Exploring the East Village by Car: My Dad’s 1960s Childhood Streets

Join me on a unique driving tour through the streets of New York City’s East Village and Historic Lower East Side, where my dad grew up in the 1960s. Back then, this area was known for its gritty, working-class character, often considered a slum. Today, it’s transformed into one of NYC’s trendiest neighborhoods, filled with stylish cafes, boutiques, and vibrant nightlife.
In this video, we’ll explore how this neighborhood has changed over the decades, weaving through streets steeped in history and culture. From tenement buildings that housed immigrant families to landmarks that have stood the test of time, see the incredible evolution of these iconic NYC districts.
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Recorded October 5, 2024
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Recorded Using
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[@nicolawright3359]

Interesting to hear from your Dad that your grandparents never went on vacation. They would be so proud of you with your travels around the globe, exploring different communities and cultures 😊

[@christinebojic492]

What a good idea to discover the New-York city of your Dad, being the witness of his rememberings ❤😊🤩

[@twicenamopeachsisters3927]

Excellent job, Kenneth

[@Jeff-lj6xx]

These videos with your dad are awesome. He’s a good storyteller and adds a unique perspective to your already terrific content.

[@ActionKid]

I appreciate that!

[@Lola-AreaCode212]

Totally!

[@lvdawnll8166]

Loved seeing the old neighborhood and hearing your dad's stories! He is a treasure! Great video❤

[@ActionKid]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Lola-AreaCode212]

Really, really enjoyed that one. Thanks. 🌸 I hope you do more walking in the East Village when your foot is healed!

[@shirleyleong7090]

Great video! Action dad always has good stories and insight! He has such a peace about him that is so calming.

[@ActionKid]

Much appreciated!

[@elainebonnell7895]

Thank you so much for this with your Dad !!!!

[@girlinthecurl93]

I love hearing all about your dad's childhood reminded me of my mom's stories of growing up in New York. In a one bedroom 6 kids .

[@ActionKid]

Yes, it was a much different New York back then.

[@JoyfulOne468]

I'm really enjoying this video! I love when Dad takes you down memory lane.

[@ActionKid]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@JoyfulOne468]

@ActionKid yes! I always enjoy your videos. Thank you for sharing.

[@maritkjn505]

Thank you @ActionKid and your dad - for a very nice driving video. So interesting 🙂 have a nice sunday ☀😎

[@ActionKid]

Thanks, you too!

[@rogertemple7193]

Great to see you and your dad driving around the East Village where your dad grew up at and looking at how it looks now have an awesome week and take care both to you and your dad Thank You AK.🖖☕🇺🇲

[@ActionKid]

So true!

[@elainebonnell7895]

This is such a blessing to hear about your Dads young years in NY City !!!

[@RebekahCurielAlessi]

Ooh. I probably won't be alert for the premiere and I love the idea of visiting your dad's streets from his childhood!! 🚚 ⚾️ 🛼

[@ActionKid]

Hope you were able to watch the replay!

[@RebekahCurielAlessi]

@@ActionKid yep. And very much enjoyed it!! ❤️

[@jarihult]

It’s great to see the neighborhood where your dad grew up😎These days area looks quite decent and nice from my opinion🙂Thank you for sharing this drive🚘with your dad A K🙂👍!!!

[@ActionKid]

Thanks 👍

[@nativenewyorker9957]

Kenny. I am loving watching this. I worked on 10th, grand, east b’way, 4th and D- all for same company for 12 yrs up until 5 yrs ago. So I was saying” Ray’s candy before you said it. So fun- this ev trip you and your dad

[@HengMiao]

I really enjoyed hearing about your dad's childhood memories in the 1960s, and your grandparents were so inspiring. I felt like I was watching a documentary, and I'm glad East Village has changed for the better. Thank you for sharing this memorable driving video, AK and AK's dad! 🤗

[@ActionKid]

Thank you so much!

[@brianlevett5893]

Hi action kid love drive around even more than the walk around and commentary absolutley first class.

