Monterey gay bar

Monterey, California

That night I went to the Gilded Cage with a purpose and was dressed accordingly: blue sports jacket, slacks, loafers without socks, colorless shirt open to the third button. I arrived early and found a stool at the semi-circular bar, put a fiver on the bar for effect, ordered a Millers High Life, lit a cigarette, and looked around. The bar-stools were almost all occupied – by men. Soon they'd be three deep, it creature Friday night. The piano was set back in an alcove to the left-rear of the block. It also had bar-stools around it so you could drink there and look at the player with one elbow on the piano. Two adolescent couples were perched on the stools, the men in suits and ties and the giggly women showing a lot of leg. The men were probably asshole officers from Fort Ord, I figured. The piano player was playing As Time Goes By, probably requested by one of the girls. That kind of young woman always requested that courteous of song because they liked to think of themselves as Ingrid Bergman - romantic and teary - without realizing that it wasn't a ballad