PORTRAIT OF A NEIGHBOR: JOHN HENDRIX

Editor’s Note: As part of a regular West Side Rag series, artist Michelle Hill interviews and draws Upper West Siders. This is the fifteenth installment in our Portrait of a Neighbor series.

By Michelle Hill

John Hendrix was born at New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital in 1943.

When did you move to the Upper West Side?

Lived my whole life here in three zip codes: 10024, 10023 and now 10025. My mom told us that we owned Central Park. It was our backyard. What a yard! Museums, zoos, castles, caves, streams, rowboats, fishing ponds, horses with riding paths and of course most important, nature.

I stayed here because the street life was vigorous and for me exciting. I was never at a loss to find interesting people with spectacular lives that I could connect with and enjoy. The neighborhoods had a nice racial mix and that seems to have held fast even though the economic base has shifted way out of kilter.

What have you been doing on the Upper West Side?  

I left school as soon as I could to work and earn. I was never the best student, maybe, oh, look a butterfly. I liked earning from the get go. Delivered newspapers in the early a.m., shined shoes and sold newspapers in bars and restaurants in the evening. It was an opportunity to help at home. Learned accounting and clerked for a while but had to get outside to breathe. Loved driving a small truck and having a little business that a friend helped me start. It was real freedom until I recently retired. Still active and blessed with great friends. Twenty five years ago someone showed me some diet information I was clueless about and it changed my life for the better. Thanks Jim.

What do you miss about the Upper West Side?

Old friends with shared histories, I miss them.

I miss the sense of neighborhood that had a base of family shops that catered to the needs of the residents, i.e. butchers, bodegas, shoemakers, barbers, delis, five and dimes, pharmacists, florists, vegetable & fruit markets, local news and candy shops all were manned by people with names of folks you knew. Not so with the boutiques today.

I miss that sense of community although I try to live it.

What do I love about the Upper West Side?  

The people. The last bastion of liberalism. We are all so different, my brother is to the right of Attila The Hun and I’m to the left of Wahoo!

What do you wish the new mayor would focus on?

Better schools, safety and middle-income affordable housing. The other rather vexing item would be to move the bike lanes to the non-commercial streets, i.e. Fifth Ave., Park Ave., East End and Sutton Place on the east side and Central Park West, West End Ave. and Riverside Drive on the West side. I believe this would be safer for the riders and the public. Additionally it would help the needed flow of commerce on the streets that are dedicated to commerce.