Happy Saturday night everybody! It’s been a long, busy day and I’m a little beat. I just wish life would slow down sometimes so I can just kick back and relax for a change…maybe come summer! Here’s what’s going on:
Last night at Bunk House – literally!
Upon hearing and reporting on the news that the Bunk House was officially closing this weekend, I called my buddies Dita and Blanche and we all agreed to go there one last time. Though the Bunk was never any of our favorite bars, it has been a staple of the gay community of Long Island for a long time, and we’ve all had our moments there, so it was fitting that we had one last drink and dance in the old place.
The three of us met there for a few drinks and a couple of dances like we used to do more often back in the day. Rich and I got there first, around 11:15, and it looked like it was going to be a slow night, sadly. They had just announced the closing of the bar at 4PM, so at first I thought that if more people would have known it would have gotten a bigger crowd, but happily the place packed it in later on.
Blanche was the last to arrive and the first to leave…he was tired and maybe just a wee bit cranky, lol. It’s okay, though, because the three of us shot the breeze just like we always do and I even got both of them on the dance floor for a bit. Once Blanche had left, Dita and I danced some more and hung out until the wee hours of the morning. It was towards the end that he finally expressed sadness over the demise of the old standby.
“Now I’m getting a little sad.”
I knew what he meant. Even though the place has had a lot more downs than ups in recent years, it was still a place where we’d spent many a night having a good time. The downs, though, undoubtedly left us all with sour thoughts in our minds:
At one time, for a long time, there was a horrible odor permeating the bar area towards the front of the building. It smelled like puke and the disgusting smell lingered there for months at least. The Saturday night crowd became smaller and smaller as more people headed out to Industry in Levittown for Gation Saturdays and the $10 cover charge had gotten to be ridiculous, especially considering other, better bars that charged the same or even less to get in.
The biggest thing that irked me about the last incarnation of the Bunk House came in the form of a Mylar balloon. I remember when the present owners first took over. There was this silvery, broken balloon stuck in a branch just over the fenced-in area over the outside deck. It stayed there for months, possibly even years before it was finally removed. That to me represented what had gone wrong there in the first place. It was often filthy all around, with cigarette butts and garbage strewn everywhere, broken bricks on the stairs, and eyesores such as the balloon adding to the negative atmosphere of what the Bunk House had become.
Thankfully the owners got their act together the last year or so, and thanks to ‘Da Bunk’ Fridays they actually got their crowd back. They say they’re moving to a new spot in Patchogue very soon. There’s a gay night going on tonight at a place called Alfie’s on Rte. 112 in Patchogue. I’m wondering if that’s going to be it. I’ll keep you posted as I hear news, but wherever the new place may be, and whatever they call it, it won’t be the same. That unassuming building on Montauk Highway in Sayville has seen a lot of action over the past 30 years or so and to me that will always be the real Bunk House.
As Rich and I headed to our cars to leave the Bunk for the last time, he turned to look at it and said he was going to miss it.
“Me, too, Dita, me too!”
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