I really didn't mean to keep everyone hanging but I needed to do some fact checking and 1969 was a long time ago. I spoke to Shelly today and here's what he said:
He was just out of the army and looking to get laid. He also thought that my family was rich. HA! (that's a bogus Rockaway/Far Rockaway thing)
Between our first and second dates, he got engaged but still hoping to get some, never told me. This was neither the first or the last time this would occur in my dealings with the males, indeed, I believe lying for sex to be a recurring leitmotif in the lives of all our fair sex.
In other words, say I, you were a dirty lowlife, a rat bastard cockroach?
Precisely, says Shelly using the universal excuse for bad male behavior,: I let little Shelly do the thinking. Vile dirteaters! Noxious scum. Ladies, beware!
Well, it was 1969, I was just a rebel with a burning desire to reject the values imposed on me by my family and the establishment. I had lot's of living to do! I was amused, not fazed. So we stayed in touch. Shelly married, I met a guy. I went to Woodstock, gave away the boyfriend, fell seriously in love. My life would take a turn to a place of darkness,joy, despair and hope. After 4 tumultuous years we parted. Shelly and I remained friends.
Let's jump ahead, shall we, to what, 1974?.
After my break-up with Jimmy, I had to get a place and had to leave the beach. I was friendly with one of Shelly's old girlfriends, Judy. (At an earlier point, he decided I needed to approve all his girlfriends). Tex and I both worked in midtown and sometimes we used to play hooky from work and go uptown, get H&H bagels then visit Judy and her roomate Bernie. Now they were looking for a place in the Slope and needed a third roomate. Kismet, thought I! And a cool batchelorette's Park Slope duplex pad. I must digress here to tell about the time we had the best and most ass-kicking New Year's party, with live band! There were over 40 people until Tex mistakenly closed the flue in the fireplace chimney and we were all out in the street in subzero weather.
Meanwhile, out at the beach my parents had rented to a new tenant, a young hippie teacher. Steven ( not my husband Steve) and his friends and I became friendly and one night they invited me to go to the city to hear some jazz. Lee was the one I was attracted to and he to me but in one fateful move, Steven put Lee in the backseat of his car and me in the front and the rest was history. Steven had just been divorced but was on cordial terms with his ex-wife Ruthie who frequently brought him food. I spent a lot of time sleeping at Steven's ( with my parents upstairs, can you believe my chutzpah? My mom phoned several times to tell him to lower the stereo! Tull, usually) and I ran into Ruthie a lot. Eventually Steven and I would part but I liked Ruthie so much I introduced her to Shelly. They moved in together and were married soon after and now have 2 grandsons. I did good, right?
But not before the following story which explains the answer, yes DJ, there is a Tex and it was a harrowing and tasteless story one just as I foretold!
How well I know my beloved Tex! In his own words:
You and I were making out on the couch in your lesbian apartment and blind Abie was in the room. We thought it was quite hysterical at the time. Anyway, he asked who I was and for some reason we thought that Tex was a really funny name.
If I never told you - years later I met Abie here in Fla. - through a mutual friend and the talk turned to Vietnam and the army. The friend mentioned my name and Abie replied "Oh yeah, they used to call him Tex.
He was just out of the army and looking to get laid. He also thought that my family was rich. HA! (that's a bogus Rockaway/Far Rockaway thing)
Between our first and second dates, he got engaged but still hoping to get some, never told me. This was neither the first or the last time this would occur in my dealings with the males, indeed, I believe lying for sex to be a recurring leitmotif in the lives of all our fair sex.
In other words, say I, you were a dirty lowlife, a rat bastard cockroach?
Precisely, says Shelly using the universal excuse for bad male behavior,: I let little Shelly do the thinking. Vile dirteaters! Noxious scum. Ladies, beware!
Well, it was 1969, I was just a rebel with a burning desire to reject the values imposed on me by my family and the establishment. I had lot's of living to do! I was amused, not fazed. So we stayed in touch. Shelly married, I met a guy. I went to Woodstock, gave away the boyfriend, fell seriously in love. My life would take a turn to a place of darkness,joy, despair and hope. After 4 tumultuous years we parted. Shelly and I remained friends.
Let's jump ahead, shall we, to what, 1974?.
After my break-up with Jimmy, I had to get a place and had to leave the beach. I was friendly with one of Shelly's old girlfriends, Judy. (At an earlier point, he decided I needed to approve all his girlfriends). Tex and I both worked in midtown and sometimes we used to play hooky from work and go uptown, get H&H bagels then visit Judy and her roomate Bernie. Now they were looking for a place in the Slope and needed a third roomate. Kismet, thought I! And a cool batchelorette's Park Slope duplex pad. I must digress here to tell about the time we had the best and most ass-kicking New Year's party, with live band! There were over 40 people until Tex mistakenly closed the flue in the fireplace chimney and we were all out in the street in subzero weather.
Meanwhile, out at the beach my parents had rented to a new tenant, a young hippie teacher. Steven ( not my husband Steve) and his friends and I became friendly and one night they invited me to go to the city to hear some jazz. Lee was the one I was attracted to and he to me but in one fateful move, Steven put Lee in the backseat of his car and me in the front and the rest was history. Steven had just been divorced but was on cordial terms with his ex-wife Ruthie who frequently brought him food. I spent a lot of time sleeping at Steven's ( with my parents upstairs, can you believe my chutzpah? My mom phoned several times to tell him to lower the stereo! Tull, usually) and I ran into Ruthie a lot. Eventually Steven and I would part but I liked Ruthie so much I introduced her to Shelly. They moved in together and were married soon after and now have 2 grandsons. I did good, right?
But not before the following story which explains the answer, yes DJ, there is a Tex and it was a harrowing and tasteless story one just as I foretold!
How well I know my beloved Tex! In his own words:
You and I were making out on the couch in your lesbian apartment and blind Abie was in the room. We thought it was quite hysterical at the time. Anyway, he asked who I was and for some reason we thought that Tex was a really funny name.
If I never told you - years later I met Abie here in Fla. - through a mutual friend and the talk turned to Vietnam and the army. The friend mentioned my name and Abie replied "Oh yeah, they used to call him Tex.
See, tasteless! After a conversation about it, it all came shamefully back; (a gargantuan effort it is, going back in the way-back machine) what really hapened was:
Abie, an Israeli friend from my childhood in East New York, came back from Vietnam blind and quite messed up. Everyone came back messed up. That particular day he came over with something illegal. How he got there remains a mystery but we were at the Park Slope apartment which I shared with Judy and Bernie, who were Shelly's lesbians. (In fact, the place had hot and cold running lesbians as well as many unauthorized roomates,& their boyfriends.) Abie said that Shelly, who has a deep voice remember,sounded like a Tex should sound. The funny part is, he looks like a very tall Arab. We were all stoned and laughed about it for an hour so the name stuck. The Florida part cracks me up. Misty, water-colored damn memories!
2 comments:
So his sobriquet of "Tex" has no real reason but it does have a history. Speaking of history, I don't think I ever knew you went to Woodstock. I'd like to think I did but in truth didn't come to NY till 1971. In 1969 I was busy giving up my "crown," getting young-married, and wearing leather fringe, or was I smoking it?
I vaguely remember your Park Slope, Judy & Bernie days. Hot and cold running lesbians, eh? Been there, done that.
Rear-view mirror reader, City of angles
Shelly always reminds me that 4 of his ex-girlfriends, including his first wife, all became lesbians.
He loves to say his average with women "turning "gay was 50%.
He needn't blame himself.
Come to think of it, at least 50% of my girlfriends became lesbians or bisexual too, so there you go!
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