city and country

Connect the dots: an appropriate app for Lichtenstein

So last night I had dinner with the woman who is responsible for my introduction to New York. She was a New Yorker born and bred who was living in Oakland, Calif., when I got to know her; I, en route back from growing cabbages and selling muumuus in Hawaii, fancied myself a country girl. Together, we moved into our first apartment on Central Park West and 103rd Street. Back in 1974, that was Zeroland, with projects all around.
    We did not go out after dark as a rule. But one night, we ran out of cigarettes and dared to round a corner to the bodega a block away. There we purchased smokes and were accosted by a large, black man carrying a two-foot carved wooden spoon like a scepter. He bowed.
     "May I escort you ladies through the jungle?" he asked.
     "Why certainly," we replied.
     And he walked us home.