night, Joe implied publicly, that I was a homosexual.

While this drunk was in the men's room, Joe said, "Well, there's your chance."

I refused the favor to this stranger. Nevertheless, after a period of months of absence and a subsequent return, Joe finally passed an opinion on me. One of his closest friends told me in another tavern that Joe cared for me very deeply, but that he felt that I was a "chippy" and had "been with everything in town." Regardless of how hard I tried, I could not convince many of these customers that my relations with Joe were merely those of customer to bartender, that I never knew his residence address or phone number, and that I had seen him outside his place of business but three times. The experience was very painful to me in many ways. I had thought well of Joe.

Perhaps there was some excuse for his behavior. His broken marriage had produced children. His ex-wife was not beyond having him jailed whenever the child support was a day or so late. He had originally been selected for the particular job because of his looks. He was to be a lure to female trade as well as bartender. He was a good bartender, if a bit lax in the field of customer relations. He once indicated directly to me that he would like a homosexual relation with me. This liaison did not occur. One never knows what to believe around a bar, but the last report I had on Joe was that he had gone into another state, had been involved in an armed robbery and had been sentenced to prison. My supposed love affair with this man was circulated through bar personnel and bar-fly customers for as far away as three miles in one direction to another neighborhood and six miles in another into two or three downtown bars.

THEY'LL KISS AND TELL

In Little Joe's, the situation was different in that Kenny did not declare any love for me. Instead, he did much worse. He had gotten the story of Joe and myself and undertook to ruin my reputation in my own neighborhood. Little Joe's owner stated within my hearing in another tavern that all of his customers thought that Kenny and I were sleeping together. This was not true. Kenny seemed to be fond of young women. Certainly he admitted number of them into his place who were under 20 years of age. Apparently the policy in Little Joe's was that it should be operated as a "jive joint for people under 30." A number of customers were far and away under 30. I was unaware of this policy at the time.

was

a

This may account for the fact that several attendants tried to drive me out. Reports came back that Kenny telling every customer who would listen that I was "queer." The owner once told me that he discharged Kenny for "what he was doing to me. Kenny on one occasion launched into a tirade about Joe and myself in front of an entire tavern full of people. His statement was to the effect that I should be ashamed to go into bars and taverns and cause male bartenders to fall in love with me, but that Joe did care or me and that it would be all right for me to meet him in Little Joe's at any time I wished. More than one neighborhood acquaintance was present in the place. The owner was present, but nothing was done to stop this disorderly conduct on the part of the bartender on duty. In Little Joe's I had only attempted to be a friendly customer. I had traded there many years without any trouble. Yet, I was scandalized all over the neighborhood because of

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