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Every chapter in My Life Story includes information about me, my work, my family and my friends.It also includes information about events that took place locally and nationally, etc. that I thought important enough to include. You’ll also find that I’ve included films, musicians and recordings/videos, in addition to books that were released in a given year.
While I have included many personal photos, most of the graphic content included below is borrowed from the Internet. I do not claim to own this material. I am just adding it for educational purposes. If the owners of any of the content in the “My Life Story” series want their stuff removed, I am happy to oblige. My email address is jrdiaz@arizona.edu. Thanks!
This was the year I started accepting myself as a gay man. Many changes took place this particular year.
I turned 19 on January 15. Legal drinking age…in Arizona.
As soon as I turned 19, I was given a promotion at Fry’s. I went from carryout to cashier/stocker, and the pay was much better. These were my work tools. I can’t tell you how many boxes I opened and cans I priced while working for this company or how many groceries I checked out. I was pretty fast too! I lasted 10 years with the company, and got vested, so now I receive a small pension check every month. Thanks to the United Food and Commercial Workers Union!
I began the school year by moving into a dorm. The building above is called The Apache-Santa Cruz Residence Hall. It was located just west of the UA Stadium and north of 6th St. I had a French roommate. I think his name was Pierre. I didn’t last very long there, and ended up moving back home halfway through the semester.
I really enjoyed most of my classes, especially Elementary Italian, Classical guitar for the General Student, and a psychology class called Normal Personality. The other two were okay too.
I still have this book. I was already playing guitar by the time I took this class and even had private lessons at one point. I did well in this course, and was developing quite a repertoire of folk songs.
This was the text for my class titled “Normal Personality”. It was really a course on transactional analysis, a humanistic form of psychology that was in some ways a takeoff on Freudian psychology. Instead of the id, the ego and the superego, T.A. talked about the “parent, the adult and the child” being the driving forces in people’s psyches. The teacher was good, but not pro-gay, unfortunately. Still, I loved the class.
Released in January, 1978. Another great album by Emmylou Harris. I have most of her recordings.
This is one of three posters that I would have up on the walls of my apartment. I moved out of my parents house sometime in the summer.
Released on January 25, 1978. Renaldo and Clara was a film Dylan made during his Rolling Thunder Revue tour three years earlier. I saw this at the Loft Cinema when it played later in the summer. The Loft was still on 6th St. The movie was initially 232 minutes long, but got cut to 112 minutes because of poor reception by the public. I was in heaven the whole time.
I just love this poster!
A clip from the Renaldo and Clara movie, this song, Romance in Durango, first appeared on the album “Desire”.
Released on February 15, 1978. What a powerful film. Jane Fonda is amazing.
My niece Belisa’s daughter Estrella. She was the most adorable baby! She was born on February 27th.
Estrella brought everyone a great deal of joy. She was a gorgeous baby.
I saw this by myself at a local movie theater. Released on March 5, 1978.
March 6, 1978. The day I decided to walk into a gay bar for the very first time. This was the bar. My life would never be the same.
I was living in the dorm at this time, and was so depressed, I seriously thought about ending my life. Pushed to the edge, I finally decided that I wanted to live, and that I was going to at least explore what being gay meant. What I really wanted was to find a friend, someone I could get to know and have a relationship with. I also wanted to have fun. I knew that Jeckyll’s was a gay bar, but I had never been in one before. It was located at the intersection of Drachman and Oracle Rd., and I drove around it several times, but then went back home. I drove back and forth again a couple of times before I finally decided to enter the place. I had no idea what to expect. On this particular night, the bar was showing a movie. I got myself a beer, and I met a nice looking guy who was sitting at the bar having a drink. We started talking and we hit it off. His name was Bill and he was visiting from Yuma. We then went to sit down to watch the movie, and soon began to make out in front of a lot of other people. I really didn’t care at that point. I was completely swept away by the guy and the desire I felt. We later went to his hotel room at the MacArthur Hotel, a real dump of a place, and messed around. It had been the first time I’d ever done anything sexual since I was 15. I absolutely loved it. Later at work, someone, a “straight” guy who was in the audience at the movie with his girlfriend that night saw me making out with the guy I was with, and I found out a while later that he told everyone at Fry’s that I was queer. Wow, what luck, and on my first night out! That really messed me up. I even had a falling out with my best friend for a while because he continued being friends with the guy who outed me. I felt betrayed, and it took a long time to let the grudge I had developed go. Being outed didn’t stop me, however, from continuing to go out and meeting other people. I felt liberated and free, and felt like I was finally starting to really live.