[@rajaajojo1946]

Very Nice driving video

[@buffycat4641]

Your dad is like listening to my grandparents talk about living in Brooklyn. My grandfather came from Ireland and my grandmother was a was a first generation born American, her parents came from Germany. My grandfather died early, and my grandmother made ends meet by cleaning the 3-story tenement they lived in and her oldest son quit school and went to work. But like your dad, none of us ever thought we were living in poverty. So many things your dad mentions bring back memories of what it was like back then. The string-toilet I had forgotten all about. We had an icebox, not a refrigerator and the coal man delivered coal down a shoot to the basement. Thank your dad for the memories.

[@ActionKid]

Thank you for sharing your experiences!

[@MelanieMichelin]

Thanks for showing us your old neighborhood! ❤

[@ActionKid]

You’re welcome!

[@monica-NJ-123]

This is wonderful , thank you AK , I enjoyed this trip down memory lane with your dad , my daughter lived in the east village for 26 yrs

[@ActionKid]

You are very welcome!

[@michaels908]

I'm the same age as your dad and it's like reminiscing to hear what he did and where he visited as a child. I was born and raised across the Hudson in NJ. I can remember traveling to Yankee Stadium in the mid 1960's and sitting behind home plate or along the first base line. Tickets cost $1.50 at that time. My mom would make a whole bunch of roast beef sandwiches on Kaiser rolls along with a canteen of Kool Aid. I remember the wicked picnic basket. Those were the days, I wish I could live with them up all over again. I heard your father recall the toilet with the water tank above the bowl and how gravity would make the water drop and flush the bowl. Great memories we most likely will never see again.

[@elainebonnell7895]

The old fashioned toilet is in the Godfather movie at the Italian restaurant Michael went to with the police…..😃

[@mysouldoeswait]

Excellent production quality Action Kid. Glad to see you’re staying off your feet to recover.

[@ActionKid]

Thank you very much!

[@BeachGirl7777]

I really enjoyed this video. I loved hearing your Dad's childhood stories and seeing where he lived. Thanks for the nice drive. Your videos are the greatest! I love them! Thanks ActionKid! Can't wait for the next one!

[@ActionKid]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@52elprimo]

I had to smile when your dad said he had a 13 inch black & white tv. That was the first tv I had too.😀

[@chairlesnicol672]

@52Elprimo. Prolly was an Admiral!

[@cairnmom3228]

What a beautiful stroll down memory lane! Your Dad is a wealth of knowledge. Thanks for sharing.

[@maureenshea4268]

Wow, I didn’t know your father lived there back in the day. I always called it Lower East Side in the 60’s and 70’s. I had an apartment on East 10th st and Avenue D back in the day for a short while. Now I think it’s trendy.

[@michaelchin3550]

OMG. We were neighbors!

[@Lola-AreaCode212]

@maureenshea4268 you have an old neighbor there! (I know that one hardly gets notifications anymore about comments on YT- just trying to help out 😊)

[@Lisatropolis]

I live down there right now. I don’t love it. In the 80s and 90s (and before?) this area was truly bohemian and the coolest place on the planet, but these days I just don’t know. I get that things change, but - your dad’s stories are way more interesting than a line down the block for a $15 bagel...

[@Lola-AreaCode212]

I believe it. The 60s and 70s must have been amazing there; I read about it all the time in various books.

[@johnchristopher20]

Sounds like the heater fan is at maximum. 😊 then at 12:50 it disappeared for the side shot, then back again.

[@michaelchin3550]

AK has some kind of a fan attached to his phone to prevent it from overheating.

[@christinenapoli5106]

I truly enjoyed that & seeing your dad’s old neighborhood. Great memories.

[@cak813]

Really enjoyed riding with you and your Dad. His reminiscences were great. I hadn’t seen St. Mark’s Place in years. It’s changed so much. I used to go down to Greenwich Village in the late 60s; it drove my mother crazy. It was bad enough when I went to the West Village but when I started venturing over to the East Village, she had a fit. All I ever did was shop down there. Earrings, incense, posters, love beads, sometimes some clothing. I think she thought I was being lured into opium dens!! She should have known that I was too scared to get involved in any of that nonsense. It was a big deal for me to stop for a slice of pizza at the pizzeria on the corner of West 3rd Street and McDougal. Nice memories.

