In the 60’s and early 70’s, Polk Street was the main gay neighborhood back when the Castro was a staunch Irish Catholic run down blue collar neighborhood. When I first moved to San Francisco, it was still a vibrantly gay destination and right in the middle of all the gay bars was a liquor store on Polk Street called Sukkers and Likkers (they sold a variety of candy suckers and hard liquors, get it?) The coy name was slightly homoerotic to appeal to the mostly gay clientele cruising the street. The store also had a marquee sign with changeable letters that had clever one-sentence jokes of words of wisdom. They changed the slogan frequently enough that it was different every time I went by and I made it a point to check it out. Herb Caen, the feature writer for the Chronicle often quoted it. When the store changed hands, the sign moved across the street to Kimo’s to maintain the tradition, but that idea faded away eventually, too.

When I saw this old gay porn magazine, Lickers and Stickers, I immediately thought of Sukkers and Likkers. Okay, I get that there is Licking going on, but what about the Stickers? Guess we’ll never know.

The magazine itself is a stylistic time capsule. About 3 or 4 different pairs of men. Rough trade, prison tattoos, long haired hippies, clones, mustaches, motorcycle boots, shag carpeting, ferns, string art, and a stuffed turtle wearing a beret. (Don’t laugh, the turtle actually served a function when a guy needed padding as he was getting fucked on a wooden desk!)

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