Sammy’s Bowery Follies was not the first “dive bar” nor did they invent the idea of “slumming” but for a stretch of time through the 1940s to the 1960s, Sammy’s was New York’s best example of both.
For many Americans and Canadians alike, the border between our two nations is our first international border-crossing experience. I remember my first crossing; all I had to do was tell the agent where I was born. It’s more complicated today, but here is a postcard account of what it was like years ago.