It was the height of the disco era. This bar–Jeckyll’s: The Last Culture, had one of the best dance floors in town and would host weekly drag shows and movie nights with spaghetti dinners. I went there often and had a great time. By this time I was of legal drinking age and was starting to “party” regularly, as they say.
This song first appeared in 1977 on the soundtrack to “Saturday Night Fever”. It was released as a single in the Spring of 78, peaking in May at number one.
Shortly after I decided to start going out, I visited Jane, my teacher and friend from Salpointe, and I came out to her as bisexual. I guess I wasn’t quite yet ready to admit that I was gay. It took several years to embrace that fully. I wrote the following in my journal. The guy Bill was my psychology teacher at the time.
Or so I thought…
This is one of several books I bought that helped me understand gay psychology, history and culture.
Here was another gay title I devoured. Others included “Loving Someone Gay”, “Lavendar Culture” and “Rubyfruit Jungle”. I was a voracious reader, exploring a whole new world.
Although I would not always remain so positive and upbeat, during the first month of my life as a gay man I was incredibly happy. I celebrated my new freedom in the following journal entry.
This was one of the very first jazz performances I’d ever seen live. I attended this on either April 13th or 14th with my former high school teacher, Ron Cruz.
My Aunt Dora visited Tucson sometime in the Spring. Here she is with my mom, my grandmother, my Aunt Mary and my Uncle Donato.
My cousin Tish and my dad in our kitchen at home. She came with her mom and dad to visit us.
What a wonderful film! Released on 4/26/78.
Love this guy.
By this time, I was used to getting C’s. My grades would eventually improve once I changed my focus from psychology to sociology my junior and senior years.
When my aunt Dora was visiting, I asked her if I could go visit her in San Francisco. She said yes. Just as I had done the year before, as soon as the semester ended, I bought a ticket and I hopped on to a Greyhound bus and took it all the way to San Francisco. My family wasn’t thrilled that I was going there. One of my older brothers, in particular, got very concerned. He knew San Francisco was a gay mecca and maybe suspected that I was on a pilgrimage…
I loved this trip. I looked forward to going to the gay bars, but once I got there, I learned that the legal drinking age in California was 21, not 19. So much for all the “fun” I was planning on having. I did have fun, nevertheless. My cousin Susie took me everywhere. I had a wonderful experience.
My aunt and uncle drove us all to Sausalito. Crossing the bridge to the north end of the Bay was a memorable moment.
My cousin Susie and me at the Museum in Golden Gate Park. She was a karate expert and a big music fan. She took me to see several concerts. We also went dancing in San Jose to a “youth” club that allowed under age young adults in to dance and we saw the disco-themed movie, “Thank God It’s Friday”. When it ended I said to myself, Thank God It’s Over… he he he.
My uncle Armando and aunt Dora were gracious hosts and even helped me rent a car.
The Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park.
That’s me drinking a beer and being silly in a park in Woodside, CA, south of San Francisco.
This was a great show. I wasn’t very familiar with Rufus or Chaka Khan at the time, but they were amazing. I later became a huge Chaka Khan fan.
I’m sure she sang this one at the concert.
Cousin Susie took me to see this movie. It was okay.
This song was a humungus hit and was featured in the movie, “Thank God It’s Friday”.
One of the highlights of my trip was going to Stanford University to see Joan Baez perform at the outdoor amphitheater, on Sunday, June 4, 1978. I took these photos. Man, I sure wish I’d brought a better camera. She was fabulous. The highlight for me was hearing her sing Matty Groves, and then The Altar Boy and the Thief. I was in heaven that day!
