Charlie

Now that is also "vintage"! (Didn't Al Parker die at least thirty years ago?)

When I was young, Piaf's "Non, je ne regrette rien" was on every gay bar jukebox. and one heard it over and over during the evening..

Right at the start of our relationship, my partner and I sat down and had a serious discussion about the fact that we were both sex-crazed sluts who would not be happy in an exclusive sexual relationship. The rule we established was that if we were fucking with someone else, we couldn't make it a secret. We also acknowledged the possibility that sex with others could lead to emotional relationships with others, and we had to be willing to either deal with a three-way relationship or let one another go if necessary. It sounds cold-blooded, but we reasoned that if our relationship was genuine, it could handle reality. Over the years it was common for us to go out cruising together and split up if one or both of us made a connection with someone else. I never confused sexual attraction with love, which was one reason I could justify hiring professional providers. Each of us did have a couple of affairs with other people over the years, usually when for some reason we were temporarily not living together (each of us had periods when we were working in different cities or even other countries). It worked for us for 56 years.

Yes.

The artist has done a completely new memorial sculpture, and the city has just accepted it.

Are the stalls marked "large," "medium," "small"?

I confess: I'm really not into sex with guys my own age any longer. Someone in good shape in his 60s is my upper limit now.

It has been more than forty years since the first AIDS death among my friends (the cause didn't even have a name yet in the early 1980s), and I couldn't begin to name all those whom I eventually lost, including my best friend since my teens, and my first adult partner whom I lived with in my early 20s. In the heart of the epidemic in the mid-to-late 80s, I volunteered on an urban AIDS Information Hotline, and ended up running it. And, frankly, I burned out. In the early 90s, I escaped to live for a year in a foreign town where I didn't have to deal with it or people who knew what it was. But when I returned home, it was still there, and I was still dealing with friends who were dying or discovering new medication that enabled them to survive with it. By the turn of the century, it had ceased to be at the front of gay men's minds, though I still lost friends in the early 2000s from its long-term effects, and I know old people who are still living with it. They don't talk about it often. I think it is easier to commemorate a tragedy that happened on a commonly known date, like December 7 or 9/11, than a trauma that started on an unknown date and never ended on a known date, but just trailed off to be followed mostly by professionals. To be honest, I hadn't even noticed World AIDS Day or its commemoration this past weekend. AIDS was a major "event" in my life and worthy of notice by others, but I understand those who lived through it or whose gay ancestors lived through it, but don't want to be reminded of it, even if they should.

When I moved to Palm Springs and met Lucky and latlrnr, they quickly became my closest friends in CA. Considering how different our backgrounds were--where we were from and had lived, our family structures, religions, professions, non-sexual interests, etc.--we probably would never even have met if it weren't for this website.

I know I found the site around the turn of the century. Something tells me it was in 2001. I remember going to a get-together in NYC where I met a number of original contributors (like Tampa Yankee). I moved to Palm Springs in 2004, and Lucky and latlrner (sadly now deceased) were both posting here and told me they were also moving to PS at about the same time, so we all got together and met for the first time in PS in the Spring of 2004.

Duh!

Another provider whose "map me" indicates that he works out of City Hall.

The last time I had dinner with him, he showed me a photo he had taken of the burial site he had bought for himself. He said he wanted to be sure he would always have a view of Dodger Stadium. (He was a big Dodgers' fan.)

The little guy actually has an older face than the big one.

Two more guys whose "map me" function shows them available in City Hall courtyard.

Another advertiser who claims to live in Palm Springs, and "map me" location is the default on a corner in the downtown.

The heading to this thread, unfortunately, means two things to me. For many years it meant only the Kennedy assassination: I had been watching his arrival in Dallas, which was on the TV as I was visiting a classmate in the campus hospital. An hour later, I was walking across campus when I saw several guys standing around a car with the door open as they listened to something on the radio. I continued to the barbershop, where the radio was also on and everyone was chattering, and as I sat in the barber chair, I heard the announcement that Kennedy had been pronounced dead--the shop suddenly turned silent. A couple of days later, I was in DC, walking in the crowd heading to the Capitol to view the casket, and later watching on the street as the procession of dignitaries paraded to the cathedral for the funeral service. I thought that November 22 would always hold only one meaning to me. Thirty-three years later I was teaching a class, when I was summoned to the department secretary's office for a personal phone call. It was a doctor friend, telling me that my best friend had just died of AIDS. For me the date just seems to be cursed.

Having been an ex-pat myself at one time, I think the distinction is that an immigrant normally moves to another country with the expectation of staying there and becoming a citizen of that country, whereas an ex-pat normally intends to retain his original citizenship even while living in another country.

Since I live in Palm Springs, when I see an ad for a provider who claims to be located here, I often hit the "map me" function to see if he is near me, but almost invariably it shows the same spot on a street corner downtown, where I am sure no one is actually located. So I was surprised the other day to see a post in which someone asked about a list of Palm Springs providers, and when I clicked on each one, every one of them showed a different location in the town, so it must be possible to show an actual spot if the provider wants to. However, since I also used to live in Center City Philadelphia, out of curiosity I also hit the "map me" function when I see a Philadelphia ad, but the map target almost always shows City Hall courtyard (which was an active place for street trade when I was young).

I think this is a very natural response to the death of a loved one. My spouse died last week, and as I move around the house, I can't help thinking about the last time he did something here or saw something that I have changed since he went into an assisted living facility. Yesterday I was going through his clothing to decide what to throw away and what to donate, and I couldn't help trying to remember the last time I saw him wear an item. I stopped hiring 11 years ago, and sometimes I wonder why I bother to read threads about new escorts, since I don't plan to hire again. I used to travel all over the world, and I can't help wondering whether I have seen certain places that were important to me for the last time. I used to be a frequent opera-goer, and as I listen to a recording, I wonder when or if I will make the effort necessary to see a performance again. I enjoy reminiscing, but I don't want to spend the rest of my life just thinking about time last time I saw or did something. I hope to continue seeing and doing old things and maybe new ones, until I am unable to do anything except remember the last time.

It looks like. with a few exceptions, the farther south you go to have sex, the more likely it is that you will get an STD. Almost all the red states in the US are below the 40 degree latitude.

I wonder what percentage of his total body weight that monster is?

I always preferred men in the 30-60 age range: old enough to look good and know what they were doing, young enough to still look good and be able to do it.

Quadruplets?

Now that's a real vintage photo!