How I met my guy friend...

@ElicBxn (63826)
United States
March 19, 2025 9:11pm CST
I am a science fiction fan. I discovered it through Star Trek, back in the 1960s, but I had pretty much finished all the SF in both my school library and the library branch near my home. After I was an adult, I was able to go to a few science fiction conventions, mostly media but a few 'straight science fiction' and those who hate media called it then. (I have no idea what they call it these days.) Then I discovered Doctor Who. My then roommate (RIP) and I started a club for other Who fans. One guy in town organized a couple of conventions with actors from the show as guests. I think I was 33 when I was at this one con. So... at that time I did not look my age, I had been passing for younger for most of my life. Maybe it didn't help looking younger and, back in school, actually being younger than most of my classmates. So, most of the con was starting to wind down, I was hanging out on the balcony inside the con hotel with this guy we'd never met and some of my friends. I knew most of these friends for some time. I also knew their general ages, and I knew I had several years on some, who honestly looked older than their ages. I know smoking can do that to a person, but I also knew these girls didn't smoke. The oldest of the group was like 3 years younger, the others were about 4 and 5 years younger. So, this guy and I were getting to know each other, and he's... not exactly being forthcoming about himself. He points at one friend, the youngest one actually, and says: "I'm older than she is." And I replied: "But I'm older than you are." And it repeated with all of them, but I was still saying I was older. We all got into our cars to go eat dinner and we head out. We find a place, we were close to downtown so finding a place and parking was hard. As we sat around dinner I said something in German. Do I speak German? No, I got 4 weeks at the high school I left to go to the Catholic school because of bullying, but... my great grandmother was German and a few German phrases had continued to me, not sure about my siblings. This... this was the breakthrough. The guy, J, looked surprised and said: "Do you speak German?" I told him that no, I didn't really speak German despite taking 4 weeks. (Those 4 weeks well expanded my functional German, beyond 'Thank you beautifully' and what you say when a person sneezes. I could say 'I'm sorry' and 'That's a shame.') Then he said that the German teacher at his high school was from Austria. Now... how many teachers of German in a city the size of Austin in the late '60s and early '70s are going to be Austrian? So, I said, "Oh, you went to McCallum." Would you believe... everyone around that end of the table just stopped. He sputtered. I asked when he graduated. He graduated in 1973. I told him I graduated in '71. I am almost exactly 18 months older than he is. The reason I was 2 grades ahead of him instead of 1 was because my parents sent me to a private first grade. I still remind him sometimes... Honestly, I never wanted to leave Austin, but sometimes it is kind of small. What about you? Do you still live in the town you grew up in? Do you run into people from the town you grew up in? (I was in Nashville, petting the nose of a horse and the girl driving the carriage had been in Austin just before going to Nashville.)
5 people like this
4 responses
@jstory07 (142807)
• Roseburg, Oregon
20 Mar
I do not live in the town where I grew up.
3 people like this
@ElicBxn (63826)
• United States
20 Mar
I drove through Oregon in 1973, but I don't think we went through Roseburg. Oregon is so beautiful, I had considered moving there after graduation college, but then decided it was too far away from my mother...
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (144557)
• United States
20 Mar
I always looked younger than I am. Years ago my daughter and I were in a local Walmart looking at something and I stopped an associate and asked him a question about it. He told me the answer and then asked how I'd been doing... This guy had solid white hair and I had no clue who he was so I asked if he knew me. He replied that we went to school together and asked if I really didn't recognize him... If I'd recognized him, I wouldn't have asked. He laughed and told me his name. Not only did we go to school together, he was in my class. (I think I was in my mid-30s at the time.) After we left Walmart, Pretty (around 13 or 14 years old) asked who the old guy was I'd been talking with so I told her one of the guys I knew in school. She looked at me funny and told me he was OLD! and asked if the guy had been held back several years. I laughed and explained the guy was actually about 9 months younger than me. (I'm 61 and have a white streak in my hair but the rest is still the auburn it has been since it darkened as I reached my 20s.) During the pandemic, I needed to go to an endocrinologist and took Pretty with me. We were wearing masks because of course we were. We didn't want to catch anything. As we went into the building, a nurse stopped us and told Pretty that "children" weren't allowed in the building so she'd have to go back and wait for "daddy" in the car. Pretty replied that she was 30 years old. The nurse requested she pull her mask down, so Pretty did. The nurse turned to me and asked me to pull my mask down, so I did. Then she told us that whatever we were doing to keep doing it because neither of us looked our age. We laughed, put our masks back on and continued into the building. Having Graves' Disease has caused me to gain weight and my features to coarsen but I've been told I still don't look my age. (One of my brothers told me a few months ago that I should stop dying my hair or I should touch up the white streak in it... He's 4 years older than me and has solid white hair. I told him I didn't dye my hair. If I did, I certainly wouldn't leave the white streak in it.) I was born and raised just outside the small city my daughter and I still live in. We keep to ourselves and rarely run into anyone we know when we are out and about. Most of my classmates moved away right after we graduated from high school.
2 people like this
@DaddyEvil (144557)
• United States
20 Mar
@ElicBxn My mom, before she passed away at 71, still didn't have a lot of grey hair. She had auburn hair, too. I believe you. Until I started admitting my age, people would guess me ten or so years younger than I really am.
2 people like this
@ElicBxn (63826)
• United States
20 Mar
@DaddyEvil my wife was that way too. I was happy she could pass as younger, I just wished people would have stopped thinking I was her mother!
2 people like this
@DaddyEvil (144557)
• United States
20 Mar
@ElicBxn I understand. People always thought Pretty was my girlfriend or wife instead of seeing our family resemblance and realizing she is my daughter. That always embarrassed me but she thought it was funny.
1 person likes this
@BarBaraPrz (49092)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
20 Mar
No, the town I grew up in to the age of 12, was swallowed up by Mississauga, and the town I lived in as a teen has changed tremendously, too. And I've lived in many other towns since, including Vancouver and Hamilton which are cities and they too have changed since I lived there. Even the street I'm currently living on has seen residents changing in the past few years.
2 people like this
@kaylachan (76398)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
20 Mar
No. I live in a different city, same state. Haven't run into anyone I know from back home in a good long while, but a lot of my clasmates moved here.
2 people like this
@ElicBxn (63826)
• United States
20 Mar
The city I live in is not just the county seat, but also the state capitol, so I suspect maybe more than a few folks from my class of 300+ students stayed in town, even if they left to go to college.
2 people like this
@ElicBxn (63826)
• United States
20 Mar
@kaylachan I think a lot of the blind community here in town is because it is where the blind school is too. I suspect a lot of the ones who left had family back where they came from.
2 people like this
@kaylachan (76398)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
20 Mar
@ElicBxn I went to a school for the blind. So my classmates were from all over the state. Many moved to where I live now, because it's supposed to be more blind friendly.
2 people like this