Neither more nor less

Demon vodka had led him to this night as he climbed down some treacherous steps to the dark retreat that he and Amy had often visited . It was raining and cold and any place out of the elements was desirable .

Jewels had been trying for a day or two to wean himself off the booze . A retreat out of the way as was this stairwell was a wanting but nonetheless welcome place to rest and deal with the shakes that came with this effort .

Unlike previous nights at the bottom of this stairwell , this night there was an open door ; a very inviting dry warm place lay just beyond this open door . Jewels walked in , looked around and decided to stay the night .

He found a ledge on which to sleep and made a rude bed to that end .Lying in this bed , resting while sipping a little from his can of "Sparks" malt liquor , which was necessary to keep the shakes at a tolerable extreme , he heard someone close the door to his new bedroom and also heard the heavy clunk of a padlock . He was locked in .

Above his bed he noticed a window and relaxed again assuming that in the morning he would climb to this window and escape through it to daylight from his dark cell . When the time did come to leave in the morning , Jewels climbed to the window finding not a way out but only iron bars . That was not enough of a problem though as fate immediately dealt an additional difficult and painful blow . Jewels fell from the window and broke his leg .

Now he was painfully injured as well as being trapped . He considered the consequences of waiting for someone to find him in the basement and decided to make an effort involving considerable pain to leave by somehow opening the door that just the night before had been such an inviting entrance to his cell .

The door would not be under any circumstances easy to open . Jewels' efforts this morning to open it were made much more difficult by having a broken leg . Using some tools that he found in the basement , after several different painful efforts the door did pop open . Jewels though was in severe pain and could only make his escape at a pace being little more than a crawl . A night without much booze had also left him with a severe case of the shakes ; he needed a drink .

Somehow Jewels dragged himself to Tompkins Square Park and found some friends that gave him a drink and called an ambulance for him . He left the park by ambulance for the hospital where he was tended to . The broken leg was temporarily set and a soft-cast was put on his leg to hold the broken bones in place . Jewels' alcohol withdrawal complications were dealt with by administering fluid electrolites and ,according to Jewels , Ativan and phenobarbitol . He was hospitalized for several days .

Today Jewels was back on avenue A and in TSP with his mate Amy . We met them in TSP this evening . After what was for Jewels an exhausting and painful trek across TSP from the new "Crusty Row" on crutches , we joined them at " Hopscotch" ; an establishment from which he had previously been banned , most likely justifiably ; for but a very short time before being asked to leave .

Yes , what is pictured above was common in the East Village of yore . Folks , especially on hot summer nights watched TV by street light . Often they had a beer or two with their tube-time . They even gathered on the sidewalk in front of the tube while casually playing cards or dominoes . ... of course also with some beer or a shot or two of rum , vodka or tequila . This was when we still had a neighborhood and a sense of community .....and since the TV was plugged into an outlet that can be found inside the base of most street lights , ultimately the City of New York paid for it all .