Charlie

I used to fantasize about being a girl when I was an adolescent, but it was basically because girls could kiss boys. Once I found that I could date boys, too, I lost interest in transitioning.

I never raised the topic, and neither did my father. In retrospect, it seems strange to me that I didn't have much curiosity about it, and my father was somewhat prudish anyway. I started masturbating regularly when I was ten, and first started to cum while doing it when I was thirteen. I only thought about other boys I knew while I was doing it (especially the ones who were starting to show muscles and body hair), so I don't think I actually associated it with the birds and the bees topic. There were no sex education classes it in the schools I went to, so I was in college before I actually understood the mechanics of heterosexual relations, which my classmates obviously understood, and I don't think they realized that I did not, since I always dated girls. The first time I had sex with another guy, at seventeen, I was shocked to discover that men inserted their cocks into other guys' assholes! I had thought that the only kind of male-to-male sex was frottage, or oral sex if one was really wild.

I suspect that your family's reaction to the joint announcement may have resulted at least somewhat from the fact that other people wouldn't necessarily know that you were gay, but everyone could see that her boyfriend was Black. Many families certainly used to feel that it didn't really matter so much that you were gay as long as their neighbors, friends, co-workers, etc., didn't know. I remember when I was in my late teens that I realized that my father's cousin Fred was gay, but not out in any public sense. I also realized that my parents knew he was gay, Fred's mother, aunts and uncles all knew (they accepted his close "friend" as a family member), but they never acknowledged the fact except within the family.

My brother-in-law and his partner decided to roast a goose for Thanksgiving dinner one year when he was having several notable guests he wanted to impress. As his partner was carrying the heavy goose in to the dining room table, it slipped off the platter onto the rug. One wag at the table remarked to the partner, "I think your goose is cooked."

I ran an AIDS Information Hotline back in the 80s, and the questions we got over the phone revealed how little most people did know about HIV, and what bizarre ideas some of them had. The Internet certainly is a big improvement in the transmission of information, though not necessarily in people's understanding of that information.

I used to have this one, but I can't find it now.

Both father and brother were famed rowers, and looked very much alike.

Unless I am very much mistaken, this is Jack Kelly, brother of Princess Grace and Philadelphia City Councilman.

I didn't say they were all warm memories.

I guess these photos qualify as "vintage," since that magazine cover is 20 years old.

I thought of that old thread immediately when I saw this topic. Re-reading it brought back memories of so many posters who are no longer on the site.

NORTH Philly? Really? I have never thought of anyplace west of Wissahickon Creek as North Philly. Next you are going to try to tell me that East Falls is in North Philly, too!

Is he really "masculate"?

Can I have some milk with that, please?

Everywhere I have lived, from Palm Springs to London (including New York), residents say snarky things about tourists, and then get upset when not enough of them show up.

Number of words in self-description: 12 Number of items in "I am into": 34 Number of languages spoken: none listed Number of profile visits in first 24 hrs: 514

Umm, I'm sorry, what were you saying?

OK, I can match that. On my first visit to London, I was taken back to a flat by a guy who picked me up in a gay pub. A year later I was back in London, and went to a dinner party at a friend's home, where I was introduced to another guest. Afterwards, I went home with him to his flat. As we walked in, I said, "Wait a minute--I've been here before! Did you ever have an American staying here with you named Lloyd ______?" He said, "Yes, he rented my guest room from me for a month last summer. But he never brought anyone here." Wanna bet?

That is the one. He wasn't as defined in those earlier photos.

My experience was being picked up one night in a bar in NYC by a guy who drove me back to his home in NJ. As we got closer, I realized that we were going to the same town I grew up in. I didn't say anything to him, but as we were undressing in his bedroom, I suddenly stopped and said, "Why do you have a wedding photo of Clara and Frank on your dresser?" Amazed, he said, "How do you know my sister?!" It turned out that not only had I gone to high school with Clara and Frank, but the guy's grandmother had been the old lady in the house on the next street behind the one I grew up in, whose backyard adjoined ours. Small world.

Ad is gone.

I learned my lesson early from my parents' experience during the Great Depression. He was a credit investigator, she was an accountant for a major insurance company. Both were jobs that couldn't be replaced by technology in those days.

It's worth pointing out that my experience with Mario occurred 40 years ago, before the existence of cellphones, the Internet, and a site like ours. I had first become aware of "Mario" as a coverboy on a gay magazine, with a big spread inside that portrayed him as a fun, playful, affectionate youth called "Michael Delfino," with nude photos. I recognized him immediately as the same person when he advertised as "Master Mario." In person, the vibe was very different, basically aggressive macho. During our appointment, he also revealed that he had "smoked some weed," but I suspect he could have been on something stronger. Nevertheless, another escort I knew admitted to me several years later that he had been infatuated with Mario/Michael, before he went completely off the rails and attempted to murder a client by chopping off the man's arms. I'm not always sentimental about the days of those "vintage men."

A few more to add: .......had sex with a hitch-hiker. ......gone home from a gay bar with someone and discovered he was the older brother of one of my high school classmates.

Your office space doubles as a trashcan?