Chapter 1

Hal and Reggie: Really Back in the Day (Uphill Both Ways, Etc.)

Before there were wives and children and grandchildren, before being out was in, or even safe or even acknowledged, two men, Hal and Reggie, met in the Navy. They were posted onboard the same ship. They recognized something in each other the first time they met; they kissed within the month; they were in love for a year before they had an opportunity to do anything more than that. Furtive hugs and brief, snatched kisses at odd moments were so risky that they were worse than barely satisfying. This was, if you’re interested, after World War II and before 1965. Getting those pesky gays and lesbians, who only wanted to serve their country, out of the military, was like a witch hunt after Eisenhower’s presidency.

Anyhow, it was a big ship, and their paths crossed often. Trying to hide the love you have for someone else is hard at the best of times, and almost impossible at the worst. There was a terrible fuss when they were found one day, at the same bar onshore on some warm, happy island, using their leave in the way sailors did in those days, only not with the sanctioned women or barflies of those days, but with each other. The MP’s beat them up, and they both received dishonorable discharges. The services hadn’t even come up to ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ yet; not even close.

Hal, who was barely nineteen, was able to tell his parents that he had been given a medical discharge for ‘flat feet,’ and they believed him, after he convinced his Uncle Bart (who knew better) to convince his father that a shell had fallen on his feet, thus flattening them. Uncle Bart and his live-in companion, Jeremy, had Hal come stay with them in San Francisco for a while, but Hal felt too much shame, and went back to his family to marry the girl they had had in mind for him. It was what you did; it was ‘the done thing.’ He didn’t have the courage, wisdom, or lack of shame that Uncle Bart and Jeremy had managed to achieve. What he had was a rocky marriage, a ton of misery to hide, his shame, and his mother’s gratitude.

He and Marcia had three children. One of these children, a boy, committed suicide rather than face his perhaps-genetic preference, and one of the others eventually had a son, and invited Hal to come live with them in Hawaii. Here for heaven’s sake, whom should he meet at the senior citizens center on a hike up the mountain, but his old fellow trouble maker, Reggie.

Reggie hadn’t been able to carry off a lie because his father was a graduate of the Naval Academy hup hup hoo hah, and was friends with Reggie’s commanding officer, Captain Walters. Reggie was married off summarily to Captain Walters’ daughter Helga, and his ‘little mistake’ was swept under the rug. Eventually, after four children, Helga divorced Reggie for a local defrocked priest, and Reggie moved to Hawaii, where he was hiking up a mountain when he ran into, or rather fell onto, Hal.

So what? Well, Hal is Chris’ grandfather and you’ll like Chris, and Reggie sort of saves Trey’s life, and I think you’ll like Trey too. Chris and Trey sure like each other, and that’s what this story is all about. That, and about how times change, hopefully for the better. For their sakes, and for yours too.

Raising a gay child shouldn’t have to feel like being given an albino tiger instead of a kitten for Christmas. 2: Chris and Trey: Back in the Day

Back in the day meant something totally different to a teenager than it did to someone who had lived long enough to actually have a back in the day story to tell. Back in the day to Chris meant the first time he’d seen Trey in the locker room at school. Naked. Pale. Medium brown hair that would probably bleach to gold in the sun. Eyes that were almost turquoise. He was clutching a gym towel to his belly in great agitation. Chris had a horrible feeling he knew why, because the same thing had happened to him several times at equally inappropriate moments like this too. Steve Durant, class hero and BMOC (big monkey on campus, you know the type) and his pals were laughing and pointing. “Ha ha, the new kid’s a fag! Like what you see, gay boy?” Steve poked one of his henchmen and whipping that boy’s towel off him, spun him around so he could moon the new kid.

Chris got angrier than he had ever been before in his life. A feeling of rage combined with tenderness for this vulnerable, adorable, innocent newcomer. He breathed power into himself and could feel flames inside his body wanting to be exhaled. A part of him sat aside, watching himself with pride, awe, and terror.