It was a gorgeous day and the setting for this concert was just beautiful.
Joan sang this song at the concert with just her guitar. It was perfect and it meant a lot to me.
I got to explore the city on my own during the day a couple of times and I wandered all over the place, from one end of the city to the other. It’s a good thing I was in pretty good shape. I walked my butt off.
I just loved the outdoor music performances . This was an Irish duo performing in Ghirardelli Square.
I enjoyed Fisherman’s Wharf.
While I was in the Fisherman’s Wharf area, I decided to eat a sandwich and buy some sourdough bread for my aunt and uncle. As I was eating my lunch, two nice looking, well dressed guys in their twenties came up to me and struck up a conversation. They asked if I was by myself and if I had a place to stay. I told them I was just visiting from out of town and enjoying the sites. We engaged in small talk for a few minutes, and then suddenly, they invited me to have dinner with them, and they gave me a postcard with a sketch of their house on it that included the address. I wondered if they were gay, and I took the postcard but didn’t commit to anything. When I went back to my aunt’s house, I mentioned to my cousin that I had met these guys and that they were very nice and had invited me to dinner. She shook her head at me and suggested that I not go, because “there were all kinds of kooks in the city”. I ended up not going, and boy, I’m sure glad I didn’t. A month or so later, I was flipping through People magazine and I noticed a copy of the postcard these guys had given me. It was included in an article some guy had written about his undercover experience with a cult called the Moonies. Then it dawned on me. Those guys were trying to recruit me to become a Moonie! Man, that sure was a close call. Since I’ve been putting my life story in pictures together, I thought about that postcard and wished that I had kept it. After searching for it on the internet without any luck, I finally found a citation to the article, and was able to buy a copy of People Magazine that included the photo of the postcard. Here it is, the infamous Moonie House.
The infamous Moonie House. I came very close to entering its doors. Thank goodness I didn’t.
There were used bookstores all over the place. I bought this at one of them.
I found this book in a thrift store somewhere in the city. Joan Baez was a leading advocate of non-violence and she married a guy who burned his draft card. I started to study non-violence around this time, and became fascinated with Gandhi’s teachings especially.
While I never made it to the Castro district, I did find my way to Polk Street, which was another gay neighborhood in the city. I went to a bookstore/gift shop there and bought the pamphlet below. My liberal leanings were beginning to get stronger and I was becoming more interested in social movements and social change.
I bought a bunch of postcards that I sill have. At one point, I had them all on my wall in my apartment.
When my sister Becky stayed with Aunt Dora in the 60’s, she became interested in the Beat movement and had bought a bunch of paperbacks such as the one above. She left them in San Francisco, and my aunt let me bring some of them home when I visted 12 years later.
My friend Richard and I both bought this album, released on June 9, 1978. The Stones came to Tucson at around this time in 1978, and Linda Ronstadt got on stage and performed Tumbling Dice with them. Unfortunately, I missed the show. It would be many years before I got to see this band live.
I just love this song!
Released June 15, 1978. This was another album that Richard and I both bought. We loved it, and would soon get to see Dylan live at the McHale Memorial Center on the UA campus.
I never could quite figure this song or many of the others on this album out, but I just love them anyway. The entire album is included here.
Gay Freedom Day, San Francisco, June 25, 1978. I missed it by about three weeks. I’ve since been to several gay pride parades in San Francisco. There’s nothing like them. Fun, fun, fun!
This was my apartment. It had one room a closet area, a bathroom and a kitchen. The bed was what is called a Murphy bed, one that was stored in a closet during the day. I loved this little place. It was about 4 blocks south of the University on Highland Ave
I wrote a lot at this point in my life. Most of the poetry I composed was pretty awful, but I enjoyed writing it anyway. The poems and my journal writing helped me sort things out a lot of the time.