[@michaelchin3550]

Great times, great memories.

[@Lola-AreaCode212]

You were one of the "hippies"! ☮️

[@cak813]

@@Lola-AreaCode212 Not really. I liked my creature comforts too much to be a hippie. But I could dress the part!!

[@Lola-AreaCode212]

​@@cak813 I was only referring to what AK's dad said. 😊 It must have been brilliant back then, but I was a toddler. I would have immersed myself in the scene completely if I'd have been old enough, I'm sure!

[@cak813]

@@Lola-AreaCode212 Oh, I see. Sorry. Misunderstood. It was a great time to be a teenager for sure. I experienced the “British Invasion” and lived through some great music eras although I’m not a fan of most 70s music. I’m old enough to remember the great music of the late 1950s, too.

[@dissidentfairy4264]

I loved listening to your dad's stories. $28 for rent, wow! Someone I know who owned a home in the 70s in California told me they were paying $300 a month on their mortgage, most people were paying $70 a month for a two-bedroom apartment. Their place was a beautiful large two-story home in an avocado grove, but they said they felt financially over-extended at that time. Imagine $300 feeling overly-extended today? I loved your dads costume jewelry story. Families turned out better back then when mother's were stay at home mom's. Kudos to her. Hard with five people living in a one bedroom place and sharing a bathroom down the hall with their neighbors, but the key lesson here is they were "Happy." No doubt happier than most families are today proving that less can be more. In saying that, it would be very hard to live in NYC in the summer without air-conditioning based on the heat and humidity, that must have been hard. I'm only 11 minutes into this. I'm sure I will have more to say. lol

[@JoyfulOne468]

Yes! My old boss is a little older than AK's dad and he also is born and grew up in NY and I love listening to his stories of back in the day!

[@dissidentfairy4264]

@@JoyfulOne468 Me too:-)

[@Lola-AreaCode212]

I was born in '65. My parents paid 100 for a beautiful 2 bedroom in Riverdale. (!!) 🙈 Best days of my life. We moved to Europe in '79.

[@dissidentfairy4264]

@@Lola-AreaCode212 If one is raised in a good home I do believe that they were some of the best days of our lives. The place I was referring to at $300 a month was in San Diego county. Just for fun I looked up what $300 in rent would be today and it would be equal to about $2,500 a month which is fairly typical nowadays. Europe sounds like an adventure. I never did that but my father flew us around the US in a plane during vacations, etc., that was fun too:-)

[@christinemcmurray207]

Thank You Mr. Actionkid’s Dad for sharing your up bringing with us. We needed to hear this. From Manitoba Canada 🍁 🇨🇦

[@WestCoastWalker-zj6ob]

That station wagon at the beginning was probably what your dad's family drove lol

[@michaelchin3550]

We couldn't afford one. Traveled by foot, subway and bus. We made it work.

[@WestCoastWalker-zj6ob]

@@michaelchin3550 sounds like a fun life growing up in Manhattan ...

[@michaelchin3550]

@@WestCoastWalker-zj6ob Dad would take up to Chinatown via bus and we went to Coney Island a lot via subway. I remember going to Battery park, taking the circle line and Staten Island ferry, and going to Central Park. My father was a wonderful man taking us to all those places even with his limited financial resources.

[@RJ-od4ty]

It was safe there in the '60's , at 13 years old I used to take the bus alone from Newark NJ to NYC and just walk around for the day. Later when I was 17-18, I frequently hung out in the Greenwich Village area., the little bars and clubs were great. (Legal drinking age was18).

[@RobertoLopezstudyis]

I was born in NYC but in a hospital in Manhattan that no longer exists and it might be the same hospital that is no longer is standing now. I was born in 1972.

[@TheVideoSteve]

AK: really enjoyed hearing from your Father about how he grew up there. You're fortunate to have him still. Take care and I like your videos.

