LimeLight and Sloane House Club34

Thousands of backpackers from all over the world stayed at Sloane House each year. Summer was the busiest season. At one point the check-in line was so long that it extended to the outside of the entrance. I had never seen anything like this. Each day hundreds would check-out, hundreds would check-in at the same time. Night clubs in Manhattan knew this was the place to get these young traveler’s attention. Vice versa, the young travelers wanted to explore New York City’s famous night clubs: Palladium, Tunnel, Shout and the best of all - the LimeLight. Located at the corner of 21th street and 6th Avenue, it was once a church. Many people said to me it was wired to see a church turned to a sin-filled night club. It didn’t bother me one bit. There was a reason I liked LimeLight so much: Every Friday afternoon a lady would come to the front desk of Sloane House dropping some club passes. Generally, Sloane House management did not like Hospitality Center counter got cluttered. So others working behind the counter would give her some hard times, especially the cashiers from time to time. I always tried to help her to place the passes whenever I could. She was a quite and elegant woman and I sensed dropping passes for the night club was not her profession and she might do it just to make a living. I guessed it was because of my kindness, one day she pulled me over and handed me an Executive Pass for LimeLight. All club passes were made of thin cardboard, but the Executive Pass was made of credit card-sized thick plastic. She told me that I could get in LimeLight for free. She said she really appreciated that I made her life easier. “You will like it.” She said at the end. I sure did. I didn’t realize it was one of the most amazing gifts in my life until I used it the first time: it was a Friday night. I got out of work and went to LimeLight with Talla. There was a long line. People had been waiting for quite sometime. LimeLight bouncers stood by the entrance door, were screening people, making sure there were a good ratio of boys and girls in the club. I walked over and showed my card to the head bouncer. He signaled to let me in right away. Just like that! I could hear oohs and ahhs from the crowd waiting in the line. It was awesome! I loved it. I would go to Limelight every weekend, until Limelight changed management and my Executive Pass was expired by default.

Night life at Sloane House was exciting too. When night came, you could smell the excitement: everyone wanted to go out and have a good time. I did not go out as much as the others in the beginning, mostly due to financial reason. There were lots of actions in the building as well, particularly on the second floor lounge. The main attraction was Club34. Club34 used to be a barber room for building residents. Not sure when it was converted in to an activity room, but there were still two old-fashioned barber chairs standing in the middle of the room. It was such a novelty that everyone would sit in these chairs for a minute or so, just to feel what was like. It had two pool tables, a foosball, many video games and all kinds of board games. There were movies twice a week. I charged $1 for the movie and unlimited re-fill of popcorn on Wednesday and Saturday nights. Next to Club34 it was a large lounge, used to be the bible study room when it was built. Next to the lounge it was the conference room that Sloane House YMCA rented it out occasionally.