PLEASE READ PART 1 IF YOU HAVEN'T YET BEFORE READING THIS

        
THIS
MIGHT BE/COULD BE A TRIPLE X RATED BLOG BUT MORE IN WHAT I AM ASKING
YOU TO IMAGINE THAN IN WHAT I WRITE THOUGH I WILL TRY TO KEEP IT ‘CLEAN’
BECAUSE THAT IS MY STYLE--WARNING: IF YOU ARE NOT READY TO LEARN WITH
AN OPEN MIND THEN DON’T READ THIS!!!
 
Across from
the stairs leading up to the 2 floors and adjacent to the restaurant
were a set of stairs going down which took you to another world, At the
bottom of the steps you either turned left where there were 2 massage
tables or went through the door to the pool. There were hooks to hang
your robes and/or towels--if you had the body or the package you hung up
both.
It was a large pool taht always smelled of chlorine
but then the whole building had an antiseptic smell which took a little
getting use to. I usually went for a swim and most of the time was the
only one in the pool. I did get a massage almost every time I was there
as the massuer (what the heck was his name???) liked me and only chrged
me half his normal fee but then I tipped him pretty well.
Attached
to massage room was a suanna like room with deck chairs. Around the
corner from that, at the entrance to the steam room, on the left were
the showers and on the right the urinals and commodes.  There was a very
small window on the steam room door that you couldn't see htrough as
the steam covered. When you opened the door that steam blasted at you.
The room was divided into 2 sections, mirror images of each, and you had
to slowly walk around to get to where you could sit. There were two
levels of platforms and here is where you will have to use your
imagination or e-mail me! For certain actions you sat on the top level,
for others on the bottom or stretched out on your back or front or you
just stood near the tiled platforms which, until you got use to the
heat, could burn you.
Many prople would refer to the steam
room, if not the whole baths, as Dante's Inferno while others thought of
it as Heaven. It was a place where many closeted men could go and act
without restrictions and/or fear, though sometimes it could get dicey.
It was also a place where men could go to have as much sex as they
wanted and any way they wanted. There were even people who met life long
partners there though most certainly weren't looking for that kind of
connection. A gay man in the 40s to the 80s could shut out the
condemnation of the outside world. I wasn't perfect as the headline
about the fire on top of this post tells you plus sometimes there were
raids and the names, addresses and professions of the man arrested were
published but most of the timeit was quiet except for the occassional
moan and groan or yell of relief.
I went to the baths in my
teens and for someone as sexual as I was back then it was Paradise. I,
also, met some guys I became friends with and, in many ways, mentored
me. No, most of them didn't know my age. They saw a guy who smoked,
drank and was good in and out of bed. I continued going there in my 20s
and whenever I visited New York. To me it was like coming home where I
was always welcomed.
Many people would come from out of
state and check into the baths for the weekend using it as a hotel and,
usually, on Saturday night there was always a line, a list of name
(usually all phony), waiting for a room or a locker. It was a 'home' for
many where they relieved the pressure of living a double life, living
in a straight world tatt hated them, while being embraced, even if only
carnally, here.

The baths gave me an education that I
would never have received in a small town. I met men from all walks of
life, who did all kinds of jobs and talked about all kinds of subjects.
They were out, at least in the baths, and open, full of joy and looking
and having fun.
In the 1960s there was a chain of Club
Baths, started by Jack Cambell in Miami, that eventually stretched
across the United States  that had 'private memberships that allowed you
to go to all of them. For more information look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_Baths
I
have only good memories of the many days and evenings I spent at the
Everard Baths which finally closed in the late 80s due to AIDS.
IF
I ever go back to New York I will have to see if the NoMad hotel was
built on the old Everard land or, hopefully, someone can answer me here.
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