DIVAS -- San Francisco

Just got back from a trip to San Francisco. And no trip to SF would be comlete without, of course, a visit to Divas.

A little background. I used to live in the Bay Area in my early 20's (that would be early 1990's) and was a regular at the previous incarnation of Divas, known as The Motherlode. I used to love that place. It had such an interesting mixture of people who would literally come and go throughout the day. You had your morning crowd, your afternoon crowd, and your night crowd. I was a member of the afternoon crowd. I never came at night. The afternoon crowd was a friendly mixture of t-girls and gay men. It was kind of a hangout rather than a pickup spot. Nighttime however, it was strictly pick up.

Throughout those years whenever I had a free aternoon I would make my way over to the Motherlode for a few beers and just enjoyed talking to the people. Like I said earlier, the daytime vibe was different. I met some very nice girls with whom I developed friendships. No, not the type that involves an exchange of money. The gay guys were real cool and it was always very social. I tended to get out of their around dark as that's when the vibe seemed to change. I always felt like that was when the girls needed to work and I respected that. It just wasn't my thing to be around that.

So I went there this week around 4 in the aternoon expecting the same thing (or at least something similar). The place was empty. One very nice girl was working the bar, but not a soul but me. I sat there drinking for nearly three hours expecting the vibe to pick up a bit. I had a nice conversation with the bartender, but clearly times have changed immensely. She said that as long as she has been working there, which is around eight months, it's always empty during the day. I know that part of it is that the previous owner died some years back. While some people might have thought he was a jerk he ran a great business and didn't take any mess.

Sure it's been nearly 15 years and the girls don't need to hang out at a bar all day anymore, but hanging out during the day at the old Motherlode was seldom about prostitution. It was just a place to drop in and check in -- like a t-girl /gay boy CHEERS. I'm sure that the current place is still great at night. Maybe next time I'm in San Francisco I'll go at night. But I do still miss the old Motherlode.