Mar 14, 20213 minBoston After Dark in 1975: My First TimeBAMMER47: 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, 20212 minThe 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, 20205 minBartending at StudioSTORY: 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, 20205 minSpeedy and BamSTORY: 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, 20202 minFirst TimesSTORY: 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, 20191 minBAMMER and Me: Life in NYC Avant Garde Theatre Scene and StonewallPODCAST—EPISODE 8: Mike talks with Frank Carucci, a life-long New Yorker, about working in the NYC avant-garde theatre scene, the...
Sep 30, 20191 minBAMMER 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, 20196 minBar Wars – Quarter Stories 16STORY: 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, 201912 minIf You’re From Baton Rouge—Quarter Stories 15STORY: Stories about my adventures bartending in New Orleans in the late ’70s and early ’80s. To read them all, click #quarterstories....
Jan 5, 20194 minAll American and GaySTORY: 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, 20183 minBartending is a Dance – Quarter Stories 10STORY: 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, 20182 minFirst LoveSTORY: 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, 201811 minPeacocks – Quarter Stories 9STORY: 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, 20185 minThe Torch – Quarter Stories 14STORY: 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, 20182 minA Double-Edged Sword1974—“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, 20185 minCajun Sweat (Louis Pt. 2 )- Quarter Stories 13STORY: 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 10, 20183 minSame Sex Marriage, 1972STORY: 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, 20184 minThe Lavender Line – Quarter Stories 11STORY: 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 minThe First Happy Gay FilmSTORY: 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, 20183 minIn Search of (Gay) AmericaSTORY: 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...