Untitled

Merry Alpern

Freelance

Story Summary, AJ and Jim Bob, both 24 years old, have been a couple since age 12. Small-town-Ohio castoffs, they came to New York City anticipating glamour, wealth and excitement. Now crack addicts, they support themselves through prostitution and welfare, their physical condition deteriorating when the craving and consumption of the drug increases. They were living in Central Park in the summer of 1987, but by winter had found quarters in a squalid city-owned building on the upper West Side of Manhattan--a place where drug dealers, prostitutes, criminals and welfare mothers with children co-exist. AJ and Jim Bob have dreams. AJ often speaks of a desire to leave the street life for a square job. But for now she's on the street. Caption,AJ and Jim Bob in their room in a city-owned building on Manhattan's upper West Side. They are high on crack.

Merry Alpern, "Untitled," in POYi Archive, Item #17397, http://archive.poy.org/index.php/items/show/17397 (accessed June 8, 2025).