Dear Diary:
I came to New York in the late ’60s. On cold nights in the downtown area, on street corners, you could find trash-can fires. These fires were tended by street people.
There were many trash-can fires along the Bowery; for the folks who had no place to go, these fires kept them warm and busy looking for trash, scrap lumber, cardboard boxes to feed the 50-gallon drums, with holes cut near the bottom to give draft. On icy days and nights, much like this winter, these cheery fires were ornaments of warmth, available for those who could not afford the comfort of a coffee shop or the shelter of a hotel.
By 1990 or so, those little islands of comfort disappeared from the streets and parks of Manhattan, I don’t know about the other boroughs but I’d like to think this custom continues elsewhere in New York.
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