Meeting other men
1949
Trevor talks about meeting men in cinemas. “I used to go to the cinema a lot, I’d left school, and although I was friendly with the girls round where I lived, it was as though I didn’t exist in that world, it was just a feeling I had. I went to the cinema and I was interfered with by somebody who was sitting next to me, it was pleasant, very nice, and I met that chap on and off for a couple of years; and there were others, this was a way of meeting people who were very similar to myself, but nothing of friendship came out of it, it was just bang bang, that was it and go, no names, no nothing. That went on until I became 18. I didn’t know what a gay bar was, never thought about that, that was the only sort of contact I had.”
“It was knees – you sat together and your knee would touch, and if nothing happened to push you back it was no good, you’d move seats, but you’d find someone. So you would move your knee to them or they’d do it to me, and that’s how that happened. But in the street when you meet somebody, you’d know, because there’s a look, I can’t explain it, I remember once, going along by the Town Hall in Birmingham, all the buses used to stop along there, and this chappie went past me and looked, and I looked, and our eyes connected and I thought, ‘Yes’, and he got on the bus so I followed him on and sat by him, and we had quite a nice friendship for quite a while. And I knew him till a few years ago when he passed away. So that was just a look. And that still goes on today.”
“Remember we were young and bold and you’d always have your macintosh with you over, and your hand would go over and you’d play around, and probably you’d go I the toilet and have it off, and that was in the cinemas, but I don’t think I ever met anyone like that that I went out with, there was a couple when I was younger but nothing really as friendship, it was just a matter of meeting and having sex. Most of the people I met were in bars or at parties, we used to have a lot of parties, people would give a party and invite people back, they were very friendly days, I used to enjoy them.”
Contributed by: Trevor Hall, 76