Sidewalks of New York

Independence in New York City tastes like candy and feels like money in my Care Bear wallet.

Illustration by Sally Madden

I had that moving-to-New-York euphoria people who fall in love with the city experience when I was eight, despite getting pickpocketed for my hard-earned gift certificate to Bloomingdale’s that same year. But that was New York in 1988; even little girls on the Upper East Side got robbed by grown men. It was the same city that would produce the Dart Man, who went around shooting darts at women’s butts for one full summer. A criminal with the same sense of humor as an eight-year-old haunted the city. What kid wouldn’t love it?

My family dropped everything in 1985, when we abruptly moved from Iran to Dallas, Texas, where we lived for three years. It was the heyday of Iran Contra, when all regular programming was interrupted with images of Oliver North and Iran, the country’s mortal enemy. I was too young to feel publicly excoriated, but old enough to be offended that my shows were cancelled. It was a different story for my sister and parents, so when we moved t…