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OK, boys and girls, today's lesson in the lovely land of Oz where homosexuality once flourished in the pre-gay marriage days.
After the film screening of a new Matt Damon movie that we can't discuss until midnight on Thursday night, I took a little walk...well, a little more than a little walk, to the South End to visit a homosexual establishment known as The Eagle. It's a - or I should say "was" - a notorious pick-up bar where one-night stands would often (not always, some people did end up in relationships) occur.
Well, it was Ogunquit all over again.
This once thriving men's club was almost empty.
There was the owner sitting there, the man who threw my girlfriend out decades ago because -back in the days when the room was packed - she "surfed" over all the gay hands that held her up like the Queen of the Nile.
The guys loved it as my red-headed consort was gliding over all them homos happy to let her "surf" over the room like Peter Pan.
The owner yelled "GET HER OUT OF HERE" ...imagine...a WOMAN in a gay pick up bar!
As she said to me on many occasion "I love gaeity" - indeed she did.
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Those were the good old days, she was alive and causing fun mayhem, the bars were jammed
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There were three men to the right, two of them from New York, and the owner, and then I walked in. The owner was telling the gentlemen that he had served hundreds of thousands of gay men (drinks...get your minds out of the gutter) over the years
The three men turned out to be straight. Two of them are married and the third is about to tie the knot.
Bill Clinton was on the TV, not the Red Sox game, and here I was the lone homosexual in a gay bar (outside of the owner) and three straights.
Cxxx from NYC offered me a beer. I declined having had one at dinner - I limit myself to six beers a year...not really, but it comes out to about that. It was nice of him to offer.
One of the fellows was drop-dead gorgeous, one of those GQ model types talking about his wife. Hello, honey, I do not believe in gay marriage but I would definitely make an exception for YOU! You've heard of persistence of memory? I definitely have it for that New York face!
Hotel, in from NY and me in the room, well, I've never let a wedding ring get in my way ...ha ha...but, like Saturday night in Ogunquit, I was not in the mood to make the moves that have been so very successful in the past.
Throw them back in the water I say and let them swim back if they're ever bored.
The fellows were now waiting for a cab and I was answering a business call at 11 at night...on the sidewalk. A couple of men entered the building, the usual customers (gay!) ...I spoke to one nice older fellow heading to P-Town today...went back outside...the straight guys were asking me about the movie, they said they didn't even know it was a gay bar, they were just looking for a bar.
They also said it didn't matter.
You have to love the change in attitude.
The guy about to get married said his wife to be is a big woman, and that he is also "big" - trash talk from a straight; I would say he fit into our lifestyle very well. As we were on the sidewalk I did not ask him to "prove it" as the late Park Marenteau would have...and did down at the Rathskeller in the 70s...but that's a story for another day. (The fellow complied and got his name mentioned on the radio. It was...an interesting rock and roll moment way back when.)
Saying goodbye to the owner I asked if his weekends were jammed. He said "sometimes. "
He concluded with a somber note: "The environment is not what it used to be" (paraphrased.)
Is it gay marriage that has ended the bar scene for homosexuals? The bars are diminishing and even the ones that are open do not even have clientele on a Tuesday night in July.
Now that is a remarkable thing to note, as these clubs were bustling for decades and decades and...suddenly...it's all dropped off a cliff...
The one good thing I will say about the experience, it's nice to have the straight husbands in the room without their wives...
Sigh.
To learn more about the homosexual lifestyle in 2016, tune in here: http://medfordinformationcentral.blogspot.com/2016/07/79-miles-from-home-or-my-big-fat.html