Chapter 1: In the Beginning

This five decade sexual saga began in the summer of 1957, in a major city in North Carolina. At age 10, I had little say in where my family chose to live, so I had to give up the country life and my best pals for the Big Move into the City. It was a great house, with plenty of yard (for me to mow, as I found out), and was situated on a gentle sidehill, with a huge park below, beginning at the foot of my street and extending nearly a half-mile south to the new main entrance to the development.

That park was where I spent a lot of my summer and after school time – for I was in love with "ball", whether it be baseball, football, basketball, or golf... "me and my new buddies" built the diamond, the fields, the court, and our golf course to our liking – with no help or interference from City Park planners. Oh, I almost forgot two changes in the landscape. We had for the first time, a basement ... and the other big change? We had neighbors right next door, instead of "down the road, apiece". The combination of these two "new additions" were to prove instrumental in the accelerated path my life took in the next few years.

The family in question lived just below us, having moved in about a month after we were settled. My parents had already put up a fence surrounding our back yard. Of the two daughters next door, one was already in junior high school, and her brat sister was a year younger than I. That little brat sister was a flashy showoff, who craved attention from anybody who would listen. I remember anytime I hit the backyard, or went for the door going into the basement, I had to "explain myself" to this little loudmouth, as she scaled and hung on to our fence. What a royal pain in the Ass!

My family numbered just three, with my Stepfather a long-distance Trucker, gone 90% of the time ... and my Mom, who started out as a housewife, then transitioned into a 40 hour-per-week job, to bring in extra cash. So that meant I had a LOT of alone time in the house, to be (at least in my mind), the keeper of the castle. I was a pretty big boy for my age, and got a kick out of playing sports with the older guys in the neighborhood. They beat on me pretty good, but kept me around for laughs – I do remember when it was time to "choose-up teams", I was lapped up second or third by the 13-14 year old "captains". Oh yeah, the little loudmouth pixie next door JUST HAD to follow me as I went to the park, virtually every afternoon. I was told by both sets of parents that "she was my responsibility" – YUCK ... My teammates and opponents, once they found out she WASN'T my little sister, ragged on me repeatedly about my "shadow" (or worse yet ... my girlfriend)

As the seasons passed, the two households got fairly close, meaning when we were invited for dinner next door, I HAD to clean up, put on some decent clothes, and wear a smile for 3-4 hours. I observed as time went by that "Beverly" – yes, HER – got a bit more tolerable, and wasn't bird-dogging my every move and my every breath, every moment I spent outdoors. But she was still around. School was easy, "ball" was great with my Boys, then I hit "teen hood" ... but I was STILL required to go to those damn two-family get togethers next door. I remember the evening that us kids had finished our dinner, and were getting itchy sitting around listening to the adults talk about stuff that bored us to death. Then out of nowhere Beverly blurted out, in a voice that could be heard all over the house, "I wanna go for a walk". Older sister Barb was smart enough to duck into her parents bedroom to call her high school boyfriend – two phones in the house? Impressive! The result of that was, four sets of parental eyes fell toward me ... I knew I had been pegged for duty.

I thought "oh, well ... get it over with". So with the blessing of the four parents, "the two young-uns" struck out for a pre-dusk hike in the woods, just above the north-south stream that flowed toward the park. I enjoyed being older and smarter than Beverly, as she was a mere 12! We worked further into the woods, when she finally cut the nonstop blabbing, and said "let's play like we are in a nightclub" ... I got a "say what??" look on my face, but she convinced me to check out (endure?) "her act" – one that she said she got from watching TV ... I figured after all the grief I had given her over the 3+ years, I could go along with her plea. There was a downed tree trunk a few feet away, so I figured that could be my "front row seat". So I was seated as a patron, and Beverly sang to me, while basking in the role of the hot nightclub feature act. At the end of her "love song", I was of course required to applaud (one of the stupidest feelings in my Life, up to that point). Then she got a microphone – a small stick, no less – and announced that the person in the audience who found a special "ticket" on their table, would receive the prize of a Kiss from the Singer (this, my second "say what" moment).