Our fires escape was on Amsterdam Avenue and 65th Street (before Lincoln Center). My girlfriend lived in the apt. beneath us. She and I had tin cans attached by a string hanging from fire escape to fire escape, so we could chat as we ate cut-up Fig Newtons and penny candy and sunned ourselves on our “terraces.” The metal structures provided a respite from the heat of the tenement buildings where not a fan, certainly no air conditioner, could be found “back in the day.”