I read a lot this particular year. There was so much to learn about being gay…
The disco dance floor at places like the Last Culture and the Joshua Tree, another local gay bar, became my home away from home. I had a dance partner named Dolores at the time, who lived next door to the Last Culture at the Tucson House. She was an older black lady in her 60s. Boy, she sure could move! We didn’t do the fancy stuff, where you swing and twirl your partner around and around; we just free formed it and had blast. I didn’t buy any disco albums at the time and never let on to my straight, hip friends that I liked disco. I didn’t, really. I just liked to dance.
This was one of the best songs of the disco era.
From an article on disco and fashion, July 7, 1978, Tucson Citizen.
Linda Ronstadt joined the Rolling Stones on July 21, 1978 at the Tucson Community Center arena for a raucous version of “Tumbling Dice”. I wish I had been there!
This was a very positive, helpful book.
From my journal on August 16, 1978. I had forgotten that I wanted to be a librarian this early in my school career. It took a while, but I finally did get a master’s degree in Library Science, in 1986.
My cousin Tony-o was a couple of years older than me. His family lived in Oracle. He was killed in an auto accident on the road between Oracle and San Manuel. His was the first death that really had an impact on me.
I enjoyed this immensely. This was a very popular book in the lgbt community, especially among lesbians.
12 units of courses was perfect, as I was still working part-time. I loved Chicano Studies, and had there been a Mexican American Studies major available at the time, I would have selected that as my main area of study. I got burned out on Psychology by the start of my sophomore year.
Required reading for my Introduction to Western Civilization class with Dr. Donohue. He was old school for sure!
My sister Irene with her son Anthony, who was born in September, ’78, and her granddaughter Estrella. Anthony is Estrella’s uncle, but she is 7 months older than he is.
Released on September 19, 1978. Another platinum release.
This wonderful film premiered on October 25, 1978. I’ve watched it countless times.
One of my neighbors gave me the Joni Mitchell album, Miles of Aisles, and I used to listen to it along with Ladies of the Canyon and Blue alot when I lived in my little bungalow. I had a giant console stereo at the time that had just one good speaker. Oh, the good old days…I just love Joni Mitchell.
It was hard to pick just one tune to include here, but this one is special.
These photos of Joni Mitchell are by Henry Diltz. He took them for the 1978 book, “California Rock, California Sound”. The photos also appeared in a magazine called “Ampersand”, which sometimes came out as a supplement in the Arizona Daily Wildcat. I still have my copy of the newspaper. Joni appeared on the cover and gave her first interview in four years.
The book, “California Rock, California Sound” also features Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne and the Eagles, among others. It is filled with lots of gorgeous photos. The interview with Joni Mitchell covers Joni’s relationship with Charles Mingus and discusses her move toward playing more jazz. The album “Mingus” would be released less than a year later. It got a very mixed reception.
I was on campus when this airplane crashed near the University on October 26, 1978. It was horrifying. The plane crashed right next to Mansfeld Junior High in a football practice field. There were some casualties, but it could’ve been much worse. It was a sad day indeed.
By this point, I had met several guys, and after while I figured out that just because you sleep with someone and fall for them, it doesn’t mean they love you in return. I realized that there was more to life than just sex. I wanted someone I could relate to, someone I could spend time with and connect with. I had also met a couple of women and had sex with them too by this point. One minute I was happy being gay, the next I was forcing myself to try going in the other direction. This pattern would continue up through my mid-20s. Deep down, I never “wanted” to be gay and while I accepted it to a degree, I continued to fight it, again and again. It was just crazy. Being gay in 1978 was not what being gay is like today. It was a huge deal, and very controversial. I couldn’t be completely “out”. No way. I hid my sexuality from my family and my friends, with very few exceptions. I was living a secret life, and it got me down a lot of the time.
Even so, I decided that this was indeed, my life, and that I would live it as I chose. This was my theme song. It was released on October 28, 1978.
