Okay, let's get it out of the closet and talk about gay sex in Memphis. I
left New York City after years of all the sex I could want and now that
I was going to Memphis I felt as if I was going into a monastery (to
paraphrase Streisand in "Funny Girl" "Would a monastery take a Jewish
boy?"). Not only was Memphis the buckle of the bible belt this was also
1969 and Gay Rights haven't even been spoken in the south let alone
start there. I did have a copy of a gay travel guide which mentioned a 
bar plus a couple of outdoor cruising spots and just before I left New
York a gay magazine had a story about the mid-south and places to go. In
other words I arrived in Memphis, not heading to the monastery, but to
the Peabody hotel, Overton Park, Goldsmith's, X rated video stores , motels off the Interstate, rest areas among other places not to mentionmyown'open  house' Saturdays.
I did find out that "Behind Closed Doors" was certainly true and though
I met a few married gay men in New York I was amazed at how many men,
who identified as gay, were married and had children and didn't have a
problem with living in the closet.

This
city slicker quickly learned that 'looking for sex in all the wrong
places' is not the same in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi as it is
in Manhattan, New York. I had to learn about headlights and meeting
truckers on the interstate. There was the secret of taking a ground
floor room in the back of the motel so you could sit on the bed in a
dark room except for the light of the TV with the curtains open and the
door ajar knowing it wouldn't be long before someone would poke their
head in the door and ask, "What's happening?" Whether you were at the
Ramada Inn in Jonesboro, Arkansas or the Holiday Inn in Jackson,
Mississippi or the Reade House in Chattanooga, Tennessee, it was always
easy to meet someone at the bar, usually a salesman passing through.

Men
would drive down to Oxford, Mississippi, home of Mississippi
University, 'Ole Miss', and spend hours at the rest area right outside
of town  off I-55 or cruise along I-40 between Memphis and Nashville for
places to park and have sex. You learned that when you go into a
smaller town in Tennessee like Jackson or Covington, head for the city
hall and the men's room will give you all the information you need to
know about the parks to go to meet other guys. In Chattanooga there were
a couple of gay bars and a X rated video place with booths downtown and
there was an infamous spot near the base of Lookout Mountain.

Before you righteous people get all up in arms remember a lot of this was due to the fact that people had to be in the closet and
had to hide and sneak around or they could lose their jobs, families
and friends. Now there is the Internet so many of the places, plus
cruising tactics, have completely changed. You can make dates before
getting to a city or town, find out where the hot bars are or where to
go to hook up.

Along
with everything else in Memphis there were my successful  Saturday
afternoon orgies with the red light lit outside the door! Yeah, yeah, I
know but even if it was tacky it let people know that it was party time.
I don't know the exact figures but I am willing to bet at least 95%
were married men who were 'out on errands'. Men from all strata's of
life including dentists, doctors, lawyers, theatre directors, the
organist from the biggest church in town, waiters, bar owners, firemen,
police officers, sales clerks not to forget some husbands of Weight
Watchers members or members themselves. They would sit downstairs
talking, having a drink and relaxing or go upstairs to the main bedroom
to get into the king size bed.

I
could go into a dozen posts about Overton Park but let's just say I had
most of my sexual encounters either there or meeting people there.
Bernie would raise hell when he knew I had been there in my car with the
top down and the MARTIN license plate because every knew that guy from
WW owned the white Caddy. The most important part of Overton Park was
that I met Chuck and Dr. K there for which there should be  shrine on
that spot!

I
don't know how the cruising scene is in Memphis now but back then there
was always a line to the balcony of the lobby of that hotel and there
was an X rated Video store across the street. Out in East Memphis
Goldsmith's downstairs, near the housewares department, the rest room was
notorious. For what it is worth I still have some of the red dishes and
the serving bowls and platter that I bought there 40 years ago.

It
wasn't long before I got into the groove of things in the mid-south to
the point that I didn't miss my old sex life in New York City except for
the Everard baths. It would take a complete post to tell you about the
ad I took in the Advocate and had over 300 answers with over 100 people
coming to visit me over Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day weekends
from all over the States and a good time was had by all.

Okay, let's get back to Bernie and WW part of my Memphis decade and how the former came to an end.

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