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