Country Boy, City Girl - Authors Notes free porn video

Author Notes.

I have had a lot of questions and responses over this story, and thought I would try something new. If you do not want any backstory or information feel free to stop reading now. This is in no way required reading or part of the story.

Background, this started as an idea I had to try and drag the actual sex in a story (sex as in the main character’s penis entering a vagina) as long as I can. So many stories are 10 paragraphs long, and the main characters are fucking by the end of the 3rd paragraph. Now there is a place and time for stories like that, but I wanted to do something different this time.

Then the thing became “how long could I drag this out”?

Well, I did finally find the answer. 26 chapters. I was able to build up the tension and suspense for 26 chapters until I finally gave in and let them “do it”.

And it was a hell of a fun ride, trying to find ways to keep things sexy and exciting without turning into dull repeats chapter after chapter.

Now the time frame starts in roughly 1981 in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles. At that time still the northern suburb of LA, with a few ranches and farms still dotting the area. The Valley Girl craze was at it’s peak, right before the song and movie with that name came out and quickly turned it from a cultural craze to an overused and dying fad. Roller skating was a craze again, as the d**g and sex crazed roller discos of the 1970’s gave way to more family and k** oriented places.

And it literally seemed like every few miles on the major streets in The Valley there was a roller rink. Some from converted bowling alleys, others from closed grocery stores or ice rinks that had been converted to roller skating.

As far as Skate!, it was a real place (although I have no memory of what the name was, that is entirely a figment of my imagination). And indeed as a 17 year old k** who just moved back to LA after living in Idaho for 7 years it was a huge shock. A converted bowling alley near the Burbank Airport, it was the place where the punks and new wavers went. Punk rock dominated though. Rainbow colored spiked hair, safety pins through cheeks and ears, spiked leather collars around the neck and torn black shirts with punk rock bands on them.

But also a s**ttering of the New Wave crowd. Guys in dark suits with pencil thin ties loosened over shirts with the first few buttons open. Girls in pastel colors and a lot of skirts and dresses. And legwarmers. And the strange guy from Idaho in boot cut jeans and a plaid western styled shirt.

In addition to a lot of sex, this story is also an homage to an era of time that is mostly forgotten. Where the loose teen sex had not quite become what it is today. Contraception was tricky to get so most teens used what is known now as “safe sex” methods to have fun. Finger action in the back of cars or movie theaters, maybe a little oral if you had been together long enough.

And an amazing number of those Valley Girls were virgins. At least as far as having actual intercourse went. A lot of that can actually be seen in the teen movies of the era. They would go quite far, but not TOO far. And since most k**s did not have a car of their own double (or even triple) dates were not all that uncommon. Each couple close to the others. Pretending that nothing is going on even though they can see, hear and smell what is happening.

It was also the start of the “Geek Revolution”. Where computers were just entering the home, and teen programmers still in High School were making thousands of dollars writing programs. D&D moved from the college campuses to high schools everywhere, and the geeks finally found their own groups (that sometimes crossed over into other groups).

This is going to be a continually updated blog-diary of my thoughts as I write this story. Chapter by chapter pointing out things that pop culture may have forgotten.

Chapter 2

Val Speak was mostly used by the girls of the time when they were around others. Not spoken much around friends but almost constantly where they were “on display” at places like malls, schools and arcades. This is why the girls in the story often seem to slip in and out of it. This is not my being sloppy, it is actually accurate to the time.

And The Castle Arcade is a real place. In Sherman Oaks, on Sepulveda Blvd. A few blocks north from the Sherman Oaks Galleria. The arcade is still there and open for business to this day. But the Galleria is vastly different from the era. In the early 2000’s it was gutted and replaced with what is there now. But the original can be seen in movies like Terminator and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Chapter 3

The International Harvester Scout was a real vehicle, made by the same company that makes farm equipment and big rigs. Kind of a smaller version of the Chevy Blazer they are now largely forgotten, except by collectors that still try to find ones in good shape.

And Van Nuys Blvd. Was the major cruising street in the Valley at the time. They even made a movie on it by that name (Van Nuys Boulevard), and on Friday through Sunday nights it was packed with cars full of k**s, making a circle North and South, turning around just south of Victory Blvd, then going north to just north of Sherman Way before heading back.

Chapter 6

Hollywood in the 1980’s.

Yes, “Hotel Hell” was a real place, and that was the name everybody knew it as. Formerly a quality hotel built in 1917 during the height of Hollywood, by this time it was abandoned and taken over by street k**s, junkies, and prostitutes. The Garden Court Hotel (later the Garden Court Apartments) even has a page on Wikipedia. Don’t look for it now, it was destroyed in 1984 and a corner mall now sits in it’s place.

In Reseda there really was a game store called the Competitor’s Castle. The front half was the store with games and accessories for sale, the back half had several tables for playing games. Pretty much the prototype of game stores to this day, very original for 1982. Sadly it also is gone.

This area is mostly captured accurately for the time in the movie Boogie Nights. It was filmed a block or so away at the corner of Sherman Way and Reseda Blvd. The Country Club (the main club in the movie) was still open, and had a variety of bands on weekends. The old Reseda Bowl across the street from it had indeed been converted to a skating rink for a few years.

