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CHRIS McGINNIS:

Come back to North Carolina. When was this, what year? What decade?

QUINTON E. BAKER:

1990.

CHRIS McGINNIS:

1990, wow, so how long was the restaurant opened?

QUINTON E. BAKER:

Three years.

CHRIS McGINNIS:

Oh, so it was 87 to 90?

QUINTON E. BAKER:

82 to 85 I think it was. Yeah, 82 to 85—and then after I left my own restaurant, because I was ahead of my time, I was in an area where people were used to food hanging off the plate, they were used to large quantities, I was doing—

CHRIS McGINNIS:

Quality not quantity.

QUINTON E. BAKER:

Right, you could get quite full at my restaurant; you just had to order all of the courses to do so, but yeah. I managed other people's restaurants for a while. I managed other people's restaurants, I was fascinated by the restaurant industry, I did that as a part of working my way through Wisconsin, I did that until my mother died, and then I decided that I needed to get out of the restaurant industry, I was burned out, because it is twenty-four seven. And at the time, I said, I think I was reading what's his name—Oh my god, I can't even remember his name anymore—I was reading a book that was talking about what had happened in terms of segregation and integration, It was talking about how we were re-segregating ourselves, we were talking about particularly around U-mass where people of color and white people were not even—wouldn't be in the same vicinities of each other—and I decided that I would—that I had not been in the South to live since it desegregated, I had no clue as to what life in the South was like. I had long believed that the South had a greater shot of achieving full integration than did the North because at least there were relationships or contact, but I wanted to see. So, I decided, it was a decision to either come back here or to go to Wisconsin, to go back to Wisconsin, which was where I had a really—for some reason, I never really, as much as I loved it, I never found a niche in a Northeast, Boston was just not, I couldn't, I didn't find a niche with the African American Community in the Northeast because, for my perception, I was not willing to pretend that I was not educated, that I wasn't a member and I didn't fit in there. The gay community in Boston is very segregated—

CHRIS McGINNIS:

You had sold out in the Black community because you had become educated and so forth?

QUINTON E. BAKER:

No, it was because all of the educated people pretended like they weren't educated, you know, like they were one of the people growing up in the—

CHRIS McGINNIS:

Slums or whatever and had never gotten an education—

QUINTON E. BAKER:

Right and it wasn't true, and also Boston is this kind of closed community anyway and so most of interactions that I had in Boston was in the gay community, but it was the white gay community and that wasn't, I didn't quite find a niche there, although I lived in a house, the people's whose house I lived in, had been together for—when I moved in 15 years or more and they were, and they were really good to me. It was a good relationship, I had the run of the house, this was a six story brownstone, I had two floors at the bottom and I pretty much had the run of the house in terms of the way—But still, I felt that I wasn't doing, that I wasn't thriving, I wasn't growing, I wasn't—

CHRIS McGINNIS:

Reaching your full potential—

QUINTON E. BAKER:

Right and so I decided that I needed to, you know, and I knew that geographical cures don't work, so I wasn't really, but I needed to go back, I needed to get back into an environment—

CHRIS McGINNIS:

Geographical what?

QUINTON E. BAKER:

Cures.

CHRIS McGINNIS:

Oh, cures.

QUINTON E. BAKER:

Cures, don't work, at least I believed at that time—

CHRIS McGINNIS:

Nothing magical was going to happen if you moved back to the South.

QUINTON E. BAKER:

Nothing magical was going to happen. But I decided that I was going to come back anyway, I wanted to come south, and so I decided to come here. At the same time, at the beginning of that time, I had met Ron.

CHRIS McGINNIS:

In 1990 you came to Hillsborough.

QUINTON E. BAKER:

1990 I came to Hillsborough, I have been in this house since 1990.

CHRIS McGINNIS:

So, for twelve years.

QUINTON E. BAKER:

Right here

CHRIS McGINNIS:

So, you came down, bought this house, you met Ron here?

QUINTON E. BAKER:

Rented this house.

CHRIS McGINNIS:

Oh, you rented this house?

QUINTON E. BAKER:

Rented this house, then we bought this house [Laughter] I met Ron in Massachusetts. Ron was working at a health club that I attended on my day off and I met Ron there and before we came down here, we decided to go cross country together, so we spent much of the time, I was just trying, I was not—

CHRIS McGINNIS:

Were you out to find yourself?

QUINTON E. BAKER:

Yeah, I was just trying to figure out, I had actually suggested to him that he go across country, because he had not ventured out. The I said, "Well, why am I telling you to go across country? I should go across country, I have never been across country." And so, that is how we met.