[@gemapolo2847]

🍻👍🏼Dad & ActionKid😊

[@belfiore_18]

Love this!❤ My dad worked on St. Marks Place at a Salon called Hair Power back in the day! I bet your father is familiar with it! 💇‍♀️💇‍♂️ Ps. That was my route from Sunnyside to Lower Manhattan via can growing up!

[@michaelchin3550]

AK's dad was a hairdresser too.

[@belfiore_18]

@@michaelchin3550 Get outta here!? Wow I didn’t know until now thanks for telling me

[@Onyxmoon]

For all the dirt, NYC is never dull.

[@michaelchin3550]

True. This is what makes NYC special. We have the worst and we have the best. Only the tough are willing to put up with the challenges. Life in the big Apple is fantastic with a positive attitude.

[@dissidentfairy4264]

It's a cute building that your dad used to live in, I like it. Love the architectural details around the windows and entrance. I can picture the druggies and the protesters, probably the Vietnam War protests. I hope the pigeon made it, looks like it ran out right in front of your car. St. Mark's Place was beautiful and interesting. Your dad is right, from that angle it looks like the Empire State Building is "shrinking" but it starts to grow the farther we go. lol You should bring your mom along for the ride sometime, that would be fun, and be sure to save a slice of Stromboli pizza for me:-) 🍕

[@thiscorrosion900]

RE: Bohemianism: (which gave birth to many later countercultural movements and ways of life): (from Wikipedia) Bohemianism is a social and cultural movement that has, at its core, a way of life away from society's conventional norms and expectations. The term originates from the French bohème and spread to the English-speaking world. It was used to describe mid-19th-century non-traditional lifestyles, especially of artists, writers, journalists, musicians, and actors in major European cities. Bohemian is a 19th-century historical and literary topos that places the milieu of young metropolitan artists and intellectuals-particularly those of the Latin Quarter in Paris-in a context of poverty, hunger, appreciation of friendship, idealization of art and contempt for money. Based on this topos, the most diverse real-world subcultures are often referred to as "bohemian" in a figurative sense, especially (but by no means exclusively) if they show traits of a precariat. Bohemians were associated with unorthodox or anti-establishment political or social viewpoints expressed through free love, frugality, and-in some cases-simple living, van dwelling or voluntary poverty. A more economically privileged, wealthy, or even aristocratic bohemian circle is sometimes referred to as haute bohème[1] (literally "Upper Bohemian").[2]

[@sandranynj7118]

I Love The Village and never have gone to the Eastside of it. Thanks for the video!

[@babyshark5647]

I really love the East village because of the best apartments

[@thiscorrosion900]

My point was that by the turn of the 20th Century, the LES and the Bowery etc. was a strange mixture of working class people, the down and out, Bohemian artists, writers and social activists, and the gigantic immigrant community. The East and West Village, SoHo, even well into the 80s was all about artists, galleries, writers, activists, nightlife, bookstores, record stores, etc., and fashion too, but these days that is mainly all gone. The Village and SoHo are no longer the seats of the arts and culture that they once were. SoHo even into the 80s had tons of art galleries, and shows, most of which is now replaced by shopping, retail and restaurants. The real counterculture moved to cheaper nabes like Brooklyn or Queens, even into NE NJ, or was coopted by the mainstream. By the mid 70s bands like Blondie, or the New York Dolls thrived downtown and LES/Bowery only because even though these nabes were gritty and sometimes very dangerous back then, they were cheap and you could live down here for very little in those days. Though even The Ramones had started out in Forest Hills, Queens, they were more like suburban kids in a sense, but they all came from somewhat broken homes. They found Queens boring, mainly, and the city was always the "promised land" to them. A lot of Blondie had grown up in suburban NJ, which they also found constricting, conformist, and boring. Stifling creatively. So for them the NYC of the 70s was still that cultural anti-establishment mecca that you could live in cheap (despite danger) and start a movement within. That version of NYC and the LES is now long gone.

