by F. Dane Warden

R.F.D. #1, Homophobic, VT 05819
was where I was born and reared, and if you
check a map, you'll see that it's so remote
that a drive to Burlington leads the t:raveler
to inquire what the exchange rate is.

For those of us who occasionally la-
ment having "missed the train," please
know that many of us living outside of "The
Queen City" didn't even know there WAS
a train. In other words, I was 37 before I was
made aware that there was a gay bar within
the confines of the Vermont borders.

I hope you can grasp the significance
of the "culture shock" involved in trading in
a slop bucket for a silver dildo. The differ-
ence can be equated to Mark Twain's obser-
vation that there is a considerable differ-
ence between lightning andalightning bug.

Determined to BE GAY, I "took the
bull by the horns" as it were and did what
was for me a bold and courageous step
toward that end. I placed what was to be the
very first gay ad in the very first edition of
the Burlington Free Press's "Personals,"

Have a How|in'
Good Time as

OUT
IN THE
MOUNTAINS

celebrates its

FIFTH
ANNIVERSARY

with

VIRGINIA
AND THE
WOLVES

at
PEARLS

-“IV -<I‘.U3.'D==DCDl"'.l"".I

details In the
next Issue!

Swine Before Pearls

then published in the T.V. guide section. (It
was later moved to the Weekend section
after a flood of complaints were sent in over
my use of the phrase "HOT summer
nights.") Through the ad, I was most fortu-
nate to meet ahell of a nice guy who offered
to take me to Pearls. (Thanks, Steve. I've
never forgotten you, or the experience.)

Anticipation...my heart raced out of
control for days! I was not only "taking a
trip," I was BEING GAY, meeting a GAY
guy, fantasizing about doing other GAY
stuff, without looking over my shoulder. I
was in hog heaven, man!

Gotta get new threads...those black
jeans oughta show off the bulge OK...$60
for those damned sneakers? Are you
SURE, ma'am? So when did you raise the
price of a haircut to four bucks, Walt?

Approaching Pearls, I was struck by
the...plainness of it. Certainly not the be-
jeweled den of GAYNESS, as seen in my
fantasy world high on Burke Mountain.

Nevertheless, I remember how dry my
throat was as we entered, like somebody
had just dumped a load of gravel in my
mouth. There was so much yelling going
on, I thought that maybe there was a serious
fight in progress, and then realized that
because of the decibel level of the music,

 

yelling and body language were the only
two forms of communication being used.

I had other concerns on my mind, such
as being in a bar for the first time since I
began recovering from alcoholism one and
a half years earlier.

Luckily, I was suddenly so caught up
in the excitement of the moment, my con-
cerns vanished as I was introduced to a
really attractive guy in drag, along with
seeing all the other guys there, checking out
the other guys, making their moves - some
subtle, some more direct - but always inter-
acting, making moves.

It was terribly exciting, and in its own
way represented a whole way of life to
some of the guys there (or so it seemed;
while I've only been back twice, I saw and
remembered some of the same people, still
making moves, and for them the excite-
ment was still there. For me, it was gone.)

It was, I guess, the sameness of it all
that finally prompted me to conclude (and
not insultingly so) that a pig with a new
hairdo was still a pig.

There is no great moral or overwhelm-
ingly powerful point to this script, only a
glimpse of what it was like for someone to
discover what "being gay" meant to some-
one else.

I

  
 

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GOLDEN THREADS

a Contact publication for lesbians
over 50 and women who love
older women.

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