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(A TRUE LOOK AT ONE BOY'S TRIP TO BECOME A MAN--ONLY THE NAMES HAVE
BEEN CHANGED)
2.
JACK, JIM & BOB
On the third evening of the
start of his life in Miami Beach, after having dinner with Rose, he
decided to stroll, cruise, the seawall and look for a trick. He knew, if
he found one, that it would be too early to bring someone to his place
as Rose would still be awake and hear everything. Right now he didn't
want to test his welcome though that would change in less than two
weeks.
It was a beautiful spring evening with a cool breeze
coming from the ocean and the sky full of stars. As he walked along the
wall he would look at some guys giving them the eye or nod to those who
were giving him the once over. He stopped to talk with one guy and,
after the preliminaries were over, they started to discuss where they
could go but the guy was staying with his wife across the street at the
hotel and Jack said that he didn't have a place.
As it was still
early the Tenth Street restroom was open and he decided to check it out.
He recognized the guy standing at the urinal as the older man whom had
been sitting on the beach near the Sixth Street tearoom earlier that
day. Jack said, "Hello", and the other guy said, "Hi." As they were
about to continue a man came in with a young boy so the other guy
motioned to him to follow him outside.
"Hi again. My name is
Jim."
"I'm Jack. Do you have any place to go?"
"You don't
waste time, do you?", he responded, with a smile.
"Well, I just
sort of wasted fifteen minutes talking to another guy and neither of us
had a place."
"I do have a place but I, also, have a friend and
we only do threesomes. He's over there," Jim said, pointing at a bench a
few feet away, and called, "Bob, come over."
After Bob walked
over Jim introduced them and they talked a few minutes about the weather
until Jim asked him if he was interested in coming home with them.
"I
really don't do anything," Jack said.
"Neither do we,�" Bob
countered with.
"I have an idea," said Jim. "Why don't we go over
to our place and see what we don't do?"
Laughing, Jack said, "Okay."
Instead of walking along the wall they crossed the street
and walked south pass the ho-tels. Jack told them he had just come to
town. They told him that they have now lived here for ten years having
moved from the small northeast town, where they had lived for another
ten years, as soon as Bob had gotten out of the service. Bob was a men's
clothing salesman at Saks-Fifth Avenue on Lincoln Road while Jim was
retired having made some good investments when he was younger. Jack
figured Bob was in his late thirties, early forties, and though Jim was
obviously older Jack had no idea how much older.
Upon arriving at
their apartment Jack was surprised that two guys lived in a place
smaller than his. When you entered the apartment you were in a wide
living room area with a plush sofa bed on the right with end tables on
each side and a long piece of furniture containing a television, radio
and record player. Right near by was a lamp and recliner. The cabinet
draw under the record player was overflowing with records. The room was
filled with paintings, sculptures and figurines that were obviously
expensive even to Jack's eyes.
There was an arched entrance to
the back of the apartment, which contained a bed they shared hidden by
elaborate Chinese room dividers. To the left of it was a large maple
dining room table that left little walking around space. Off that room
was a very tiny kitchen area and the bathroom. Though they said,
jokingly, that in order for either of them to have any time alone they
had to go into the bathroom and lock the door and they didn't fight
because there was no place to run.
After they had their
threesome, which had been fun but would be the first and last time they
would have sex together, they sat around and talked for awhile. Bob told
some funny stories about the customers who came to the store and Jim
talked about his being the mayor of the Sixth Street beach. He knew
everyone who came to the beach on a regular basis and went out of his
way to meet anyone new that he thought might be gay. He loved playing
matchmaker and had set up a lot of guys. Knowing that Jack was new to
Miami Beach they filled him on all the gay activities that went on from
the bars that had drag shows, those that didn't, the cruisy movie houses
and the hot spots around town.
Jack told them a little bit about
his background and his hitchhiking adventure from Cali-fornia to
Florida telling them the stories he didn't tell Rose. It was getting
late for Bob as he had work the next day and when Jack was getting ready
to leave Jim invited him to join them on Bob's day off, which was
Monday, to go into Miami with them. He told them they usually had
breakfast at Als Luncheonette, took the bus downtown, went shopping and
then took in a movie.
"If you go to Al's then you probably know
my Aunt Rose."
"You got to be kidding! She's our favorite
waitress and female!"Bob said. "She's a hoot."
"We met her the
first day we moved here and we hit it off right away," Jim added. "In
fact, we go out for dinner a few times a month. As you know she hates to
cook."
"It's not that she hates to cook but that she doesn't
know how!" Jack said, laughing.
A little while later as Jack
walked home he thought to himself that if Rose had any doubts about his
being gay they would go out the window when she heard that he met Jim
and Bob, especially if they became friends and they would. Though Bob
could 'pass' for straight it was obvious just by the way he talked,
walked and acted that Jim was gay.
The next day after having
orange juice and coffee on Rose's station at Al's he decided to walk up
Washington Avenue, cut across Tenth Street and go to the beach stopping
at the restroom for a quick blow job. He did, and got, exactly that,
though he never did see the guy doing him as he was on the other side of
the partition with his mouth right up against the glory hole. When he
had come Jack decided that he would wait outside along the seawall just
to see the guy who had done him so slow and so good. After a few minutes
he came out, didn't acknowledge Jack, and walked south. Lighting a
cigarette Jack, too, headed south figuring he would go see Jim on Sixth
Street. Much to his surprise when he got there the guy was sitting on
Jim's blanket and they were talking.
