5 Letters from Washington Square Park

It was a small round tin button that we got for free from a student in Washington Square Park.

I cant remember why exactly we were there, I think just because we could go and experience it, but it was Grandma and Cathy and I. In 1968 or so our country was immersed in the Vietnam war, the kids at NYU and students everywhere were protesting with marches and sit-ins and demonstrations. I was only 14 but I was anti war then and I am anti war now. At 14 you are almost powerless to the messes the grownups make of our world but you can be a keen observer.

This was the day we walked from Brooklyn across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan. (Why take a bus or the subway when you could hoof it a few miles over the river??) The bridge is a beautiful thing and to me brings memories of countless trips into the borough to visit and eat and play. The architectural drawing of that bridge hangs on my parents wall. What a structure it is; really beautiful.

I had never walked over it, though. Believe me it is a good walk. There is a wooden boardwalk in the middle of the span and it is crowded to this day with pedestrians, joggers and bikers. The bridge itself is over a mile long but first we had to walk from Union Street to the bridge and then we walked from the bridge to the park. Once there we encountered the vendors and the students and the musicians and the people who were spending the day in and around lower Manhattan. Hippies everywhere, real ones, not the pseudo ones of today.

At some point we gave a small donation to get protest buttons. Not a big deal. It was fun and cool. Until we got back to Union Street and had to deal with some pressure. You see, the buttons said something that we thought was just fine, but others did not. I know Grandpa was especially upset that Grandma let us not only have the buttons but wear them predominantly. We ruffled a few Macaluso feathers that day and we have heard about it for years since.

It consisted of 5 letters. Five little letters that apparently could be taken more than one way.

F O R K U

Could have been a lot worse if you ask me.