Public bathrooms have always been a favorite place to meet guys for gay sex.  For one thing, only men are in men's rooms - you're halfway home already.  There's also a good chance that they'll need to "take it out."  You're getting warmer.  And lastly, there are lots of straight guys who believe "a mouth is a mouth and who's gonna know anyway."  Bingo!  The willingness of these open-minded straight guys to fool around with gays is the straight world's dirty little secret.  Now throw in the chance of actually connecting up with other gay guys and you have a winner.

Public bathrooms are relatively new in this country.  By the end of the 1800s, American cities were teaming with people and public sanitation issues reached a crisis point.  Simply put, there was "no place to go."  Stores maintained bathrooms for employees only.  Early washrooms in restaurants were for customers and employees, as they are today.  There were few gas stations and saloons were considered unsavory.  Guys sometimes resorted to peeing in doorways and alleyways.  Otherwise you waited till you got home and hoped you'd make it in time.

Soon local governments began building "comfort stations" in city parks and next to transportation hubs.  These public restrooms became focal points where men of all social classes crossed paths.  They were the perfect spot for gay hanky-panky.  If an upper class gentlemen preferred scruffy lads, there were many hoping for a good time, and maybe a dime.  Getting a "quickie" before heading home became a regular habit for many working-class men.

During the 1930s Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) recruited unemployed American workmen to build public restrooms in hundreds of county, state, and national parks, as well as along the early interstate highway system.  Allegany, Letchworth, Chestnut Ridge, and Ellicott Creek Parks each had several erected.  The expression "Where seldom is heard a discouraging word" took on a new meaning as gay men eagerly set up their quick-service shops across the country.  Many of the workers who built them were the first to try them.  What an exciting new way to get your "kicks on Route 66."

The opportunity to have fast, anonymous, consensual, and harmless erotic fun is the reason these bathrooms were (and are) popular with both gay and straight men.  But toilet sex wasn't confined to just public restrooms.  In earlier times, families were larger and houses were smaller.  You rarely had your own room.  If your buddy stayed over and you wanted to mess around, there was no chance of privacy.  However, announcing that the two of you were headed to the outhouse in your pajamas wouldn't seem unusual.  And when the outhouse tipped over, oh well.  Blame it on the soggy soil.

In cities, several families might share the same outhouse.  Who knows what action could be stumbled upon?  You might time your trips to coincide with a hot neighbor guy or watch out the back window to see when he headed that way.  Perhaps the meeting was mutual and it wouldn't be the last.  Nowadays the ubiquitous Port-O-Johnnies are host to similar sexual encounters, especially at construction sites and other places where the workforce is primarily male.

Restrooms infamous for gay sex are termed "tearooms" (from "toilet-rooms"), but not every lavatory qualifies to be a tearoom.  What if someone walks in?  Gay men certainly aren't going to through the work of sneaking around to clandestine locations, only to let themselves get accidentally caught by the public.  Noisy staircases, creaky floors, and squeaky doors are often exploited as makeshift alarm systems.  Sometimes volunteer lookouts warn of approaching strangers.  Strategically located mirrors are helpful and dim lighting is ideal.  Bathrooms that don't provide a few seconds warning so you can pull up your pants won't become tearooms.

Although each restroom is a different situation, you often can spot the location of tearooms by the crowd of the guys loitering around outside.  Some may be leaning on walls or lampposts smoking cigarettes.  Others may be sitting on steps or benches.  The men have a special look about them that you learn to recognize.  As twilight settles in, you may notice some of them rubbing their crotches.  As it grows darker, they'll be rubbing each other's crotches.  If two guys like what they see (or feel), off to the tearoom they go.

Quickies can be consummated right at the urinal.  For longer encounters or when the public might walk in, a toilet stall is the way to go.  Having gay sex in a stall takes a bit of ingenuity.  Some stalls have "glory holes" laboriously chiseled through the partition at a convenient pelvic height.  You can give or you can receive.  Occasionally you meet men whose tongues should be insured with Lloyd of London.  They use techniques right out of the Arabian Nights.
 
Then there are the hand-job specialists.  No mouth action, but who cares?  Lotion has many uses.  And speaking of lubricants, coming up the rear are those guys who generously invite you to use their "back entrance."  If you pick the correct stall, you could be rewarded with two glory holes, one on your left and another on your right.  Oh the possibilities - you truly won't know which way to turn first.  And sometimes the two glory holes are side by side on the same panel, a double header.  A mouth here, a hand there - now switch and repeat.

Even where there are no glory holes, your meat still needs a grinder.  Drop your pants, kneel down, then slide your knees and desirable parts under the divider.  In that position you can either be serviced or sat on - it's not rocket science - and you have the added benefit that your bare butt isn't touching that filthy floor.  Both of these approaches allow you to quickly halt the action should someone walk in.

Doing it in a single stall is a real challenge because now all four legs are clearly visible from outside.  Tall shopping bags come to the rescue.  One guy sits on the throne, while the other guy stands facing him and inserts each leg into an open bag.  Anyone peeking underneath merely sees a busy shopper who urgently needed to take a dump.

Unlike with glory holes, the guy standing up can now use his hands to steer the other guy's head and set the pace.  Since the guy sitting has his pants down around his ankles, it's quick work for him to stand up, spin around, and take it that way.  Alternately, the guy standing up can turn himself around and sit on the other guy's tempting prize.  It's all about mutual fulfillment.

Despite the camouflage, both guys must be vigilant to not make any slurping or moaning sounds.  This shopping bag trick works so well that the guy standing up is able to totally remove his clothes and hang them on the coat hook, leading to an especially intense tearoom encounter for both men.  Talk about sex fantasies.

