Talking to most
people they will tell you how they hated their teen years. Read the blogs posted here by teens and they are mostly negative and all are "DRAMA". I can
honestly say that from the age of 13 (see top picture) to 19 (I am 20 in
the bottom picture) were exciting years in my life. What surprises me
that as much as I love having my picture taken to record my life I have
very few taken in my teen years.

Let's get a few things straight--I didn't fret
about going to the prom or being a jock or being a nerd or being
involved with extra
curricular school activities. I went to school as little as possible,
did as little school work as I had to do, passed all my courses and graduated with an academic diploma (do they
still have those?) and got
into New York State college.

While
other teenagers were worring about girlfriends and boyfriends, or the
lack of them, I was discovering the world of Manhattan and what my being
gay meant. I was running from school at 2 or 3 PM to run to the
neighborhood movies, where I discovered all kinds of sex, or hopped a
train on Wednesdays to 'second act' a Broadway show. All that meant was
intermingling with the intermission crowd and walking back in with them
to see the second act.

Between 1949 and 1954, when I enlisted in the
Marine Corps, I saw every classic movie, Broadway play and musical and all the stars taht made those the "Golden Age"
of theatre.  I was going to jazz nightclubs like Birdland, The Blue Note, including
those on 52nd Street where
the best from Ella to Cab Calloway to Sarah Vaughn and Billie
Holiday, just to name a few. I was going out to the plush hotel club
rooms to see Lena Horne, Edith Piaf or Julie Wilson.

By the way I was going to bars, and other places, when I was 14,
15, without ever being carded as I always looked older. I went to baths,
private sex clubs, 'dinner' parties where I was dessert, opening night
parties, walked the Red Carpet to plush openings, meet people I
shouldn't have and this all
took place after school and weekends.

I met Paul, a producer
of the Jack Parr TV show, at the back of the public library in Bryant
Park. Over the weekend I went to his brownstone on 58th Street, between
5th and 6th Avenues, to be greeted by Paula, his sister--well, actually
it was Paul in drag.

I discovered the
under side of gay life in Manhattan from places to have public sex like
the trucks on the lower west side or subway stops bathrooms to the 8th
floor on what is now famously known as '30 Rock' or the garage across
the street from that building.

At 16, 17
while 'kids' in high school were thinking about dances and/or getting
to second base I was already hitting home runs. I had more sex in that 8
year period than most teens have in their complete lifetime and that
would continue until I hit my 70s.

At 18 I enlisted in the Marine Corps and
would continue to have sex in South and North Carolina, California,
Korea, Japan and it was in Korea that I ended my teen years killing 2
males, maybe a little older than me, in what was called a 'police
action' as we were 'cleaning up'.

I
loved my teen years in spite of the turmoil that was going on at my home
where I spent as little time as I could get away with. There would
never be any reason for me to go to a 'class reunion' because I didn't
know anyone then and certainly wouldn't want to know now them. I don't
even remember any teacher, or their name, but I do remember Paul and
other people who showed me what life was all about.

By the way my
'heirs' know to burn my teen age diaries as some of the people mentioned
are still alive--most didn't know I was 'jail bait'. Also I seduced the
old men of 20, 25 and some
even over 30 so I sort of take a kid accusing a man over 18 of seducing
them with a  grain of salt.

I haven't told
you all about my teen years because that would take a book but you get
the general idea, I hope.

Any
questions?