I recognized the font of the “Howl” on the front of his baseball cap. We struck up a conversation about City Lights bookstore, Ferlinghetti, the Beats and old San Francisco. Eric was his name.
Turns out he was an agent for some of Allen Ginsberg’s art and hung out at his apartment on the Lower East Side. “What was Ginsberg like, as a person?” I asked.
“He reminded me of a Jewish grandmother. He would lean over the front seat and give the cabbie very specific directions.”