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 13, 2021
- 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 4, 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 2, 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 11, 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 30, 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 29, 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 26, 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 11, 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 4, 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 9, 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 9, 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 8, 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 20, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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
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 8, 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 8, 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...