I really did want to be less closeted, and even joined a new gay group on campus, but the fear of being outed, beaten up or even killed was all too real for many of the students. At one point, I expressed the opinion that we should be more visible, and a fellow student stated, “what, you want us to go out there and hold hands in public or something? Are you crazy?” One of the activities this group sponsored was movie viewings. We all sat in the living room of someone’s house one night and saw the documentary, “Word Is Out”. It was very inspiring, but it didn’t change things for us locally. Just two years earlier, a guy named Richard Heakin, was visiting from the Midwest and was murdered by some teenage guys outside the Stonewall bar on N. 1st, a gay bar that later became one of my watering holes, The Joshua Tree/Back Pocket. The memory of that murder was likely still on a lot of people’s minds. Heakin’s murderers were let off easily, but the City of Tucson soon thereafter passed the first civil rights, anti-discrimination ordinance in the country, which provided a number of protections for members of the local gay community.
Word Is Out, a classic gay documentary film, was released in November 1977.
October, 1978. I never bought Playboy, but since it was Dolly on the cover, I just had to buy this one. Diva worship, you know.
This is the second poster that I had on my walls in my little one room apartment. I loved discovering Dolly’s older albums during my shopping adventures. She had been recording since the late 60s, and there were plenty of albums to collect.
Dylan performed at the McKale Memorial Center on November 19, 1978. I attended the concert with my friend Richard. Over the past year, we got to see him in the films Renaldo and Clara and the Last Waltz, and he put out a new album, Street Legal. Seeing him in concert live was the icing on the cake. We both were crazy about Dylan at this time in our lives. He could do no wrong, not matter what the critics said.
Assassinated November 27, 1978. I had just been in San Francisco a few months earlier. This was a very sad and tragic moment in American history.
SFO Museum Exhibition; “Moscone, Milk Shot to Death” November 27, 1978 San Francisco ExaminerHarvey Milk Archives-Scott Smith Collection,James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center, SFPL R2020.0602.019
A huge silent vigil was held shortly after the assassination took place. Violence would fill the streets a few months later when Dan White, Milk’s killer was given a mild sentence for the murders he committed.
I had a solid B average this semester. I got to the point where I felt I needed a break.
James Baldwin was writing about being gay back in the 50s and 60s. What a brave man.
This was the third poster I had in my cottage on Highland. Linda, Dolly and Emmylou have been lifelong heroes of mine, and I still have most of their recordings.
I thought it was a great show, but some critics panned it. Some of my friends thought Linda had become too commercial by the late 70s. I remained a faithful fan for life, however.
From the 1978 release, Living in the USA…
This, novel about gay life in San Francisco was published in 1978. I read the entire series.
My sister Becky came home for Christmas, and it was joyous occasion. We had a number of family get-togethers. The photos included here bring back wonderful memories of her visit with us. She promised that she’d soon come back home permanently, but it took another two years before that happened.
My brothers John, Carlos, Rudy, Fred, Me, Mom, Dad and Becky.
Becky, Elaine and Charles.
Becky and Fred.
Becky with Gabie, Mark and Valerie, Charles’ children.
Wow, what a year! I managed to complete another year of school while working part time. My wages this year ($7,000+) increased significantly when I started cashiering and stocking. I came out to myself in March, became sexually active, starting dating men (and a few women), and going out a lot; I went to San Francisco, saw Bob Dylan for the very first time and saw Joan Baez again, fell in and out of love a few times, and lived on my own in my own space for half the year. As the new year approached, my hope was to find a steady boyfriend (or girlfriend) and to take a little break from school. I was beginning to sour on psychology as a future profession, and needed to think about what I really wanted to study, so I decided to just work as much as possible at the grocery store the following semester and take some time to think about the direction I wanted my education to take.
Joan performed in San Francisco in an outdoor concert on December 24, 1978. I just stumbled upon this concert (5/22/21) and decided to add it. I had seen her earlier in the year in Palo Alto. Harvey Milk had just been assassinated a month earlier and the Jim Jones related mass suicides had also just occurred. It was a sad time for San Francisco. Joan was gracious and put on this free outdoor show for the people of the city.
