234 years old??? Really?

I couldn't help but notice that this 4th of July will mark the 234th anniversary of the birth of this nation.

Wow. I was 16 years old when we celebrated the bicentennial 4th of July in 1976. Together with two friends I did a really radical thing--we hitchhiked down old highway 61 in the Twin Cities area to go to a big event on Harriet Island. It was an exciting day of fun and fireworks, except perhaps the most memorable thing to me was that the yellow car that slowed down to pick us up was driven by another friend's dad. And although he took us down there, he also yelled at us a lot. Didn't we know hitchhiking was dangerous? In my defense I was with a very strong 6'6" high school buddy (Mike Jorde are you out there?) so I wasn't feeling too afraid. Ah, those were the days eh?

Yes, I never was very good at being a rebel. Some in my family used to call me "goody two shoes". I wonder if they still do?

But as I was saying, I was just not good at being a heck raiser (see, I can't even say the other "h" word.) Case in point. My senior year in high school, two really good friends talked me into, can you believe it, SKIPPING OUT OF SCHOOL for a few hours. I'm pretty sure I was a nervous wreck the whole time. This brilliant plan got even worse though. We snuck (serpentine like) down to our local McDonalds where MUCH to my dismay, my oldest sister happened to be working a shift.

Yep, she saw me and totally busted me to my parents. And I'd always been goody two shoes remember? Ugh, this was not fun.

In retrospect maybe this is why it took me more than 35 years to figure out and come to grips with the fact that I was gay. Maybe on some deep level I thought that my rebellion just wasn't going to work out for me.

Glad to say, I had nothing to fear. Does this make me a rebel now? Anyway, have a wonderful 4th of July everyone. We sure plan to! -M