January 2013 means I have been out of the closet for ten years. While so many things have happened, it still doesn't feel like it's been 10 years. I remember the frightening feeling of admitting it to myself at 30, but things have certainly gone far better than I thought it would have.
Looks bright, right?I was wondering what I'd post for this anniversary. On the drive home today, I heard an Aerosmith song on the radio and it came to me (and no, it wasn't "Dude Looks Like a Lady"). It was "Rag Doll" and it reminded me of something from long ago, the first time a guy hit on me. It was surprising and nerve-wracking at the time, yet funny in retrospect.
I was eight years old.
Hey, don't freak out and call Chris Hansen! I wasn't molested or anything like that! This is not a dirty story, I promise.
When I was eight years old, the annual JLA/JSA team-up came out in late 1981. It was a fantastic story, drawn by the always impressive George Perez. This team-up in Justice League of America #195-197 brought out some heroes and villains from the Golden Age. One of the great ones I read in the comic was a villain called Rag Doll, a triple-jointed bad guy who dressed up like a giant rag doll and fought the Golden Age Flash. I was amazingly taken with the Golden Age comic characters because they were new to me.
My dad was a truck driver, who had a regular, daily route between my hometown of Corbin, KY and Lexington, KY about 90 miles away. He drove the local mail to the sorting center six nights a week and brought the Corbin mail back. On occasion, the twin and I would accompany him. On this particular trip, it was just me.
In Dad's truck was a CB radio and we'd chat away on it often. On this particular trip, we had arrived in Lexington around 11 PM. Dad was inside the sorting center getting the necessary paperwork fixed up and left me in the cab alone. I knew better than to touch anything that would cause the truck to move, but the CB was fair game. So I started chatting and came up with the CB-handle "Rag Doll." Anonymity was fun and I thought it was a neat handle.
Some unknown trucker started chatting with me. I don't recall his handle, so we'll just call him "Hairy Trucker." He started telling me that I had a nice voice and asked me what I was up to tonight. I told him I was just passing through Lexington as soon as the truck was ready. He told me that he was breezing through the area on I-75 himself. After about four or five minutes of talking, he asked me if I knew where a certain hotel in Lexington. I said I didn't. He told me what exit it was on and asked me if I wanted to meet there for a drink.
Naive and confused to what he was hinting at, I just blurted out to him something like, "I can't, my dad will be here in a few minutes and we need to get home."
Somewhere in the next few questions, I honestly told him I was a boy and 8 years old. I thought that it was obvious. I can't imagine how freaked out this guy was. He did ask something like, "Why would you use a handle like 'Rag Doll'?"
I told him that it was a comic book character that I thought was cool. He educated me that it was a girl's handle.
Mortified that I had done something wrong, I signed off and stayed away from the CB for the rest of the night. It wasn't until years later that it hit me what Hairy Trucker was asking for. I can definitely see the humor in it now. I often wonder what the trucker told people, if he ever told anyone he propositioned a lady that turned out to be an 8-year-old boy.
Obviously, I was good at chatting and ironically practicing for something I do regularly these days. :D
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