Act II

She’s kind of hard to meet, isn’t she?

No. She’s one of the friendliest women I ever seen. When the girls told her who I was she said it was a big night in her life⁠—she said she’d always wanted to meet a lyric writer. I wonder what my friends in Schenectady would say if they knew I sat around and talked to Texas Guinan! I didn’t know nothing when I lived there. Even the first few weeks I was in New York, I was kind of a sap.

That sounds incredible.

I went sightseeing to places like the Aquarium, and Grant’s Tomb, and the Central Park animal zoo, and thought I was having a great time. A little friend of mine, she took me around places she’d been to and I thought I was seeing New York because I didn’t know no better. She was from a small town, too⁠—she didn’t know no better either. Only now I’ve learned.