Twelfth and Jackson was also the location of the public swimming pool, where I would go and watch my fawn-like and soft-spoken girlfriend compete in swim meets, perhaps my favorite pastime in high school and perhaps the last time I was truly supportive to a girlfriend or partner. She used to knit me sweaters and ties. She taught me how to play chess on a bearskin rug in front of a roaring fire while a dozen taxidermied animals looked on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From my senior year journal:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
11-23-81<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I did something this\nweekend I have never done before and enjoyed it immensely. My\ngirlfriend came over and we played Scrabble. It was very relaxing,\nincreased awareness, and was fun. It sounds weird but I really\nenjoyed it. There was nothing emotionally tied to it and that was\nnice for a change. To be interesting you have to be interested. <\/em>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n I lost my virginity to her on Halloween\nnight of my senior year. We had gone to party dressed as gangster and\nmoll. She’d sewed her own silk flapper dress and it clung spotted to\nher body in the rain that pelted us that evening. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was also the matter of the coin\nflips that took place between me and my girlfriend. The story went\nlike this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n We always went to the bowling alley on\nour dates although we never bowled a single frame. She always drove\nus in her brown Pinto and we kept the sound of the AM radio low\nbecause we loved to talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I always flipped a quarter and she\nalways called it in the air. If I lost, I had to sneak into the\nbowling alley, sneak into its fetid men\u2019s restroom, fit the quarter\ninto a condom machine, and turn a silver knob until a little wrapped\npackage plopped out in a tray below. If she lost, she had to sneak\ninto the women\u2019s restroom and do something similar although she\nnever gave me a description of its d\u00e9cor. I can\u2019t remember the\nbrand, color, state of lubrication or texture of the condoms we each\npurchased, but we never went without one. In 1981, the Oregon City\nBowling Alley was the only business in town an underage and\nresponsible couple could buy condoms after hours. Most went without.\nThis was also the same year the NY Times<\/em> first reported on a\n\u201cRare\nCancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the purchase, my girlfriend would\nfire up the Pinto and we would drive Molalla Avenue toward Singer\nHill and explore Oregon City\u2019s historic area east of the bluff\noverlooking the Willamette River and the paper mills. We always\nsearched for a vacant and unlit place to hide the car and have sex in\nthe back seat. The Pinto probably deserved its reputation as a\nterrible, even murderous American compact car, but the Hatchback\nmodel she owned was incredibly spacious with a huge curved rear\nwindow that allowed for scenic views and plenty of maneuvering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The parking lot of a huge stone church\nnear the John McLoughlin House was our most frequent and preferred\nspot. We never drank alcohol during these Pinto moments. We never\nsmoked cigarettes, let alone pot. We never had the radio playing.\nNeither one of us had a curfew to obey. We invariably left the condom\nbehind as a reminder to next morning’s churchgoers, whatever reminder\nthat churchgoer wanted to conjure; it could go either way. We always\nlaughed about that. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n The police never rousted us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Note to reader: It is my wish that the reader will support the idea that Pioneer Pride<\/em> is a \u201cbook.\u201d It is also my wish that the reader consider \u201cbuying\u201d the book as it rolls out in installments. A purchase supports an author and future literary endeavors by Nestucca Spit Press. To purchase, look to the right on the blog to use Paypal or contact me to make other arrangements.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Twelfth and Jackson was also the location of the public swimming pool, where I would go and watch my fawn-like and soft-spoken girlfriend compete in swim meets, perhaps my favorite pastime in high school and perhaps the last time I was truly supportive to a girlfriend or partner. She used to knit me sweaters and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,942],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","category-oregon-city","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5895"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5902,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5895\/revisions\/5902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}