Prabhupāda: Mukunda. I asked him that "Find out some upper class...." He found out that 26 Second Avenue. (laughs) I did not know. That's all. Anyone...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Humble beginning.
Prabhupāda: The landlord took advantage. He was receiving rent, eighty-nine rupees or eighty rupees. He charge me 125. And another room, he was getting fifty. So he charged me seventy-five. Little room.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Dollars.
Prabhupāda: Ah, yes, dollars. Eighty and fifty, 130. He charged me two hundred.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, you were paying too much. 'Cause I was living right there. I was not paying so much. I was paying sixty-five dollars.
Prabhupāda: How many there was...?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: For four rooms.
Prabhupāda: Just see.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He took advantage.
Prabhupāda: I took advantage, "Let me stay somewhere." I was loitering in the street, so I thought, "Let me stay somewhere. Then I shall see later on."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That's exactly what you had, two hundred dollars. You had saved that money very carefully?
Prabhupāda: Not carefully. Anyway, I got it. I was never careful for anything. Whatever automatically comes... I was never careful. "As the Jew, I have to save..." No, no.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: A long way up to 55th Street. It's quite a change from that humble apartment to...
Prabhupāda: (laughs) Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: ...big, big buildings.
Prabhupāda: On First Street. The First Street was there. I was in between the First and Second Street.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah.
Prabhupāda: So First Street, Second Street, and we went to 55th. And Second Avenue, Fifth.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Eighth Avenue.
Prabhupāda: Eighth Avenue.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Fifty-fifth Street is midtown, middle of the... But actually that was the right place to be, because there were many young people at that time in the East Village who were searching for something.
Prabhupāda: Yes. I think Mukunda selected for that.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Just like in San Francisco, that same kind of place we got. So many young people were there, Haight Street, Haight-Ashbury. Now those two places have become ghettoes practically.
Prabhupāda: Dangerous.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, very dangerous. No more young people moving about, no more nice shops. Simply very dangerous.
Prabhupāda: Negroes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Many people with drugs, taking...
Prabhupāda: Only Negroes. I was going one place to another, underground. Not bad. They used to say "Poor man's transport." Underground?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Subway. But everybody uses it. You'll see even big men use it. Very quick, cheap.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You would ride alone in the subways? You would be alone, riding?
Prabhupāda: (aside:) Who are these men? I was loitering. Yes. "Let me take this train. Let me see where it goes." Like that.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Did you ever go to the Bronx?
Prabhupāda: Hm. I was sitting alone on the New York house.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Park.
Prabhupāda: Then I heard that one crazy man was killed.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Then you stopped going. Oh, those parks are dangerous. In New York you can't go alone.
Prabhupāda: That was my morning walk. (laughs) I did not know what is morning walk.