[@Lola-AreaCode212]

I just mentioned Chris Stein somewhere here too. Yeah, those days are gone, unfortunately. These days it's bagels, and not CBGBs....

[@kathleenturney4240]

Those streets.😗

[@nayabjut]

Beautiful

[@JAMESPATTERSON-mk9sr]

AK video for dear old dad !

[@stuartwray6175]

In 1966, Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey established The Dom/Electric Circus in St Marks. A multimedia club venue.

[@chrismv102]

Lining up to get a bagel? Jeez! We were luckier. We had a 3 bedroom rent controlled apartment. 1 1/2 baths and living room, kitchen and dining room. Parents, 7 kids and two dogs. Still crowded

[@michaelchin3550]

You lived in luxury! LOL.

[@davidellis5141]

The ActionKid looking forward to a possible subway 🚇 series ⚾️. 🐼

[@chairlesnicol672]

@Joeblow-js. 1984 Chev or Olds station wagon! Had one awhile back! Woodgrain siding!

[@Mike.T.]

My grandpa and his family moved to the US with his family when he was 16 back in 1939. They lived in NYC for about a year. I've been trying to find out where they lived when they were in the city but I haven't any luck. They were already in Western Pa for the 1940 census.

[@thiscorrosion900]

As far as St. Marks Place and the LES counterculture history, first back in the 20s 30s 40s there were the Bohemians, more or less, then by the late 40s to 50s it had morphed into the Beatnik movement, although a lot of the beat movement kind of started up on the west coast in San Francisco etc., but certainly not all of it, since the likes of Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac were both orig. from the east coast, NJ and Mass., respectively, who gravitated to NYC later. Then, by the mid 60s or so, the hippy culture became prevalent, especially by the late 60s and early 70s. By the mid 70s you had punk exploding and the whole downtown NYC progressive music scene and punk scene, so you had clashing cultures of hippies, beats, punks, rockers, bikers, and then by the 80s post punk, goth new wavers etc. and the yuppies which was a major force in the 80s in terms of an anti-counter culture: all they cared about was making money, looking good, and capitalizing on real estate, which led to the horror show situation that we have had in NYC since the late 80s and 1990s.

[@Lola-AreaCode212]

Thank you. I read masses of books on the history of the area; the 60s and 70s interest me the most. Chris Stein from "Blondie" recently published his memoirs and most of it takes place in the area. Great book. "Please KiII Me" from Legs McNeil goes very much into detail about the punk scene in those days. Patti Smith's "Just Kids" is great too. I have a list of books a mile long, so I can always go back in time.

[@thiscorrosion900]

Apollo Bagels is a new joint, but according to most Yelp reviews, their bagels are quite good. Wait times 20 min. though, and some said with lox etc. it’s very expensive.

[@JoeBlow-js5wv]

Wow look at thet station wagon

[@annedebthune3084]

I used to live on 10 th street too very close to the second ave deli❤I was hoping you’d 👨‍⚕️ be down to Chinatown I wanted to hear what your dad’s favorite restaurant were

[@ndogg20]

@ 6:00 "...the tenement buildings we used to live in, I think they converted to condo units" The slum buildings of NYC were once subdivided into smaller low rent apartments for the newly arrived and poor immigrants in the early 20th century. And coming full circle at the beginning of the 21st century those same buildings are once again being subdivided into very small units as was 100 years earlier, but this time with very high rent for young people, hipsters, wanna be artists, actors and You Tubers.

[@COLLSWORK]

😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

[@_PhysicallyFit]

KC, what's that loud hum in the background? Power supply or fan of some sort?

[@michaelchin3550]

Cooling fan attached to phone to keep from overheating.

[@Lola-AreaCode212]

I find it oddly soothing.

[@rionno7294]

That was a dominating drive I East Village from where your dad used to live as his childhood streets of the 1960s Action Kid!🤩😍 Those drives are just warming up right now!😎🤭 And I like when your dad tells a story or tale of those 1960s Childhood Streets where he lives or something!😏🥰 Thanks for sharing that extraordinary and exploring drive AK like it's legendary!😇😌🤗🥹