My Friends In Maine Are Gay and Fantastic

                                                                         

My friends in Maine are gay, and they always share with me the most fascinating stories. 
Flick:

Flick was a model in the 70s in New York City when such a thing was unheard of.  He was discovered on a street in Portland and for a while made his life in the city in the heyday of Studio 54 of which he was part of the in-crowd. He said that he was too prim and proper for that life and always ended up the designated driver for his friends’ nights of partying. Anyway, he hated that men thought male models prostitutes and left the industry to return Maine, where he became a world-class drag queen, hitting the underground places in town.  He fell in love with a doctor who he recently left after a 25 year relationship. 

Over the years, he traveled the world and spent his money and inheritance on beautiful vintage things, circa 1800 to 1980s.  Now he tries to he sell his massive collection at his vintage store in Portland where he has original bronzes, paintings, posters, porcelain, dolls, dresses, earrings…

He has had several bouts with cancer - prostrate, lung - and has survived them all.  But in August he is scheduled to have a surgery for a hip replacement of which he has 50% chance of survival due to blood clotting issues. Still he, says he rather die than be in a wheelchair.

 Prince Andrew aka Peter:

Peter came out of the closet when he was 18 in Aroostock County, Maine, where they "hang" you for admitting such a thing.  Even though he is a true-blue Mainer, tracing his roots to back when Maine was still part of Massachusetts, there are some places in Maine he thinks twice about visiting as a gay man. His story is just as fascinating: at 18 he celebrated his birthday by going for a drive with his first boyfriend.  He crashed the car, which imploded on impact due to mechanical problems, and his boyfriend was killed instantly.  With the settlement he received from the car manufacturer, he moved to Pittsburgh to start again and went through his money in one year. When he decided to return to Maine he told the travel agent he would fly on any day except his birthday.

He was scheduled to return to Portland three days later. His plane crashed and he was one of its only survivors.   With his settlement he learned to fly, purchased his own plane and became a cargo pilot. He’s retired at 43 and helps Flick out at the store.

Leo:

Leo has never been to college but he is more informed and intelligent than some of the people I know who went to college. He’s originally from Massachusetts but hates being told he is not a real Mainer, even though he's  spent most of his life here.

His partner walked out of their 20 years relationship 6 years ago, and he has not yet forgiven him. 

Leo works as a clerk at dry cleaning shop, and he takes his job very seriously, tending to customers and their clothes as if it life depended on it.
 

He loves a good pipe organ concert, and he knows everything about the history of Maine, including its cemetaries and churches. Now, he dates off the internet and has been flown all over the country to meet potential partners, but he has not yet fallen in love.  He is a heavy drinker, liking Bloody Marys for breakfast and Pabst beers throughout the day. 

Every time we go out on the town and we never stop talking.