“Why didn’t Dave just say he was a specialist, or what kind of specialist he was?” Nora asked Em and me. Em was doing a doctor pantomime, pretending a banana was a stethoscope. She pulled up her sweater and listened to her navel with the banana; then she pulled her sweater up higher and listened to her breast, or to her bra. “What the fuck are you listening for?” Nora asked her. Em shrugged; now she was listening to her armpit with the banana. “She’s Dr. Dave—she doesn’t know what her specialty is,” Nora explained.

Naturally, this became one of their routines at the Gallows. It was very popular. People in the audience would request the act; they would shout out for “The Specialist.” Nora always got a laugh when she asked the people who made the request if they had a banana. This led some fans to put bananas on the stage, but having bananas onstage could be confusing. Em had more than one routine with a banana.

One night at the Gallows, I was there with the snowshoer and Dr. Dave. I’d warned Nora that Dave was going to be there. Mr. Barlow had already seen Nora and Em do “The Specialist”; he’d loved it, but he still hadn’t told Nora or Em or me what Dave’s specialty was. The night Dr. Dave came to the Gallows, no one was shouting for “The Specialist,” but there were already a bunch of bananas onstage. Nora and Em were waiting for the applause to die down.

“What are the bananas for?” I heard Dave ask Elliot.

“You’ll see,” the snowshoer said.

Nora knew how to quiet the crowd. She took a banana from the bunch and handed it to Em. “I hear you’re seeing a specialist,” Nora began. Dr. Dave laughed as hard as anyone at the show; the snowshoer sat smiling beside him, the two of them not touching. It didn’t really matter, not then, but nobody told Nora and Em and me what Dave’s specialty was.

As an act, “The Specialist” kept evolving. I liked the most gynocentric version. “I hear you’re seeing an OB-GYN extra,” Nora begins. Em appears to be taking her pulse with the banana. “Extra what, Em?” Nora asks her.

This was what the seventies were like for us. We were at liberty—we had liberty, we took liberties. We felt free to say and write whatever we imagined. We felt free to live the lives we chose. We didn’t see the pushback coming. We failed to imagine both the passive and aggressive forms the pushback would take.

“What are the bananas for? Long time passing,” I remember Nora used to sing.

“Where have the bananas gone? Long time ago,” the snowshoer sang back to her. I admired how Mr. Barlow stayed friends with his former boyfriends; Elliot was always happy to see them when they were with new boyfriends, and the snowshoer’s old boyfriends always seemed happy to see him.