BigBen

Amen to that!

The trope of falling in love with the obnoxious boor is a common one in fics, but I do hope Blaine is going to be taking Levi to task for his extremely discourteous behavior at the campsite. It should be Levi doing the apologizing, not Blaine. It would be great to have a scene where Blaine confronts Levi with his rudeness, similar to the one in Pride and Prejudice where Elizabeth tells Darcy where to get off. Once Levi straightens up and flies right, then Blaine can fall in love with him! 😀

Those were certainly different times, lol! 😁

"I hated it when kids called me Mr., but that's what most of them seemed to prefer, " Hoo boy! If I'd tried addressing my friends' parents as anything but Mr. or Mrs. Soandso, I'd have gotten a paddling. But that was a generation or two before this story, of course. Dan is definitely a God-fearing Christian, just not a bigot or an idiot. A lot of what passes for "Christian" theology is neither Christian nor theology. As Christ himself said, "The Devil can quote Scripture for his purposes." Again, Dan's reasonableness is an example of true love and concern.

I can well identify. My mother mentioned once how she had to learn to say "creek" instead of "crick," "wash" instead of "warsh," "iron" instead of "arn," and such-like. As for the contents of the chapter, I guess I was too intimidated to try to kiss any of the guys I fooled around with, and poor Jason's and Alex's reaction to the kiss tells me that was wise. Besides, my dad was a New England Yankee, and one didn't express affection—not verbally, and certainly not physically. But again, Dan's persistent reasonableness carries the day! (Although, I do remember being horny enough to find kissing girls reasonably enjoyable, back then. These days, I shudder at the thought, lol!)

I was a kid back then, too. Although I knew to keep my attraction to men a secret, even at age four, it was easier in some ways, because even when people saw indications, their minds didn't always go right there. For example, in the early sixties, the YMCA in Buffalo, New York, was still requiring swimmers to be naked in the pool, on the grounds that the filter couldn't handle the fibers shed by the woolen swimsuits still common back then. Naturally, the sexes were segregated, but none of us guys were embarrassed to be naked in front of one another (and I presume the same went for the women). These days, it seems the increased awareness of gay people has, ironically, worked to make people more uncomfortable with exposing themselves in front of others of the same sex. That's why Dan's entirely reasonable attitude seems so striking, lol!

Nor should you. This story is, among many other things, a reminder that most Christians are actually decent, loving people. It is truly unfortunate that the bigoted zealots are the ones that get all the attention. Though seriously damaged by a Baptist upbringing, I eventually returned to faith and found a warm welcome in another denomination. One of the things I enjoy in this chapter is Dan's care to love the boys equally, though as he has to learn, it means treating them somewhat differently. There's a spiritual metaphor, for you!

I am glad to see this story here on GA. It's on my list of favorites that I revisit from time to time. One of the things I like is the narrator's tone of voice. The expression of his love for the kids is palpable.

Just came across this.

And thanks for stirring up the memories with this fun story of yours!

It's not implausible. My ex and I used to swim at Moonstone Beach in Warwick, Rhode Island, before it was closed, and there was always a volley ball game going on. It was organized either by the naturist association that patrolled the beach, or by dedicated volunteers. The only detail that was different from your story is that the men wore nothing and did a lot of interesting flopping; some of the women, however, would wear brassieres to play. The townsfolk hated Moonstone and kept trying to get it closed. They were hampered by the fact that the park was on Federal land, so local ordinances didn't apply. But they finally succeeded by getting the conservationists on their side (there was an endangered bird that nested nearby), and the National Parks Service was forced to close the beach. We were delighted when the Parks Service officially recognized the nude beach at Sandy Hook, New Jersey. It meant we could finally swim where the life guards were and no longer had to hike way down the beach out of their sight. (Some of the life guards even started standing watch nude, though I doubt that was official policy.) Those were the days!

Slang is tricky. I immediately thought of "groovy" and "far out," but I don't think they came in until a decade later. We'll have to go watch some Gidget movies to see what the cool phrases were back then, lol!

Ah, but a parent's right to discipline his child any way he saw fit was rarely questioned, back then, and queers had very few rights. Sad to say, most people back then would have taken the view that Peter got what was coming to him. This story takes place eight years before Stonewall, and the world was a very different place for people like us, back then. Anyway, @Backwoods Boy, thank you so much for this sweet story. I'm so glad Benji got his wish for a brother!

Boy, this brings back memories! My high school experience was a decade later, in the seventies, after Stonewall, but I still remember how much I yearned for a mentor to teach me everything. I entered college five years after Stonewall, and was fortunate that the Gay Activist Alliance had gotten well-started there. The college administration had arranged for the GAA to meet with all the students on every floor of the freshman dorm, but the presentation wasn't nearly as good as Benji's retreat. Not to mention that some of those guys were far too strident for a timid Baptist boy to cope with, lol! On the other hand, Greenwich Village was a quick subway ride away, so . . . . I also remember that it was the GAA that convinced me to switch from saying "homosexual" to saying "gay" (which few people, even in the gay community, were using yet), because the former word referred only to men, whereas the latter word included our lesbian sisters. Such memories! Thank you for the reminder of those days. They were both dark and hopeful.

Really? I thought I'd read The Wish on GA. Oh, well! My favorites are the short stories Out of My League and Northern Lights, and the novella Exothermic Reaction. I don't believe I mentioned the author who goes variously by Sinbad and Bruin Fisher, who is also well worth reading. I'm particularly fond of his novella Winter Holiday.