I have told this story to family and friends and I crack up every time I do, so when I saw one of my daily prompts ask How did you learn about sex? I thought it’s about time I wrote it down.
My parents weren’t forthcoming about the facts of life. I think that, like many parents, they didn’t know how to approach it. They kept waiting for my brother and me to ask questions and we kept waiting for them to tell us. They had this medical encyclopedia that had just about everything in it … except for that. I’d look at the pictures of a man and then at a woman, skinned to show the muscles and bones, and I just couldn’t imagine how a baby was involved in any of it.
One day, I came home to find a book on my pillow, Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth. I picked the book up and looked at the back cover. This is going back like 35 years or so. I don’t remember the exact working but I remember it was funny and it was about sex. So I supposed my mother left it for me to “learn something”. That’s exactly how she’d put it, too. My mother must have been giving a lot of thought to it all. Since I wasn’t asking questions, she must have decided to leave the answers lying out. Well, that’s what she thought she was doing. I began reading.
I learned something all right! I could hardly believe that people would or could do these things! I brought the book to school to show my friends and they were amazed too! At some point during the day, the book passed from the girls to the boys. They were getting some education too!
A teacher tore it out of the hands of some hapless unsuspecting boy during class. The teacher’s eyes were about popping out of his head and the boy told him that it wasn’t his book. “Well, whose is it?” The boy pointed right at me.
I was mortified. I think my mother was too. I don’t think she’d read the book at that point but she did once it was returned. Then the book disappeared forever. The next book to show up was much more informative if less interesting: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask by Dr. David Ruben.
Not too long after that, I began to receive “Modern Romance” and “True Love” and magazines like that. They were addressed to me but I hadn’t sent away for them. They weren’t as informative as the books but they were definitely interesting. I asked my mother where they came from and she said she’d ordered them for me so that I could “learn something” about people.
I did.
One thing I have learned about my mother is, in spite of her shortcomings, she wanted what was best for me. She couldn’t hear and didn’t know what kids were talking about but she did understand that people are people. Some things never change, no matter what era we live in. I used to laugh when I remembered the books my mom left for me. But now I honor her for coming up with some way to communicate with me. She signed and couldn’t speak and I hadn’t learned sign language (another long story best saved for another time) and so she used her imagination well to find a way to make sure I knew about “something”.
I say … and you think …
What was the point to that story? You went to school and got in trouble for showing sexual books?
Hell, you should have brought a condom and a bloddy tampon.
Posted by: Roxanne at April 17, 2004 11:39 PMYour mom taught you well sweetie
TB