Skip to main content

Reply to "Proposition 8: Gay Marriage Ban"

Yeah, I like Daddy's story better too. That's history lost to all of us.

It reminds me of another true story I'll tell below, not to beat a dead horse (so to speak) but because Daddy's story reminded me of it, and the place in question meant so much to us.

Thanks Midge, we'll be fine regardless, we've always make it work. One of the reasons we moved to NYC is because if we DO get laid off here, we've got opportunity we did not have in Cincinnati. No one is hiring in our field (marketing) there now.

Re: cross dressing - We're mostly androgynous and/or theatrical or just random. We never have breasts, so that tells you something there. Smile

So we can't help with "Fishy" looks, but if you need a "Phish-y" look, drop us a note.



----- A True Story of a Landmark Lost. ---------


There used to be an amazing store in our home town, Cincinnati, Ohio called "Trivet's."

It was co-owned, including the building, by a gay couple who had been together since the late 40's or early 50s.

In the late 1990's when the owner who had the title in his name passed away, his sister swooped in and tried to sell the building and all of it's contents, leaving his lover of 50 years with nothing.

What you have to understand, the contents of the building were LEGENDARY. This was not a second hand vintage shop. This was an original 60/70s "freak boutique" and imports shop with piles and piles of "new-old stock" bell-bottoms, bellman uniforms, buckskin jackets, Italian leather wooden platform shoes,60-70s political buttons and tees, imports from all the corners of the globe but focusing on middle and southern african carvings, beads, king crowns etc. (Some of them were obviously antiques.) Crystal balls, ivory carvings, canes with swords in them... you get the idea. It was large, about a half block long and 2 stories high.

Furthermore to a liberal in Cincinnati, Trivet's was a rite of passage. My parents took me there when I was 12 or 13, they had gone with friends in their teens... You always remembered your first time.

Cincinnatians were not the only people who knew about the shop. Minnie Pearl (Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon) and Pee Wee Herman (Paul Reubens) were claimed customers, and rumor had it that Lenny Kravitz made more than one trip with a super funky entourage in tow.

Back to the story... Luckily the manager of the store, a long time friend secured a lawyer for him.. And... about 4-5 years later, they were at least able to get the contents of the store into his possession. HOWEVER the building still went to the sister, and it was sold out from under him.

After the legal battle was over there were no less than 3 cities in southern Ohio and northern Kentucky that courted Trivet's to open again in their part of town. They all had backed up offers for potential space with long lasting tax abatements, because as they all put it, Trivet's was a Cincinnati Institution.

Trivet's did end up re-opening for a short time in an older suburb of Cincinnati, but never really recovered. It wasn't ever expressed when you visited, but there was an impression that the legal, moving and storage costs had pretty much ruined them.

The shop in the new location closed quietly a few years back. We suspect that the second owner finally passed, but never heard for sure.

Now when Trivet's comes up in certain circles, people perk up for a minute as they remember the magic of the place, but then they quickly remember the unfair reasons for its untimely demise.
×
×
×
×