Fish on Friday or Protestant Virgin
Dec. 10th, 2004 01:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisI'm having fish and chips for lunch as I type this and it's making me think of Wheeling...
I went to college just outside Wheeling, WVA. At that time, Bethany operated on 2 shortened semesters with the month of January off. My sophomore year, I got a job on one of the Wheeling newspapers for the month and moved into a very seedy hotel downtown for the duration.
I was obsessed with sex. Having it. Because I never had. I had come of age right in the middle of the Free Love movement back with rubbers were another word for overshoes. And I was a virgin and it shamed me.
I was going to turn 21 in March and I vowed and declared that I would NEVER be a 21 year old virgin.
I have no idea - zip, nada, nothing - no clue why this was such a big deal to me. But it was.
So I looked around for a candidate. I was only a sophomore so that ruled out anyone at school. No way was I going to spend the next 2+ years hiding behind trees whenever I spied The Candidate. That really only left the office. And the pickin's were kind of slim because the circulation department was in another building and the union would not let women into the production room. I was really stuck with editorial staff. I finally decided on the education reporter. His name was John Marshall and the very fact that I can remember his name kind of gives me the creeps.
I wooed him shamelessly. It didn't take much. I think I asked him out to lunch. Then he asked me out to dinner. Then I offered a tour of my seedy hotel room and SNAP the bait was gone.
It was a really terrible experience but the goal was to make it happen and make it happen I did. I was not a 21 year old virgin. Whew. And, I did not have to go out with him again. The only other memory I have of him was several years later. I was gone from Wheeling and my friend went to his wedding. In a letter she wrote "John's wedding was the most purple thing I ever saw." This was in in pre-Barney years.
The other contribution that Wheeling made to my life was Catholicism. At that time - late 60's - Wheeling was about 98% Catholic. Very traditional Catholic. And here was little old southern, protestant, me. Prior to Wheeling I had maybe known 2 Catholics in my life. This was a huge culture shock. Families were huge. The smallest jar of peanut butter you could find in the grocery store was 48 ounces. Bread came 2 loaves to the bag. After the seedy hotel room, I rented a one-room apartment in a neighborhood. My next door neighbors were Carmelite nuns. Their vow of silence made for a very quiet neighborhood. If you met a single man, you made sure to first ask if he was a priest. Most were.
And you ate fish on Friday.
Ha. You thought I'd never get this whole entry tied together, didn't you???!!!
I went to college just outside Wheeling, WVA. At that time, Bethany operated on 2 shortened semesters with the month of January off. My sophomore year, I got a job on one of the Wheeling newspapers for the month and moved into a very seedy hotel downtown for the duration.
I was obsessed with sex. Having it. Because I never had. I had come of age right in the middle of the Free Love movement back with rubbers were another word for overshoes. And I was a virgin and it shamed me.
I was going to turn 21 in March and I vowed and declared that I would NEVER be a 21 year old virgin.
I have no idea - zip, nada, nothing - no clue why this was such a big deal to me. But it was.
So I looked around for a candidate. I was only a sophomore so that ruled out anyone at school. No way was I going to spend the next 2+ years hiding behind trees whenever I spied The Candidate. That really only left the office. And the pickin's were kind of slim because the circulation department was in another building and the union would not let women into the production room. I was really stuck with editorial staff. I finally decided on the education reporter. His name was John Marshall and the very fact that I can remember his name kind of gives me the creeps.
I wooed him shamelessly. It didn't take much. I think I asked him out to lunch. Then he asked me out to dinner. Then I offered a tour of my seedy hotel room and SNAP the bait was gone.
It was a really terrible experience but the goal was to make it happen and make it happen I did. I was not a 21 year old virgin. Whew. And, I did not have to go out with him again. The only other memory I have of him was several years later. I was gone from Wheeling and my friend went to his wedding. In a letter she wrote "John's wedding was the most purple thing I ever saw." This was in in pre-Barney years.
The other contribution that Wheeling made to my life was Catholicism. At that time - late 60's - Wheeling was about 98% Catholic. Very traditional Catholic. And here was little old southern, protestant, me. Prior to Wheeling I had maybe known 2 Catholics in my life. This was a huge culture shock. Families were huge. The smallest jar of peanut butter you could find in the grocery store was 48 ounces. Bread came 2 loaves to the bag. After the seedy hotel room, I rented a one-room apartment in a neighborhood. My next door neighbors were Carmelite nuns. Their vow of silence made for a very quiet neighborhood. If you met a single man, you made sure to first ask if he was a priest. Most were.
And you ate fish on Friday.
Ha. You thought I'd never get this whole entry tied together, didn't you???!!!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-10 02:21 pm (UTC)I was starting to wonder! Nice job.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-11 12:18 am (UTC)I married my first (long boring story)
Should have done it your way.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-12 12:16 am (UTC)I was single for quite a few years in between. I will forever be thankful for those years.
LOL, lots of good memories, some hazier than others.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-11 12:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-11 03:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-11 01:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-11 03:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-11 02:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-11 03:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-12 11:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-13 02:49 am (UTC)