Mar 13, 20213 min read

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, 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...