Inspiration

Here it is, the first decade of the 21st century. And my stories all take place in the eighth decade of the 20th century, the 1970s.
There's a reason for this.
It was a different time for everyone, but especially if you were gay.
Stonewall had happened.
AIDS hadn't yet happened.
Of course it could be argued that our attitudes and behaviors in the 1970s made everything much worse for us in the 1980s, but that's for someone else to write about.
I started these stories as part personal memoir, to retain for my own memory a time in my life that was special and pivotal.
Then, as other, much younger guys read them, I realized it was a time they not only never knew but wouldn't understand if told about it from someone who wasn't there.
I try to tell the stories as if the 80s never happened (nor the 90s nor this decade.)  I know that's not entirely possible, but these stories all happened without an awareness of the future. Had I written them at the time they would not be with any awareness of future events.
So I try to write as if it's still the 1970s and I'm keeping a journal.
Sure there's a patina of nostalgia here. But I hope to keep an honesty about these stories.
If you read them, don't be asking, "Yes, but what about what all this led to?"
Just try to understand how we were then, or as the movie title and song put it, understand
"The Way We Were."