| bunch of guys and gals. They all came to New | | | | for a more open society where adults could |
| York looking for a new kind of sexual experience | | | | choose the way they had sex and with whom. |
| it was one that was not available in their | | | | Word soon spread through out the country that |
| hometown. They found what they were looking | | | | there was a "sexual oasis" in New York City |
| for in Greenwich Village. That crowd was called by | | | | where free love was available. Sex starved single |
| the writers of that era: "Beatniks", they also were | | | | guys and gals from all over the nation left their |
| called: "The Beat Generation". | | | | families and jobs and headed eastward to |
| The village in the early fifties was a low rent | | | | Greenwich Village. And when they met they |
| neighborhood occupied by Italian-American families | | | | found sexual freedom in each other. Most were |
| and college students from nearby New York | | | | broke and had to share one room with ten |
| University. The students socialized in Washington | | | | others. Some lived on only a few cans of beans a |
| Square Park and in the many coffee shops | | | | day, but nothing mattered to them but having |
| scattered around the area. It was a quiet | | | | great sex as often as they pleased. They were |
| picturesque scene as young people studied, | | | | young and had unlimited sexual energy. |
| relaxed and chatted in coffee shops and in the | | | | Poets and writers discovered a marketable |
| park. What made the area stand out most was | | | | opportunity in romanticizing the sex life of the |
| that it was an inexpensive place for college | | | | young guys and gals who newly arrived in the |
| students to spend their time. On the weekends | | | | village. They called them:" Beatniks" or products of |
| the coffee shops and parks were full of hundreds | | | | the: "Beat Generation", But the truth was simple. |
| of thousands of young students who wanted to | | | | They were just ordinary young people who |
| experience its lay back atmosphere. | | | | wanted a sexual freebie without their parents |
| Most people in the early fifties had very narrow | | | | interfering with their personal life. |
| sexual views. It was forbidden for a woman to | | | | This sexual paradise came to an end when the |
| have a sexual affair before marriage and if the | | | | guys and gals realized that they had other needs |
| neighbors found out that she broke the rules, she | | | | that were just as important as sexual ones. They |
| was called a tramp. If a woman got herself | | | | slowly went back to their hometowns, families, |
| pregnant without a guy willing to marry her it was | | | | and jobs. But it was a learning experience for |
| a cause for her to commit suicide. On the other | | | | them and it was all worth it. Greenwich Village |
| end horny young single men were suffering | | | | today has become gentrified, only the elite can |
| extreme agony with no way to relieve | | | | afford to live there. But memories of what once |
| themselves. Most were forced to constantly | | | | took place still remain. |
| masturbate while others got quickly married. | | | | |