Most men's rooms have graffiti on the walls, but tearooms are unique in that much of the graffiti relates to future appointments for fun.  Messages such as: "For a good time meet me here at 2 pm on April 10th" are commonplace.  Sometimes there's an accompanying X-rated illustration for those with no imagination.  The author has to be date-specific or the invitation won't be taken seriously.  "Meet me here next Tuesday" could have been written last week or a month ago.  When maintenance workers paint over tearoom graffiti, they're actually helping to clear the appointment calendar.

Some stall partitions contain old screw holes that can be used to peek at the guy sitting in the next stall or perhaps the guy standing at the adjacent urinal.  Guys at the urinal know they're being watched and eagerly display their stiffening jawbreakers.  Not to be outdone, the guy in the next stall might stand up and give you his own throbbing show.  The screw holes are left from previous toilet paper dispensers and are thus located at a convenient eye level for watching.  Like a pinhole camera, things close to the hole appear much larger than in reality.

Sometimes you don't want the guy in the next stall to see you.  Maybe you know him or, worse yet, maybe he knows you.  You have to exploit available resources.  One approach is to twist a piece of toilet paper into a cone-shaped plug and shove it into the screw hole, tightening the twist as you push.  The paper untwists on the other side making it difficult to push back.  It can, however, be torn loose.  If the guy does succeed in dislodging the plug, you need Plan B.

Lick the corner of a tissue sheet and stick it on the wall just above the screw hole.  Position it so the dry part of the tissue covers the hole like a curtain.  Problem solved, although ballpoint pen inserts have been effectively used even against the curtain.  After the toilet paper dries, it stays glued and you can lift it up like a flap to peek at any new arrivals.  If he's a hottie, just rip those curtains down.

Communicating with the guy in the next stall presents problems of it's own.  If the stall has a glory hole, a beckoning finger inserted through the hole is usually sufficient.  In the absence of glory holes, you need to pass notes under the wall.  "What do you like?" is the usual overture.  If the guy writes back "Chicken Wings" you know he's there to actually use the bathroom.  Writing on toilet paper isn't easy, especially with a felt-tip pen, and misspellings certainly are a reason to pause.  Four-letter words shouldn't be a challenge.

Because of entrapment situations over the years, a more subtle form of communication evolved - the shoe code made famous by Senator Larry Craig.  Positioning your foot along the stall boundary line is the opening gambit - Larry's so called "wide stance."  That move gets answered by the other guy also shifting his foot to the boundary line.

What follows is a seemingly random assortment of toe taps and angle shifts, each mimicking the other.  It quickly becomes obvious if the guy is following along.  And voila, contact is made.  He's interested!  The whole point of this "invisible" code is to help you claim that you weren't consciously doing anything and most certainly you weren't propositioning the guy in the next stall.  Larry remembered the rules only when it was too late.

But that's not the last chapter in this Cold War intrigue.  There also are tearooms where various coughs and throat-clearings are used to signal an interest in gay sex.  A guy in a toilet stall can use this technique to easily communicate with a potential trick standing at the sink.  Obviously these "jungle drums" can be overheard by other guys in the tearoom.  Sometimes they join in and it sounds like flu season.

Cleanup is one of the more delicate issues.  Occasionally you encounter men who shriek "Don't get it on me!"  They're the guys who send their clothes to dry cleaners and make love on a towel.  The washing machine dudes don't care where it goes - the more the merrier.  Rub it around!  Rub it again!

Wadded-up balls of toilet paper for soaking up the geysers litter the room after a busy day.  Poppers linger in the air, the discarded brown-glass bottles rolling around the floor.  Not every toilet is flushed, spent condoms float in some, and a beaver-like heap of wood chips lies beneath a newly carved glory hole.  Surely the janitors have tales to tell.

Despite urban myths, most tearoom encounters don't turn into group orgies.  That scene is more likely to be found at the baths.  But an exception has to be made for the occasional three-some.  These usually begin as a two-some, with a third guy either being invited in or forcing his way in.  The encounter may end awkwardly or the three guys may decide to go elsewhere where they can really get it on.  Sometimes the third guy merely wants to watch, even going so far as to stand on top of a toilet to peer over the partition.  Many gay men use tearoom encounters as interviews for finding new sex buddies.  There's nothing like a test drive to see how he holds the road.

But all kidding aside, there are sobering aspects to tearooms as well.  You sometimes run into a guy who is determined to have sex with you no matter what.  When you're outside the stalls, he won't keep his hands off you regardless of how forcefully you express your disinterest.  If you take refuge in a stall, he stands in front staring at you through the slots on either side of the door.  He may even pleasure himself while watching you. It's unwise to make a commotion and risk attracting public attention, so it's best to just leave and hope he won't be around the next time you stop by.  Gay guys like this are apt to target disinterested straight men, leading to police complaints and tearoom crackdowns.

Tearooms aren't for the faint-hearted.  The more deserted the location, the greater the risk.  The cute guy you're fooling around with could be a nut case.  Who knows what he might do when you stick it through the glory hole.  A male hustler might rob you.  If you report the crime, the police are less likely to be helpful when they hear where it happened.  In fact, the guy you just serviced could be a cop - after he's had his fun, he arrests you.  The widespread use of cellphone cameras increases the risk of public exposure.  Underage kids could blackmail you.  Someone might recognize you and start rumors.  Neighborhood gay-bashers could lay in wait outside the tearoom, or even worse, come inside.  And as with all sex, there are health risks.

There appears to be no lesbian equivalent of tearooms.
 
Over the years, the most notorious Buffalo tearooms were located in:  Harriman and Crosby Halls on the University of Buffalo's South Campus, Grant's 5&10 on Roosevelt Square, the old Greyhound Bus Terminal next to Shea's Buffalo, the Central Library on Lafayette Square, the old Shelton Square trolley shelter, and the comfort station in LaSalle Park.