I happen to know, really well, two women who left their husbands to run off with their high school sweeties. Let’s hear it for Classmates.com.
Apparently, the Internet really is a great way to reach out and eventually get to touch someone.
I was incredulous the first time I heard a story like that, taken aback by the second one, and now I’m just sitting around wondering who’ll be next. That both of my friends who linked up (no pun intended) with their former beaus were straight probably gave me a false sense of vicariousness to this phenomenon.
Then one day I was leafing through Damron’s, that wonderful gay travel guide, looking for New York accommodations, when I came across a B&B in the Chelsea section of the city. It had a website and I surfed over to it.
What follows is the e-mail exchange in its entirety. Only some names have been changed to protect the clueless.
Hello—I was browsing Damron looking for NYC accommodations when I came across (name of inn). I checked out your web site and got a surprise because I recognized the innkeeper’s name (he who shall remain nameless).
Are you the (first name) who was my senior prom date in 1965? Rhodes School, Waldorf Astoria and then a post prom ride to Bear Mountain state park????
If so, we should have known we were both gay. Nobody else hates camping and likes Broadway THAT much.
I live in Rehoboth Beach (Gayberry RFD) with my partner of 21 years (Bonnie) and will definitely have to check out (name of inn) when we head for New York! If you have Damron’s Women, our photos are in the CAMP Rehoboth ad under Rehoboth Beach. We’re the two with dark hair on the right, front.
Cheers—Fay (Rubenstein) Jacobs
Dear Fay—Okay, I’m stunned (and my office staff is driving me crazy, insisting that you became a lesbian after you dated me!) and here’s what I remember:
We were introduced by our mutual friend (name omitted to protect the yente), while you were both attending the Rhodes school (your family had class, she was just pretentious), and your other best friend was Mary Ellen (who starred in Sound of Music on Broadway) and you starred in Outward Bound in high school (you were pretty good, but what a bad play!), and we used to make out furiously in your parents’ living room while they were out (Robert Goulet and Carol Lawrence lived in your W. 54th St. building, and so did the drunken Elaine Stritch, talk about your lesbian) and I hoped you’d never want to go further (which you didn’t for a while), and we went to the Top of the Sixes for your prom, and you had a Corvette which you were still too young to drive, and our trip to Bear Mountain, and your visit to my home in Brooklyn (and making out in my parents’ bed, which really freaked me out), and my telling you that we could never marry because my mother had the same name (!!!), and your going away to be drama counselor at summer camp and coming back and wanting to have more serious sex (God help me), which probably was the final wedge in our relationship. I still have photos of us dressed for your prom tucked away in my memory box (pretty scary).
How’s that for recall????
And it’s been 36 years since we last spoke!! And how cool to hear from you; I don’t know if I have the Damron Womens Guide, but I’ll check to see you. And it would be great if you and your lover would come to NYC and stay here; I’ll make you a great deal. Much more to tell you, but time for dinner, and hope you’ll write again and tell me how you got here from there over the last 35 (!!!) years.
Love, (HE WHO SHALL REMAIN NAMELESS)
Dear (HE WHO SHALL REMAIN NAMELESS)
Oy! Where to start!!!!! First off, every man I ever dated (except the man I married, which is a whole other embarrassing story) turned out to be gay, so it had to be me that was the culprit, okay?
I’m glad you remember it was (Blankety-Blank) who introduced us, cause I’d lost that bit of info to the ages. I have no idea what happened to her, but you’re right, she was pretentious.
As for Drama Club (I’ve heard it called Gay Head Start, you know), you were right about Outward Bound being a perfectly awful play. However, you were being too polite about my performance, as I’m a dreadful actress and you knew it even then. That’s why I became a director. I foolishly tried to make my living that way for a while, but I have come to my senses.
Now to some appalling ancient miscommunication: Yes, we used to make out in my parents living room, where Goulet & Lawrence lived next door and Elaine Stritch dieseled to and fro. But, silly boy, it was I who prayed we’d never go farther than kissing; I was petrified and bizarrely disinterested. We sure could have saved ourselves years of angst if we’d just discussed it then.
And yes, I remember Top of the Sixes Restaurant, and Bear Mountain prom night. I actually do have the photos, 36 years later. However, I’ve totally repressed the Brooklyn make-out session in your parents bed (gawwwd!!!) and, contrary to your tragic misinterpretation, all I wanted to do when I got back from summer camp was go to more Broadway shows with you. So you had it all wrong!
What have I been up to? In college I majored in theatre and communications, watched all my friends get married, figured it was mandatory, married a freakin’ professional accordion player (stop laughing), got divorced six endless years later, met my partner Bonnie 21 years ago, and then four years ago we chucked everything to move to Rehoboth Beach. I work in tourism & PR, and write a column for our local gay publication. You can check me out at www.camprehoboth.com.
By the way, that old Corvette croaked in 1973. I now drive the official lesbian car, the Subaru Outback. We’d love to come to NYC and stay at your place sometime. What a hoot that would be. Thanks so much for writing, even with those seriously skewed memories. With all the stories you hear about people reconnecting through the internet and running off with their high school sweethearts, we can both rest assured it won’t happen here.
Cheers—Fay