Welcome To Reseda, Dude!

Originally Posted in June, 2005

Throughout the process of doing the book, people were curious as to the meanings of places and events. I was quite prepared for those questions.

For example, in my first poem of the book, "Welcome to Reseda," I gave a quick tour of of my hometown through three decades. Sadly, I should've done more research. I referenced a place called Incognito, a bar on Reseda Boulevard near Sherman Way at the heart of Reseda. After searching through the web, it looks like the bar's name has since changed to Bananas. I figured to leave the old bar's name there as a last personal memory of Reseda: the discovery of a gay nightlife blocks away from where I grew up years after I left.


I never knew about any gay life in Los Angeles growing up there. In fact, I blocked any concept of such a life because I was in the mode where I wanted to leave and move to the Bay Area. In my mind, any move to the Bay Area would mean a complete life overhaul and the opportunity to come out in the world's premier gay community.

When I graduated Reseda High School, West Hollywood became an incorporated city. The first city with a gay and lesbian majority on tis city council. When I look at that, the response in my mind was "West Hollywood is not my gay mecca...San Francisco is! The Castro...and nothing more!"

In 1987, I made the move from Reseda to San Rafael, north of San Francisco in Marin County. Three years later, I began the process of publicly coming out.

Up in the Castro is where I discovered that Incognito existed. At A Different Light, the Castro's main bookstore, I thumbed through the Damron and Spartacus Guides only to discover and confirm the existence of the bar. I was dumbfounded. Of course, any trip back to Reseda after I was comfortable with my sexuality would mean walking into the bar. That would be a strange experience.

In 1994, I did exactly that. To my surprise, it looked very familiar. To anyone gay, mirrored walls, a simple bar in a small, but not so crowded space full of regulars is quite familiar. Incognito in Reseda would just be the same as the bar I stopped at in Springfield, Illinois a couple years back. Or, some other bar in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania...even up in Walnut Creek, California. I guess I'm at the point where "you've seen one gay bar, you've seen 'em all!"

The last line was an invitation to the reader, gay and straight alike. An invitation for a drink at the bar and talk about anything and everything. A portal onto a journey that takes you through the streets of Reseda and the rest of the Los Angeles Basin.

However, I must warn the reader is you are in for a wild ride.