Boston

[Merboy]

Just a few thoughts I had during my nearly ten year stay here:

 

• No spring - it goes right into summer - and the fall is getting shorter and shorter every year. The weather tends towards the extreme --- Pennsylvania, my home state, had much more moderate temperatures in my opinion.
  
• An old friend of mine once said that Boston was the city with the worst dressed people. I'll refrain from accusing it of that, but in the areas that I've lived, people are struggling to just make ends meet. The Bernie Sanders look is very popular here too.
  
• The general population is much more liberal and much more Democratic than in Pennsylvania, where I would say most of the older people are very conservative. I have met a good share of Republicans here though and they've been very vocal about expressing their views. (Might be because I don't limit who I talk to about politics with just people who share my views.)
  
• Parts of it are dominated by the colleges (of which the Boston area has possibly the most in the nation taken together)... lots of college students. I never went to college here so I really don't know what the atmosphere is like, but back in the early 2010s, long before COVID, there was a lot of activity at night.
  
• As far as the men are concerned, most I come into contact with are older and have a worn-out, exhausted look about them.
  
• There's a lot of people up here who speak in foreign languages and more immigrants than even Pennsylvania has. I think it's wonderful and adds to the diversity but it can be overwhelming for someone from a more rural, 90% white background.
  
• I would argue that Boston is not a "gay city" - but then again, what cities are anymore? Even the exalted San Francisco I have heard from a few men is beginning to lose a little of its gayness. Boston has a very good medical center for LGBTQ (Fenway Health) but it has no community center and the one gay bar I went inside was as dead as a doornail - I mean, even the bartender was asleep (j/k).
  
• Ironically very few Boston Markets in Boston.
  
• And lastly, no Sheetz. ?
  

 

What about your thoughts about where you live? How does it compare and contrast to other places you've lived?

[kingsley88]

Boston has changed a lot. I lived there summer 1998 and I remember going to this independent film theater near Kendall Square where I watched the movie Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss. I wasn't 21 yet and I didn't have a fake ID so instead during weekends I just went to the gay bookstore on Boylston st and was able to meet a few guys there who introduced me to other gay films like Beautiful Thing and Broadway Damage. The Boston gay pride march near Boston Common was the first pride march I ever attended and that was a really cool and eye opening experience for me.

[Merboy]

Boston has changed a lot. I lived there summer 1998 and I remember going to this independent film theater near Kendall Square where I watched the movie Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss. I wasn't 21 yet and I didn't have a fake ID so instead during weekends I just went to the gay bookstore on Boylston st and was able to meet a few guys there who introduced me to other gay films like Beautiful Thing and Broadway Damage. The Boston gay pride march near Boston Common was the first pride march I ever attended and that was a really cool and eye opening experience for me.

I loved Calamus Bookstore... I spoke with the younger man that ran it after the older man died. Sadly it is no longer there... but while it was here in Boston, boy that was my favorite place to go in the whole city - and then I'd go to my second favorite place, Surf City Squeeze at South Station. ? I'm so grateful I was able to experience the gay bookstore -- Calamus and also Giovanni's Room in Philadelphia.

[+ WilliamM]

Decades ago Broadway shows tried out in Boston, musicals ("Funny Girl" "The Sound of Music"). If one has a car, the beach in Gloucester is highly recommended. Harvard Square is interesting.

[craigville beach]

Decades ago Broadway shows tried out in Boston, musicals ("Funny Girl" "The Sound of Music"). If one has a car, the beach in Gloucester is highly recommended. Harvard Square is interesting.

 

 

i was stuck for a week in Harvard Square during the blizzard of '78. a fun time