Another One Gone....

I was saddened to see that another South End store which catered to both gay and pre-Megan and Sean South Enders suddenly disappeared this week. Tommy Tish, a tiny South End institution, is gone. Did it relocate? Anyone know anything? TT had a great selection of small gifts, wrapping papers and unique cards, from the off-color and funny to the beatiful and hand-made, all in about 40 square feet of space.

One can only hope that it will not go the way of its former neighbor, a tiny antique store that turned into everyone's favorite South End Pretentious Purveyor of Pricey Produce. Hopefully, "She" (as apparently "She" is known to her produce-purveying peons) will not expand her empire any further down Waltham Street (a/k/a "Fraternity Row") (walk down the stretch of Waltham Street on any weekend night and you'll see what I mean by "Fraternity Row" - its about a nanosecond away from keg parties and drunk B.U. students in Togas).

So in about one year, we've lost Tommy Tish and We Think the World of You (a gay bookstore, now a bank). Watch out Aunt Sadie's, you're only a few breaths away from becoming a Chuck E. Cheese.

A clarification....

Well, finally someone other than myself has finally read this blog. One reader questioned the fact that gentrified gays were compaining about straight gentrification. The story is not gay vs. straight, but rather entitled vs. normal. It just so happens that the new wave of ultra-entitled pricks moving in happen to be straight. Three years ago, the straights and the gays got along in the neighborhood, socialized together, etc. The new entitled brats have no interest in doing that. In fact, I have witnessed very unaccepting (and unacceptable) behavior by my new straight neighbors, from complaining about copies of Bay Windows in various buildings and retail spaces to a bunch of empty nesters "tssk tsssk-ing" about magazines displaying shirtless men in the window of The Movie Place.

The gay population of the South End misses the day when they were accepted and not made to feel like they were on display in a zoo to shocked onlookers. We miss the straight neighbors who made us feel accepted and comfortable. Anybody who didn't know that there was a gay presence (albeit now a diminishing one) here must have been living in a cave.

The new Megan and Sean couples want nothing to do but be close to trendy dining spots, suck more $$ out of mumsy and daddy, push out an unruly tot or two, and then get out of the neighborhood.

I remember a day not too long ago when gay men had planted those wooden half-barrels on streets all over town with flowers to brighten up the neighborhood. I remember when a friend who was responsible for the plantings in several of those barrels was thanked by his neighbors (who lived in Section 8 housing) with a plate of home-baked cookies and the warm cameraderie between these neighbors. Another friend used to visit the elderly in a neighborhood housing project nearby. Somehow I don't think Megan and Sean will be doing anything like that between jaunts to Stella and The Butcher Shop.

But they know how to scream into a cell phone about how drunk they were last night while stumbling down Waltham Street (a/k/a "Fraternity Row") at 2:30 in the morning.