"Hi Jack. Let me introduce
you to the guys," Jim said, proceeding to do just that. When he came to
Joe, the guy who had just done him, the man either didn't recognize him,
or didn't want to let the others know what had transpired. Jack didn't
say anything except "Hi", as he had done with the others, shaking his
hand.
"Anyone going into the water?" Joe asked, taking his shirt
off.
"I'll join you," Jack responded. "Okay, if I leave my things
here, Jim?"
"Sure, I'm the hatcheck girl of the beach, along
with a few other duties."
"Thanks."
Jack and Joe started
to walk towards the ocean and then ran, laughing, when they realized how
hot the sand was. Without stopping they both dived into the water. They
swam for awhile and then started playing some grab ass under the water
attempting to get each other's bathing suits off, grabbing each other's
crotch, just having fun and laughing. Within a short time they knew they
would become friends, not lovers, not sex buddies, but good friends.
Within
a week Jack had three friends, had met about a dozen people through
Jim, three meals a day, an apartment and some spending money supplied by
Rose. He spent days on the beach swimming, tanning and cruising while
evenings were passed getting to know the area he was living in. He went
into Miami with Jim and Bob, three times he and Rose went out for dinner
and when Joe could get away he took Jack out to one of the bars for a
drink. He knew he couldn't go on depending on other people for money but
he certainly wasn't rushing to find a job. As it was he didn't even
know what kind of a job he could get not having any particular skills.
In the past he had a few half ass jobs, like a movie usher, and marching
in the service hadn't really taught him much as far as getting a job
went.
Jack knew he was intelligent, had street smarts to a degree
but he had no idea what he wanted to do or could do. He liked the
beach, the ocean, sex, drinking, cruising, being gay, going to the
movies and theatre which, for now, didn't add up to too much of a
ca-reer. He, also, knew he didn't like facing responsibilities but that
he would soon, very soon, have to.
The Twenty-first Street
beach was the gay beach. It was a block long anchored on each end by a
hotel. In the middle of the block was a restroom. The north of the
restroom mainly catered to straight oriented singles, families and
tourists. The southern end was where the gays, drag queens,
transvestites, transsexuals, bisexual and gay bar workers dominated.
Though both sides used the restroom each respected the other. There was a
snack bar at the southern end adjacent to the Seagull hotel and, as the
restroom, was a neutral area.
During the day the gay crowd was
noisy, showy and fun and the straight crowd enjoyed watching their
antics. Very seldom, if ever, was there a clash between the groups. In
the evening there was a lot of cruising going on along the seawall and
in the parking lot and here and there a straight couple. As it got
darker a small strip of sand between the water and the hotel became a
sexual playground with one or two guys always keeping look to see who
might be coming.
The area abutting the Twenty- First Street beach
was a tourist's playing field. At the cor-ner of Twenty-first and
Collins Avenue was the world famous delicatessen called Wolfies 21 to
distinguish it from the one on Lincoln Road. It was open twenty-four
hours a day and most of the time you had to get on line and wait for a
table or a seat at the counter. Aside from their huge portions and good
food they were known for the buckets of sour pickles, tomatoes and
sauerkraut on each table all the time plus baskets of mini hot rolls
and/or Danish at breakfast, lunch and dinner. From a gay perspective it
was also know as 'The last chance'cruising spot in the early morning
hours if you hadn't made out at the bars or on the beach.
A
couple of doors to the west was Chandler's Steak House, an excellent,
high priced steak restaurant. Across the way was another dining place
known for its moderate priced menu and superb ribs. Also, on
Twenty-second Street was the Place Pigalle, a nightclub that during
season featured Pearl Williams or Rusty Warren, both having a heavy gay
following. The two women had successful records on which they played
piano sang and told off colored jokes. Having strong personalities and
no nonsense attitudes they were always a big hit with the crowd. Rusty
was known for her 'knockers', two sticks with a ball at the end of
each--and Pearl for her strong piano playing. Both were known for their
old, corny, Sophie Tucker type but still very effective type jokes.
"What
do you call a gay Jew? A Heblew!"
"What do you call a gay
Chinese? Chew man, chew!"
"A gay Irishman? A gay lick!"
"Two
women of the night were walking down the street while on the other side
two gay hustlers were walking up the street. The men looked at the
women and said, "Humph! Common prostitutes." The women looked at the two
guys and said, "Humph! Common substitutes."
No matter how many
times they heard the jokes the customers roared with laughter.
Up
the block, on Park Avenue, were three attached bars with one catering
to gay men, the middle one to lesbians and the third to straight people
who liked Frank Sinatra having a hundred of his records on their
jukebox.
South of Twenty First Street, and Wolfie's, on Collins
Avenue was Martha Raye's Five O'clock Club who was always a favorite of
the gay crowd. She cemented that relation-ship when, after marrying a
cop, she brought him into a gay bar and told him, "Show the guys what a
nightstick looks like," and proceeded to unzip him.
The area from
Lincoln Road to Twenty Third Street on Collins Avenue was always a
beehive of activity with its many restaurants, hotels, souvenir and
clothing shops and all points leading to the Twenty First Street beach.
More
than one connection was made between two gay men strolling along the
avenue during the day and the evening became a haven for hustlers and
prostitutes looking for Johns, though, more often, the latter worked
Lincoln Road or the hotels.
