from The New York Times
CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. — Robert Reeves, 78, spends most days lounging by the pool, taking in the low-desert sun with his friends and neighbors. The four of them talk about what’s new — recovery from a recent corrective foot surgery, some chronic inflammation issues — and record videos for social media, where they’ve amassed millions of followers as the Old Gays.
On a blistering afternoon earlier this month, Jessay Martin, 68, headed across the street for the usual poolside confab, stopping to grab a Bud Light Seltzer Pineapple from the fridge on his way out to the patio. There, he sat down in a stuffed armchair beside a well-endowed wooden sculpture of the male form and rubbed sunscreen into his bald pate as the group discussed the day’s video concept: an outfit transformation set to the rapper Jack Harlow’s single “First Class.”
“I need to wear my pretty underwear for this,” Mr. Martin said. “I need to have my ruffles on my rump.”
It wasn’t like the first drag video they did, Bill Lyons, 78, said as he took a sip from his milk chocolate Ensure. He raised his eyebrows, then said in a stage whisper: “Bob didn’t wear any underwear.”
“Oh, no,” Mick Peterson, 66, said under his breath.
Mr. Martin laughed and said: “Well, he had on a full skirt!” Mr. Reeves, the Bob in question, widened his eyes and played innocent, looking out at the shadows of palm trees glistening in his cerulean pool.
