Junglepet, I am a few years older than you, and my periods of sessioning at Belle's places mirrored yours, some times in the 70s, sometimes in the 80s, and very occasionally in the 90s.

I sessioned only once in the wig store on 13th Street. It was my first experience with pro bdsm and I thought so little of it, I thought I would never return.

But, then, while I was a post grad student at a major university in NY, I met an undergraduate coed who needed "tutoring" from me, which I gladly offered in what became my first extracurricular fling, The coed - I later learned worked part time at the then new Belle du Jour on 17th Street and 3d Avenue.
That started me down that road.

Belle had a home on Fire Island. I knew Her from there also. When I saw Her in Her place of business, I never mentioned that I knew Her from our vanilla lives intersection too, and neither did She. But after Her first husband died, in the 80s, I think, we did talk privately about life and loves, Her sisters and nieces in the business with Her, and many other subjects beyond my sessioning and Her staff. I never sessioned with Her, I am not surprised that your session with Her was memorable. She was (s She still around, I think so?) a very charismatic person, and unforgettable in Her own way. I thought of Her as part "Gracie" (Gracie Allen from George Burns fame), part "Lucy" (Lucille Ball) and part Tip O'Neill, the former Speaker of the House for many years. She has O'Neill's management skills, Lucy's impertinence, and Gracie's feigned innocence, while always being the smartest person in the room.

She told me she could tell if a man was submissive after only talking to him for a few minutes, and that she and her sisters would sometimes play a game at family events of looking around the crowd to see which men were already clients and which were likely sub clients. She was a pisser.

I never served Mistress Paloma, I just remember Her name. In addition to Ms. Vanessa and Ms. Crystal, previously mentioned, there was Mistress Contessa, the loudest Domme in the entire world, and whose husband trusted Her not at all, so he drove Her to work and home from work, Mistress Leilah (the Lady who also worked at a major not for profit agency as its PR person, while moonlighting nights as a Domme, and likely several others whose names disappear in the fabric of a long complicated lifetime of some bdsm and many years without playing.