Response to a Recognition Given to Woody by the Boston Chapter on the 20th Anniversary of Prime Timers.

Wow! Unless you have had a similar experience sometime in your life, you can't imagine how happy you have made me tonight. I shall always cherish this very moment.

If I am not the happiest man alive right now, I am certainly first runner-up which means that if Miss America can't serve I get to.

This honor belongs to each of our soon-to-be 10,000 members of Prime Timers. That means you and you and you. I express my part as simply the person who turned the key in the ignition; it is you who have kept the organization's momentum.

Prime Timers is more than a club; we area movement. Not only have we been responsible for bringing friends and a social life to older men, we've made them a respected part of gay society. Gay men of my generation remember when we were the pits of the gay world, which in turn made us the pits of society. Prime Tuners Worldwide, and in turn its chapters, through a natural course of events, has emerged as an educational and cultural facility as well as social. I think we have in our own quiet way, elevated the status not only of older gays but the entire gay community as well; we have shown young men that gay life does not end at some imaginary age.

We owe our success by remaining true to our original single, simple goal of making a better social life for older gays. From time to time, members have suggested that we expand our goals to include politics, social service, etc. but I have tenaciously held that if we aid older gays to be as happy as they were when they were young, then we have met a tremendous need without sreading ourselves too thin. Other organizations are designed to take care of these other concerns. We have tried to offer something for all members, and in so doing have built a movement beyond anything could ever have imagined.

Words abound, but I can't find the ones to tell you how much I appreciation this recognition. I could not wish you better than that you will have as long and happy a life as Prime Timers has helped me to have.

I love Prime Timers which means I love each of you. God bless you.