Doin' it in the dark...Doin' it in the Park

Cruise spots, every half way large city has them, places where men go to get their rocks off by other men looking to get down. But is it just me but I wonder how did those places get started? I mean this didn’t just spring up overnight, in fact some of these places have been around for over 30 years. Let’s take DC for example in fact let me narrow it down even further to three places in particular, Rock Creek Park, Union Station, and Meridian Park. These three places are place where men go to find men for, well let’s just say more than just conversational purposes.

Rock Creek Park is a park that fairly large in DC, and have various points in of entry, but the park not so surprisingly closest to DuPont Circle tends to be the cruisest. But to the residents of DC both straight and gay its nothing new, hell the Blackbyrds had a hit song off it, called “Rock Creek Park” the lyrics are “Doin’ it in the park/Doin’ it after dark/Rock Creek Park” and this song was a hit in 1975. So that means even back in 1975 that park was a place of notoriety. But how did that place get started, one of my friends has the notion that a parks like that are just notorious wherever you go, because the trees which provide enough covering to do that.

Then there is Union Station, which I found out about, honestly, by accident. I was 17 going to visit my cousins in DC, for the first time, and I took the train up here. I had explicit instructions to wait for my cousins downstairs, But after the train ride, I had to take a piss like you wouldn’t believe. So I go to the bathroom, and its PACKED. All the stalls were full, and people where at all the urinals, and sinks washing their hands. So I went back outside and waiting for someone to leave, so I could just take a piss. But after 3 minutes I didn’t’ see a soul come out the bathroom, including any of the people that were washing their hands. But then about 4 minutes later someone finally came out. Then I jetted in there, and went to the first available stall. But then I started noticing something….those were the same guys at the same place that they were before, and no one had moved. Then when I went to wash my hands, out the corner of my eye I saw this guy crane his next to look at the other guys junk in one of the urinals, and no one seemed phased by this except for me. It wasn’t until 2 years later when I started to go school in the District did one my friends from DC tell me that the Union Station bathroom is a place where guys go to hook up. After that, I was talking to this older guy probably 20 years older than myself, he then told me that his gay uncle who has about 70 or 80 said that guys in his day would go to Union Station for the same thing. But he also said they went to this place called Meridian Park.

Meridian Park, I’ve never been there, but I know its up near Howard, and because of that fact alone, there are a lot of HU cats who have frequented that place. I’ve heard stories from people who said they only went there “to watch” (side note: anytime someone says they want to go to any place where they may see sex up-close 9/10 they go from viewer to doer) ranging from the its scary/exhilarating, and they only caught glimpses. To others who said they saw full on action.

I did not write this to out any of these places, or recommend nor condemn them. But to vocalize how did these spots come into existence, and how this information is passed on from word of mouth mainly, maybe there is some literature on it that I’m not aware of ….

Just my thoughts