Forty years ago downtown Portland had two lunch places that served men, but not women.
"Two?" you say. "Not just the Mausoleum Club?"
Yes, two. The other one was a place called Perkins' Pub, in the basement of Lipman Wolfe (now the Fifth Avenue Suites Hotel). It didn't integrate until 1971, when Mildred Schwab (later a city councilor) organized a sit-in. I first ate there in 1964, a few years after arriving in Portland. It all seemed quite ordinary then; today I would wonder at a place that would welcome me but not Kim Novak. (Substitute Angelina Jolie's name here if you're under 40.)
Men have come a long way since 1964 (women were always there to begin with). Let's not give back too much of our progress now that Hooters has opened in Beaverton.