Carinhoso (Amelias)

It was 1971 and São Paulo was full of bars with live music, the piano bars, closed venues, especially in the area called Bela Vista. Basically MPB, Bossa Nova, Jazz, Blues, and similar styles. I love live music, and that kind, so I went whenever I could. I clearly remember “Jogral” and “BalacoBaco”, one almost next to the other, on Avanhandava Street, at the corner with Augusta Street, the “Catedral do Samba” and the “Telecoteco na Paróquia”, known simply as Telecoteco, on Santo Antonio Street, Carinhoso on Álvaro de Carvalho Street (or was it on Major Quedinho?, around there). The piano bar at the Othon São Francisco Hotel, with the barwoman Ina, her cocktails and her flair. At Praça Roosevelt, Baiuca, at Largo do Arouche one close to Le Casserole, I don’t remember the name, these last two, more upscale, singers with greater renown, more expensive.

We used to frequent them all, very regularly, in each one, a story.

Carinhoso was a house, a bit bigger than the others, with live music, like all the others mentioned here. Music without stopping, from 8 / 9 pm until the last customer, usually after 2 to 3 am. Excellent musicians, excellent singers (crooners). They were packed. And a lot of people on the streets. São Paulo was the world capital of nightlife with its bars (and its restaurants).

For a long time Rondon used to tell about a visit to “Carinhoso”, on a Saturday night when he stayed in São Paulo with Kleber. The two, single, sat at a table next to a group with about eight girls celebrating the birthday of one of them. Conversation back and forth, they got closer to two of them and stayed there fooling around until late. There was a curious moment, they wanted to see the documents of both and did not hesitate to show theirs. His, he never forgot: Amélia. The four left, walking around there, until where the two lived, and were invited to go up. Today they would be “empowered women”?

Arriving there, it was a relatively large apartment shared by about 4 or 6 women, in the dim light it was hard to tell well, each one with her mattress on the floor and between one mattress and another a little rope like a clothesline to dry clothes with a cloth (a sheet?) serving as a divider between the beds.

All in the prime of their age (~25 years old), it was an unforgettable party, when one was already calming down, another couple (or was it just one?) would moan a little and excite the others, starting everything again.

According to Rondon, Amélia was in heat, unforgettable breasts almost bursting from how firm they were, full but not exaggerated, the nipples pointed and hard the skin smooth and firm, smelling of pheromones, the clitoris swollen, protruding and needy, making her herself masturbate while grunting, with her mouth occupied in oral sex, trying to revive the partner, the gaze convergent, slightly cross-eyed, half in trance, half hypnotized.

When the two could no longer continue and curled up for a nap, they were invited to leave. The girls needed to go to work on Sunday (they were nurses) and, upon waking, there was a code of ethics in the apartment: no partner could sleep there so as not to bother or embarrass the others at daybreak. Although the day was almost breaking. That’s what they told the three: Kleber, Rondon and another guy, with a similar story, whom they met when leaving the apartment, going down the stairs and out onto Martins Fontes, where the two heroes took a taxi to Joaquim Antunes. At least that is what Rondon says. About Kleber and his respective, not a word. Discreet guy.

I heard that Rondon still went out one or two more times with Amélia. One of them for a weekend in Ubatuba, for some practical lessons of a diving course that he was taking in the ACM pool, in downtown São Paulo. On Friday, already dark, going down the mountain, they had to stop on the shoulder to, standing and leaning against the car, engage pin and eye, climax, calm down, and be able to continue with relative safety. Sex-orgy, from Friday to Monday. Sanches, who was our boss and advisor, more than twice our age, explained:

It was enough for both to conclude that it was not what each one was looking for. Or if it was, the physical closeness exceeded and burned, for both, the option of a slow and long relationship. Or they still thought they had time to look for something better (or bigger!), a fairly common option for the age.

Apparently, it remained only in memory, without complaints or regrets. It is part of life.

Miguel Fernández y Fernández, engineer, chronicler and columnist, member of the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Engineering # written between 2023 and 2024, 4,100 characters