Dirt Don’t Hurt
Washington Square Fountain, originally uploaded by emilyrems.
The city gets so hot in the summer, that as soon as a public water source appears, people with no access to the Hamptons go buck wild and start wading around in places that would make bathers in the piss-filled Ganges cringe. Case in point, the fountain in Washington Square Park. LCF and I were there a couple days ago, and the pit was filled with unsupervised diaper-wearing toddlers, dogs, bikes, junkies in the full-flower of their junky love, and other assorted shoeless punks trying to get their kicks in the slimy spray. It was all very cool and egalitarian and whatnot, and I’m glad there are still places where THE MAN stays out of everyone’s way and leaves us to our own filthy devices, but sadly I just can’t enjoy park wading as anything more than a spectator sport. If I want to expose myself to every form of bacteria known to human-kind, I’d rather do it in the doomed bathroom of CBGBs.