Nope. I did not have the Damron's Address Book. This was quite a bit before I started cruising.
But I do remember the Spartacus Guide Book(s) which I have already written about on this board.
I also remember the xeroxed, mimeographed, carbon paper copies of similar 'address books' that my friends and I exchanged in the pre-internet days.
True, we all knew where to cruise in our respective towns. And we exchanged this information rather readily, following the idea 'the more the merrier'. Yet, when traveling abroad, most of us were pretty ignorant, had not time to waste, and wanted to connect with local guys for some fun ASAP.
Few people I used to know made it no secret that their main motive for foreign travel was looking for some fast, NSA m2m sex. They were going to do their fair share of the churches, castles, museums, etc. once they get old. Some have been managing to get old. The others are sadly gone.
Small reciprocal services like exchanging the custom-made address books usually helped develop friendships, maintain contacts and teach us all how much we all depended on each other for our gay lives.
The new age brought about the huge independent information access to all. The great upside here is that we all can get all the information everywhere and at all the time. The inevitable downside is that our fear that you really do not need anyone for anything anymore these days has been reinforced on a daily basis!
KD
|