Preface

This is the story of Michael Peter Loucks, a faithful Russian Orthodox teenager who has lived his entire life in the fictional town of West Monroe in Harding County, Ohio. This fictional town and county lie in Southern Ohio, about ninety minutes from Cincinnati and forty-five minutes from Columbus.

While the locations are fictional, the setting of the early 80s is not. It's important to remember that this story begins over forty years ago, and many, many things have changed. Ronald Reagan had won a landslide victory over Jimmy Carter, the country was in the throes of 'stagflation', Evangelicalism was in ascendancy, many gays, especially teenagers, were 'closeted', the drinking age was eighteen or nineteen in many places, and teenagers were treated as adults in many ways.

There are a few key things to remember as you read the story (there are no spoilers):

Sexual Baseball

Sexual baseball is a way of talking about sexual encounters without actually using sexual words. This was extremely common, even in private conversations, of discussing sexual activity without using vulgar words or medical terms. The most common understanding, at least in Southern Ohio in the 70s and 80s, was:

1st base — making out or necking
2nd base — petting/heavy petting or the use of hands above/below the waist
3rd base — oral sex (cunnilingus/fellatio)
Home run — sexual intercourse

Terms with different meanings

You'll encounter the use of 'mango' to refer to bell peppers, a strange quirk of the language of southern Ohio through the mid-80s. Strange as that may seem, see this article for more information:

https://dannwoellertthefoodetymologist.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/the-midwest-mango-green-pepper-mystery/

You'll also encounter a use of 'speed' as differentiated from methamphetamines. In 1980s parlance, at least in southern Ohio, 'speed' referred to traditional amphetamines, usually Dexies (Dexedrine) or Bennies (Benzedrine).

While methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy) was growing in use, it was usually referred to as 'X' or the 'party drug', not 'speed'. Before about 1995, in the Midwest, outside medicine, methamphetamine wasn't a very well-known term (except for the aforementioned MDMA). So-called 'biker meth' was manufactured in CA in the 60s, but that kind of methamphetamine didn't hit the Midwest until the late 80s, and then mainly from Mexico, not locally manufactured (that came later).

Many drugs we would now (in the 2020s) include when we say 'speed' didn't even exist in the 1980s. As an example, Adderall didn't come into use until 1996.

Religion

Religion was a much more significant part of politics and daily life in the early 80s than today. As noted, Evangelicalism was in ascendancy, and Evangelicals helped propel Reagan to his landslide victory. In the 80s, people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were extremely influential, as were groups such as the '700 Club' and 'PTL'. Those individuals and groups had a vision of a 'Christian America' and were actively working to impose not just Christian morality but the teaching of Creationism in schools.

With regard to Mike he's Russian Orthodox and a member of the OCA — the Orthodox Church in America. This is a largely Americanized church, though in the 1980s, there were still some heavily ethnic parishes. They use the 'new-style' dating system, which means that Christmas is on December 25th on the 'new calendar' (e.g., the modified Gregorian) versus the 'old calendar' (e.g., the modified Julian).

There will be a lot of religion in the story and quite a bit of theology because Orthodox Christianity fundamentally differs from the expressions of Christianity most people encounter in their day-to-day lives. It is basically non-Augustinian, which has a tremendous effect on theology and practice, which seriously differentiates it from Roman Catholic and Protestant teaching.

Please note that Orthodox Christian Psalm numbering is different from the Western canon. Basically, the Orthodox Church follows the Septuagint numbering system, while the West generally uses the Hebrew numbering system. This story will conform to Orthodox usage.

See this page for details: https://oca.org/liturgics/outlines/septuagint-numbering-psalms

The Orthodox canon for the Old Testament is larger than the Protestant one (or, rather, the Protestant one rejected books accepted by the Orthodox from the earliest times). A brief description of the difference may be found here: https://oca.org/questions/scripture/canon-of-scripture

ACLU

In the early 80s, the ACLU was actually a civil rights organization, fighting for free expression, privacy, and civil rights in general. This attitude is reflected in the story and matches how the ACLU conducted itself during the time period in question. This was a VERY different organization from the one we know today (in 2019 when this book first appeared, and beyond).

Only a few years before the time of the story, the ACLU defended the rights of the American Nazi Party to march through Skokie, Illinois. This stands in stark contrast to the leaked internal memo from 2018 in which the ACLU basically declared that speech that 'undermined minority rights' should not be protected, a complete about-face from their previous stance in defending the Nazis.

Chapter 1 »