Then you must have seen that stripper at the Cabarrus (NC) County Fair. They'd back a flat bed truck into an old army wall tent and use that as the stage. Everybody paid good money to sit in folding chairs. Everybody got liquored up drinking from pint bottles carried in their back pockets. Sitting there waiting you knew you were going to see acts of ungodly nakedness and at least two good fist fights. Well worth the time and money. That was the first time I had ever seen a woman pick up a folded five dollar bill off the "stage" without using her hands.
Seen that. It wasn't in a tent, however. It's not open to the general public.
I was there with my friends. We had heard that show would a life changing event. At that age for me it was. Rowdy, raw boned drunks, full nudity and sexual gymnastics mixed with cigarette smoke and the unmistakable smell of an oiled army tent. I knew right then being a wild eyed Southern man was just about the best thing on earth. I spend 10 years or so living the life, every chance I got. No regrets.
So, what were you doing in all those seedy places?
I was young, .....and I guess was in an adventurous mode. It was a time of rebelling against my parents too, including my religious upbringing. I was lapping up all the liberal propaganda then, and was into the feminist thing, too. Then, I met 2 prostitutes (sisters) whom I decided to try to help and get them to leave prostituting. Despite my rebellion against religion, I remember urging them to get baptized (they were not Christians)....one of them was interested (but undecided). I can't recall the details but it fizzled out.
Maybe I didn't handle it well. I wasn't really religious myself.
It was the first and the last time I'd seen it. My one and only experience of seeing something like it. Live sex show.
The guy who sponsored me to get in warned me, I can still remember his words, "It'll change you, kiddo." No, I had no relationship with this guy, I just know him. What I'd seen hit hard. What I felt was a tremendous amount of pity (I teared up as I watched), thinking what these girls must've had experienced in life for them to be able to do the things they did.
It was a night of big adventure, I tell you that! As the show went on, there was a sudden brawl. Chairs were flying. I'd never seen a brawl!
I was standing in the middle of it, rooted at the spot (the guy who sponsored me was long gone). An unidentified man grabbed me and pulled me to safety.
Then I was outside. I didn't even have the chance to thank the guy - he's gone.
Looking back in those days when I was floundering out there and having one great adventure after another - some scary - it amazes me that through it all, I was able to go unscathed. I never got hurt.
In a lot of cases, there's always someone who helped me. I nearly got date raped, too - thankfully, I was able to talk the guy out of it!
I see my life in segments. With different people in it. Different adventure. Chivalry was big in my adventures - thus I have a soft spot for men, and I hate seeing them bashed by feminists. There was almost, always a man, or men, who aided me and protected me.
When I finally found Christ, and looked back to my days - I saw and understood that I was never alone.
The night the astronauts first walked on the moon I was in an off limits village laying on a poncho liner with two Vietnamese prostitutes and a gaggle of little kids from the village. We were drinking black marketed beer, smoking and joking. I wrestled with the kids and laughed with the whores. We talked about the moon and the stars and they told me a story about how the sky was formed during a huge ancient battle of the heavens. Just me and whores and the kids. I'd made the run by myself past lookout posts, crawled through holes in the concertina wire, hooked up with a K-9 handler humping his post (I'd told him before guard mount that I'd be sneaking through) and on into the ville. It was far from my first time.
With the exception of ROK 105's pounding the face off a mountain in the dark distance it was a peaceful night. I was as far away from the war as I could be. I didn't want it to end. I think the girls and the kids had a lot of fun that night too. I hope they remember it as I do.
I have to say that during university and later in grad school I wasn't involved in much drunk and debauch. That would come again later after my starter marriage ended.
I remember a lot of women in various states of dress. For the most part I haven't found a naked or semi-naked woman any less a decent human being than a clothed woman. Being naked or clothed isn't always about sex....well, unless she's redheaded.
Those were the days. You know what, we've both had colorful lives. I'm thankful.