1970s | Bammer 2021

Mar 14
3 min

Boston After Dark in 1975: My First Time

BAMMER47: The first time I had sex with a guy happened after, with much trepidation, I answered a personal ad in the After Dark section...

Mar 14
2 min

The History of Organized Male Nude Swimming in the U.S.

BAMMER47: Did you know that, until the 1960s, it was a widespread requirement that boys who swam in segregated groups in public school...

Oct 5, 2020
5 min

Bartending at Studio

STORY: It was late evening, as just about everything was at Studio 54. I can’t remember who got me the interview, somebody I met in...

Sep 3, 2020
5 min

Speedy and Bam

STORY: When I was in graduate school in Boston in the mid-1970s, my attraction to other guys was proving intractable and I feared it...

Jul 12, 2020
2 min

First Times

STORY: I began having sex on a regular basis when I was really young. In fact, the first time it happened, I was only eleven. The school...

Oct 31, 2019
1 min

BAMMER and Me: Life in NYC Avant Garde Theatre Scene and Stonewall

PODCAST—EPISODE 8: Mike talks with Frank Carucci, a life-long New Yorker, about working in the NYC avant-garde theatre scene, the...

Sep 30, 2019
1 min

BAMMER and Me: Edward Field, Gay Life in 1950s' NYC, (Part 3)

PODCAST—EPISODE 7: Ninety-five-year-old renowned poet Edward Field shares stories about gay life in NYC amid the social change of the...

Mar 27, 2019
6 min

Bar Wars – Quarter Stories 16

STORY: Fourth of July on Bourbon Street, hot muggy and so crowded you couldn’t move on the street or in the bar. I squeezed my way into...

Feb 12, 2019
12 min

If You’re From Baton Rouge—Quarter Stories 15

STORY: Stories about my adventures bartending in New Orleans in the late ’70s and early ’80s. To read them all, click #quarterstories....

Jan 5, 2019
4 min

All American and Gay

STORY: 1977—I hated my first job. I was spending long hours in a rigorous bank training program in Manhattan and, besides infreq uent and...

Nov 10, 2018
3 min

Bartending is a Dance – Quarter Stories 10

STORY: At Lafitte’s Bar in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the bar was made of thick old bayou cypress planks polished by thousands of...

Nov 10, 2018
2 min

First Love

STORY: 1978—Werner Seelig and I met in the South of France. He was twenty-one and from Indiana. I was twenty, a hippy from California. We...

Oct 9, 2018
11 min

Peacocks – Quarter Stories 9

STORY: 1979 - The crowds were still in full force around the stage for the Bourbon Street Awards and the only space available was under...

Jun 21, 2018
5 min

The Torch – Quarter Stories 14

STORY: 1982—Max was at work at the point station, his head down deep into the jockey box scooping up ice in the cups taking orders three...

Jun 10, 2018
4 min

The Lavender Line – Quarter Stories 11

STORY: Sunday was my favorite day to go out. Friday and Saturday shifts were over. I could go out on my own down to the Quarter and hang...

Jun 10, 2018
2 min

A Double-Edged Sword

1974—“I’m like you,” the hand-printed and hand-delivered note said. “My name is Jimmy. I live on this street. I am 12. Will you meet me...

Jun 10, 2018
3 min

Same Sex Marriage, 1972

STORY: Spring, 1972 – As a third-year American student at the University of Manitoba (UM) in Winnipeg, Canada in the early 1970s, I was...

Jun 10, 2018
5 min

Cajun Sweat (Louis Pt. 2 )- Quarter Stories 13

STORY: Louis had vanished. I looked for him, but he kept out of the bars, strange hours, whatever jobs he picked up. Saw Jeff again, who...

Jun 9, 2018
2 min

The First Happy Gay Film

STORY: 1974—We’ve just bought tickets to see “Love Simon,” the new, gay coming of age film that we expect to make us happy. The first...

Jun 9, 2018
3 min

In Search of (Gay) America

STORY: In 1979 and with no gay life to speak of, I scrimped to save a few thousand dollars, negotiated my departure from my firm, sublet...

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