There is a lot of talk that the famous snooty over-priced lousy food New York restaurant "Tavern on the Green" will be shutting it's doors today forever.
Back in the late 1970's an unknown establishment known as "The Disco Donut" once existed in the City of New York. It was a 24/7 eatery where one could get something to eat at anytime. The Disco Donut stood on the south west corner of 3rd Avenue & 14th Street at a time when the neighborhood was a hell infested block filled with Creeps, Weirdoes, Junkies, and Prostitutes.
Out of this modern day Sodom & Gomorra the Disco Donut stood out as a safe haven where decent people could go get a donut or in my case a salami sandwich in the middle of the night. I remember the day I was walking down 14th street towards the Disco Donut when some hooligan offered to sell me marijuana. I was just a kid back then working as a busboy at the time and minding my business.
Fortunately there were some friends of mine nearby from the Disco Donut who were a lot older than me. When I told them my story they immediately located the pusher and gave him a well deserved beating in a closed off gated downstairs subway entrance near 14th street and Union Square Park. I can still recall him pleading for his life and his pathetic screams till this very day.
I will never forget the Disco Donut. It existed in a neighborhood far away from "Tavern on the Green". It existed during an era when people in New York went looking for drugs instead of donuts yet it still survived. The Disco Donut sown like a lighthouse beacon in the night as a sanctuary which one could rely on for decent food and affordable prices. The staff was also friendly and helpful.
Today the Disco Donut no longer exists. It has now been replaced by over-priced capitalist/communist establishments such as Starbucks which hasn't earned it place in New York City society.
Comments
i remember that joint. it was a crappy little place, but you could get something to eat there when there were not as many late diners as there are now. having your friends beat someone up just for approaching you does not say much about your personality and humanity does it. what kind of coward would run to his friends for something like that. not to mention your friends must have been lowlife thugs themselves.
Dear John Sebastian,
Ace Preston is my friend.
At the time of the incident he was only 15 years old, working as a busboy at Max's Kansas City, earning only $2 an hour while paying his way through Catholic School. That late evening/early morning when he left work at around 5 am some drug dealer approached him. Maybe it was you.
Anyway he just happened to speak of his frightful ordeal to some friends at the nearby Disco Donut and THEY "took it upon themselves" to clean up the streets of pushers who target narcotics on kids.
If you are the type that defends drug dealers who pry on minors then you are no different than a child molester.
Even though your generation screwed up America we never took your hippie movement, Woodstock, or even your music with the Loving Spoonfuls personal.
You shouldn't get personal either. Art doesn't have to be smart or nice but social science should remain intelligent.
Lance Wilson/Surfer
Your "humanitarian" friend's article reads like a ode to vigilante justice.
READ:
"HOOLIGAN"; "FORTUNATELY my friends", "WELL DESERVED BEATING" "PATHETIC" screams.....
You can throw in everything but the kitchen sink in an effort to make it sound other than what it is; but your argument is desperate and ridiculous.
Woodstock and the Lovin Spoonful weren't there and not responsible for your friend being an a...hole.
Lovely article. Mighnt I suggest a title change:
Nostalgic musings from a sadistic, self-righteous, mean spirited little man.
Your humanitarianism verily shines throughout the piece.
You should be proud and somehow I'm sure you are.
I tried to be nice and explain this article for my friend who's out of town. When he gets back he's gonna be saddened with what is being written about him. He is a very sensitive person and your comments are a personal attack which disregards artisitic expression and the first amendment. Also Ace Preston was horrified by the situation which was out of his control and perhaps still suffers from post-traumatic stress.
Ultra-conservatives believe that drug dealers need to be dealt with seriously, especially the ones who deal drugs to children. Ace Preston was only 15 years old at the time when he was approached by this monster. When the police finally arrived and arrested the pusher it was revealed during the court proceedings that the drug dealer was also a convicted pedophile.
Ace Preston's friends perhaps prevented another child from being molested in the future by their present actions. We owe them this honor the " Men Of the Disco Donut".
firstly sure sounds like "lance wilson" and “ace preston” are the same person trying to vindicate the vigilante violence of his
friends by assuming an alternate voice. secondly, if this "ace preston" was really a fifteen year old minor attending catholic school ( which i assume you threw in there to create sympathy) why was he/you up at 5am in the morning with friends allegedly working for $2 dollars an hour and why did you or your friends not report the incident to the appropriate authorities instead of taking the law into your own hands. The wording of your article (if one can call it that) implies a sadistic pleasure derived from the beating of another person.
what where your parents thinking......hopefully we will not have to hear another fabricated story about you not having
parents or them being so poor that they had their son working after normal hours to pay for school. i know of no catholic school nor any descent catholic parents, that would condone that.
Mr. Preston is in error, despite the fondness he expresses for that joint. It was on the north side of 14th St, not the south side. I moved from N.Y. in '84; I believe there's an NYU dorm there now, as they've spread like a fungus all over the neighborhood. I post this comment with extreme trepidation considering the various psychological traumas and sensitivities that Mr. Preston suffers from. I do not want to find myself culpable for further injuring his psyche by calling attention to his error, but I feel it is more important that historians not be misled by this carelessness on his part. I do not for a moment doubt that he was one of the 'decent people' so unlike the other denizens of the neighborhood, and his misplacement of Disco Donuts on the south side of the street rather than the north is certainly what might be called a confabulation, an unintentional adjustment of reality in answer to deep unconscious drives perhaps related to the stress sickness that his friend has diagnosed him with.
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