Walking Down Memory Lane @January-1970

I remember sitting in class one January morning. the year was 1970, we were still newcomers to Manly Iowa. since we were coming from 10 miles away, it didn't seem to be a 'newcomer' paradise, but rather an 'out in the country' experience. i still had to make new friends, and new study buddies. that in itself, was rather fun. the eye candy in manly was certainly desireable and quite obtainable. maybe it was my youth that got me through the zippers. whatever it was, i don't have it now.

anyway, um, back to january 1970. we've been in town for 6 months, and i made a few friends, or so i t hought they were my friends. they were countable on one hand. but january 1970 was the time i was sent away by the court in worth county. why? because i 'stole' 35 cars. it wasn't really stealing, it was more like borrowing, because i always returned the vehicles with more gas in them than when i borrowed them. it even made the town's weekly newspaper, the signal. i was dubbed 'the gas bandit' and for a couple of weeks, i was famous (your name in the paper made you 'famous'). but it all came to a screeching halt when i had a flat tire one night out on highway 9. see, the problem wasn't that i had a flat tire, no. the problem was that i was driving the town cop's car.

it was like an addiction. taking my parents' 59 buick special out for a 2hr ride around north iowa @ 2am was simply just good ol' country boy fun.

that car made it through two worth county fair demolition races. the first time earning a big friggin trophy. i had nothing to do with this event, but it brought smiles to my face when i heard about it. i KNEW ol' betty, so named after my aunt in northwood,

no, i was sittin behind locked doors,from jan-aug of '70, i spent that time in durand illinois. the boys farm school. i don't know what it is now. i think it's still a school. i think the BFS was a private concern, not run by the state. i know when they transferred me out of BFS to a place in eldora iowa, only this was the state run vocational school for 'wayward' boys. 99% of the kids in eldora were court ordered. i'm not sure what role the court played in all of my commitment. certainly they had the last say.

but ol' betty served me many a good times. both in manly, and in surrounding towns, mainly mason city. i'm real surprised that no cop ever thought of stopping me. i was big for my age, i know that. but still. a kid no older than 13.5, out at 3am? c'mON. even in 1970, that had to raise a few eyebrows, no? i'm afraid the only ones that can answer that are in the ground, god bless their souls. ayup, betty got me a lot of dick too.

 that was when i started my affair with the town cop. i would sneak out, and when i got done driving, i would park the car, and walk back into the yonder in this little house alongside the lumber yard. can't remember his name right off hand, but i ended up getting sent away after i got caught with his car out on hwy 9 with a flat tire. the guy who stopped me turned me in, i jus know it. from that day on, i knew two things in manly iowa: one - they's a decent bunch of horndogs in manly iowa. and two - they never got the best if they aint had me. i was a out and proud even back in 70, the first year of gay liberation. stonewall happened on my 13th birthday, 6/27/69.  those numbers are golden.  6(2+7) 69.  like gaga sings, i was born this way.