December 7, 2003

Stand Inside His Shoes (Just Not on 4th St.)

tand In His Shoes

(Just Not on 4th St.) To those familiar with the Greenwich Village folk music revival of the late 1950's and the 60's, the names Bob Dylan and Allan Block roll off the tongue in smooth accompaniment. Most other people say, "Allan who?"

Well, if Mr. Block did not come close to attaining the fame that Mr. Dylan did, he did play a leading role in shaping the Village folk scene from which Mr. Dylan sprang in the early 60's.

Mr. Block made and sold sandals in a shop at 171 West Fourth Street, played the country fiddle and threw open his shop on Saturdays to jam sessions that drew not only musicians and fans but also tourists, who often crowded the sidewalk outside. Some veterans and venerators of that era's folk revival accord near-legendary status to those rich and highly popular sessions and to the Allan Block Sandal Shop.

In 1969 — by which time the revival, and the shop's days as a folkie focal point, were history — Mr. Block moved to New Hampshire, and his children ran the shop until it closed in the 70's.

Last week, from Francestown, N.H., where he lives in an old farmhouse, Mr. Block, 80, said he was still making sandals and other leather goods and selling them at his workshop and at craft and music fairs throughout New England. He also takes on "a few music jobs," he said, fiddling country tunes at local dances and at the fairs.

And he fiddles in the street, for tips. That is an activity he pursues during his January-to-March stays in St. Augustine, Fla. "There's a street in the old section where I occupy a spot for a few hours a day," he said. "It helps pay for my fruits and vegetables and fish."

Mr. Block said he could not recall whether folk artists who later became prominent had participated in his Village jams. He said Mr. Dylan, then about 20, had been at some as a spectator.

"He just listened, and talked to me about various tunes," Mr. Block said. Mr. Dylan, he added, also asked his advice on buying a guitar.

As for the role later ascribed to the jams, "I never realized those sessions would grow to have real significance in the history of folk music," Mr. Block said. "We were just having fun."

Deported to Trinidad

Despite Ruling An unwarranted judicial reach, or a valid effort to close a legal breach?

In a controversial ruling two years ago, a federal judge in Brooklyn said the government could not deport a legal immigrant for being convicted of a robbery without a hearing to consider the impact his deportation would have on the young daughter he would leave behind.

The judge, Jack B. Weinstein, said the obligations of the United States under international law required this in the case of Don Beharry of Hartsdale in Westchester County. Mr. Beharry, 28, above, in this country since coming from Trinidad when he was 6, served three years in prison for a 1996 coffee shop robbery.

Immigration law experts said the ruling was unprecedented. Human rights advocates hailed it as protecting families. Critics called it an end run around immigration laws.

Whatever the case, Mr. Beharry is back in Trinidad, having been deported last month, said his lawyer, Jennifer Green, of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

In May, an appeals court voided Judge Weinstein's ruling. It did not assess his conclusion on the legal issues, but said he had lacked jurisdiction to grant relief on the grounds he cited because Mr. Beharry had not invoked those grounds in earlier proceedings before an immigration judge and an immigration appeals panel.

Mr. Beharry's daughter, 9, is with her grandmother, Sandra Beharry, in Westchester. Ms. Beharry said her son was temporarily living with her father in Trinidad and trying to "get stable."

Ms. Green said the reversal of Judge Weinstein on jurisdictional grounds did not preclude lawyers from using his reasoning as arguments in similar deportation cases.