THE TALE OF A 52-YEAR OLD PROSTITUTE

Being a prostitute has its benefits.

Having been in the business for nearly 30 years Barbara Terry, who works the streets claims to have raised three children, putting 2 through college and bought a home in upstate New York, where she plans to retire someday.

In an interview, Terry said, she has been arrested more than 100 times, but her run ins with the law haven’t kept her from returning to her profession. She had trained as a medical lab technician after completing two years of college. However, by the time she turned 21, her husband had left her and she found herself with two children to support.

The mother of three works the streets of Hunts Point, in the Bronx, a borough of New York. It is an industrial area where warehouses and repair shops line the streets of the Bruckner Expressway. Years ago she said her place of business “bustled with working women, and she was front and center in garter belts and high heels and fur coats.” To day she describes her attire as being more conservative.

“It was beautiful out there then,” she said. “There was so much money out here, you wouldn’t believe it.”

Terry and her profession was even featured in a HBO documentary “Hookers at the Point.” At the time she had a youthful toothy smile going by the street name Cleo. Now, however, she is missing teeth-lost to diabetes.

What is her longevity of staying on the street in the world’s oldest profession, “I’ve survived because God was with me,” Terry said. “Every Sunday, my mother and grandmother prayed for me out here.”

She claims to have never used drugs, worked for a pimp or carried a blade. “My fists were my weapons. I learned to fight growing up with nine younger brothers.”

Terry is not ready to give up the street life of which she says, “I love the excitement of coming out here and seeing all these beautiful people I know. This place has made me strong. It keeps you young.”

Terry said she told her children her profession when they were old enough to understand. Her children have begged her to get off the street. Her response, “When I’m ready to get off, I’ll get off.”