1980S | Bammer 2021

Apr 2, 20212 min read

A Typical Manhattan Evening

STORY: 1981—After my intense three-month affair with Bill Masi, a successful male model, had run its course in early 1981, we became...

Dec 4, 20191 min read

BAMMER and Me: Cliff Morrison, The First AIDS Ward (Part 1)

PODCAST—EPISODE 10: Cliff Morrison arrived in San Francisco as a nurse in the late 1970s, as AIDS was about to erupt. In 1983, while...

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....

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, 20182 min read

A Tribute to Jackie Yordan

STORY: Jackie Yordan was, according to many who knew him, an “incredible sweetheart and an amazing person… He was truly one of the...

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, 20183 min read

Full Circle

STORY: 1976 – When I first moved to NYC in 1976, as far as the world knew, I was a 24-year-old straight guy, former college jock, and...

Jun 8, 20181 min read

Group Travel, Rio—1990s style

STORY: 1989 to mid-1990s—My husband, Ron Oyer, had a travel business in the 1990s that catered to gay men, geographically mostly from...

May 9, 20184 min read

Fire Island Virgin

STORY: 1979/1980—My first visit to Fire Island was over Halloween weekend in 1979, long after the resort’s summer season had ended. The...

Apr 24, 20181 min read

Meeting Gary

STORY: Mykonos, 1985–In early September 1985, I spent a week on vacation in Mykonos. Early in the week, I spied a handsome, muscular,...

Mar 27, 20182 min read

Willie

I’ve described how, in 1976, I met Willie Wilson, who introduced me to the passionate joy of infatuation between men. While visiting DC...

Mar 12, 20181 min read

Summer in the Pines 1981

STORY: 1981 – In this photo, I’m with my housemates and my weekend date from Boston (John Shade, with our arms around each other) on the...

Mar 11, 20184 min read

We Are Family

STORY: 1979-2017: My first relationship with another man began when I met Jim at the YMCA in 1979. I was 26, about to leave a job I...

Mar 11, 20182 min read

Hidden Costs

STORY: 1981-2017: If I had to select one photo from my archives which personifies the devastation wrought upon my generation by the AIDS...