Sixpence posted recently in his blog about his youth which was a prolonged coming of age sort of thing and brought to my mind one more time how I have always planned to "write my story". Well here we go. Just a couple of paragraphs to begin. I want the reveal to be long and drawn out afterall.

I was 14 years old when I managed to seduce my first man. He was an usher at a local movie theater and must have been in his early 20's. Was he gay? Was he a pederast? It did not really matter to me at all since I was really little more than hormones with legs out to experience what I had dreams of and fantacised about for a long time. Being gay at birth and knowing it from the get go has both its advantages and disadvantages. Advantages in that the proverbial closet never exists and disadvantages in that no sane person is going to even begin to show any interest in you for fear of a long prison sentence.

From 14 to 17 I did as I wanted with any man that I could manage to hook. Some in their 20's and some a good deal older. But it was always something I persued and always someone older than me. Not some dirty old man after the young boy sort of thing.

When I was 17 I "ran away" from home to New Orleans. Why, I had read a book by John Rechy titled City of Night and thought that was the place to be. I lied about my age and got a job as a manager trainee at a White Auto store, found a place to live in a small hotel on Canal and ate most of my meals at either White Castle or the Rexall Drug Store fountain where they had the best "dirty rice" in the world and still had phone booths that cost a nickle to make a call.

One night I took the cable car from my room with the intent of going to the Quarter to see who I could manage to connect with. I sat in an empty seat and soon an older man sat down next to me. He pressed his leg against mine and I took the hint and pressed back. I don't recall what we said but we got off the Cable Car at the circle and went across to the YMCA where we enjoyed one anothers company (don't you love how I am making it not an R rated encounter?). When we were finished and getting dressed he did say he hoped to run across me again and gave me 50 dollars. 

That was my introduction to how I could used my body, my youth and my looks to earn a living. And, that was almost as much as I earned in a week working. So, a new me was born that night and continued for several years from New Orleans to San Francisco to Los Angeles. From 17 to 25 I had two jobs. My day job eventually with the City of Los Angeles and my night job at bars and hotels with anyone who was interested and had the money. Eventually things began to get seedy and I began to find that I was known and shuned in many of the gay clubs that I went to. So, a reevaluation of where I was going was in order. So, at 25 years of age I "retired" from most of my night jobs and began the transition to being a responsible adult...whatever that means.

Now I am going to stop here and let your imaginations run wild for a bit. I will write more in the future about my life both pre and post age 25. Until then, stay warm. We are in the 20's for the third day running here and will be for at least another day. Right now we are in the midst of a major ice storm which we are all praying does not take out the Texas Power Grid.