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...
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Mar 13, 20212 min read
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, 20205 min read
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, 20205 min read
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, 20202 min read
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, 20191 min read
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, 20191 min read
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, 20196 min read
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, 201912 min read
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, 20194 min read
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, 20183 min read
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, 20182 min read
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, 201811 min read
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, 20185 min read
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, 20184 min read
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, 20182 min read
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 9, 20183 min read
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, 20185 min read
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 8, 20182 min read
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, 20183 min read
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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