Balboa Park at the time was going through the start of its decades long update. The home of the old RKO movie ranch, movies like It’s A Wonderful Life, Stagecoach, and The Day the Earth Stood Still were filmed there. At this time in history all that really existed as would be seen today were the golf course, and the main park and tennis courts across the street.

The Runway had just been completed (but was still a dirt runway, they have long ago paved it), and the Japanese Garden had only started being built. Today the Japanese Garden is familiar to viewers of various Star Trek shows from the 1990's on, as it was a frequent stand-in for Starfleet or alien planets with it's distinctive buildings. At this point, it was a single gazebo, a few wood footbridges, and that is about it. Much of the old flood basin at this time was actually still a working farm.

Chapter 7

Yes, if you knew where to look you could find bootleg videotapes. At this time the rental market was really starting to boom, because a new movie on video averaged around $40 bucks (and this is in 1982 dollars – around $100 today). So almost nobody bought movies, they recorded them off of TV or rented them. It was about a decade later that the movie companies realized they made more money by charging less and making it on the volume.

And the quality of bootlegs was often garbage. 2nd, 3rd, even 4th generation copies that had degraded to the point that they were sometimes almost unwatchable. But unless you had the money to own 2 VCRs this was the only way most could afford to own a favorite movie other than waiting for it to come on cable. And in that era, that often took 2-3+ years.

To give an idea, Star Wars was released in 1977. But it did not appear on video tape and cable until 1982. For a big movie this was fairly normal for the time as they would release a movie over and over again until the theaters were tired of playing it. And they often had theater runs that lasted 3-6+ months. My usual theater in Idaho actually ran Star Wars for just under a year (50 weeks). A theater I remember in California played ET for over 8 months.

Unlike today, where it seems like a movie hits the theaters on New Year Day, and is on streaming and DVD by Memorial Day. And if you do not catch it in the first 1-2 weeks you are pretty much out of luck.

Chapter 10

And yes, I actually did get many letters from people what in the hell I thought I was doing calling “Dune” a bit of “Light Reading”. That was actually my being a bit sarcastic, kind of like what a geek would say instead of somebody else describing “War and Peace” as light reading.

I have read all of the books in the series, and own all the movie versions. You all can stop writing to tell me I do not know what I am talking about, it was a joke.

Chapter 11

Ahh, D&D.

Yes, this was a major love of mine in this era, so I am adding a lot of it into the story. I dated girls that were into it, and I got 1 or 2 girls I dated into it. Almost all of us geeks played it, and some of the jocks played it. Some of the drama k**s got into it as a way to practice improv acting.

One thing I have tried to do however is give it as “D&D Light”. Concentrating on the stories being told, and skipping over all of the actual mechanics other than some really basic ideas how it works. And in a way this is also a “story in a story” , by following the made up characters along with the ones actually being written about.

And yes, Kaos was a real NPC I made for a campaign in 1982. But patterned after the generic “Valley Girl” persona and not any one girl. A wand of Fireball and a wand of wonders which caused random effects each time it was used. Ditzy Kaos could never figure out which was which. She was a riot to play, and always brought the game to an uproar the first time she did that.

Chapter 13

Thieves World. Yes, it is an actual game expansion, based on a series of fantasy anthology books that were very popular at the time. Created by the late Robert Asprin, it was about a series of characters and adventures in the capitol of a small kingdom known officially as “Sanctuary”. It included pages and pages of charts you could roll on and get random encounters and events. It was a “Universal” expansion, that covered all of the big games of the era, from hard Science Fiction space opera types to D&D and other fantasy systems.

It was a main part of my games that everybody loved. And it kept a game master on their toes because it could completely derail a planned adventure from what was written and scripted into a 3 day long adventure to solve something random that just happened (in one case it was rescuing a cousin of one of the characters from a slave gang).

Chapter 16

Yes, the “gold strike” up in the hills (along with the hyper inflated prices of any gold prospecting equipment) was something I had used many times over the decades to siphon off a lot of gold from a party. As well as finding out that the “Seven Dwarves” had only conquered a dragon and were slowly returning to town with their treasure and the dragon in tow.

An absolutely classic MacGuffin that is always a riot when the party realizes that in reality they fooled themselves. After all, I never actually said there was a gold strike, it was just a rumor and that a few dwarves had been in town buying a lot of things with gold.

This is also real life, just look up the economy of the California Gold Rush. When I first used this, the dwarves were simply taking the dragon to sell to an arena purveyor. Then after reading “Guardians of the Flame” by Joel Rosenberg, I changed it to they were selling it to the city as a sewage disposal system.

Chapter 17

Yes, there were many “weekend game conventions” in addition to the big ones. Often in rented wedding halls and ballrooms for a single weekend.

Mr. Cummings and his game company are entirely fictional, but they are based loosely on the Judge’s Guild company. A small company that was not known for making their own games, but additions (licensed and unlicensed) for games other companies made. And at the time there were probably 20 or 30 different game companies dedicated to the industry, and they often had representatives prowling though the convention looking for new ideas, games, or talent to hire (or steal from).

And yes, Thieves World is indeed a licensed copy of another work made by a company called Midekemia Press. If that sounds familiar to fantasy readers, it is a company created by Raymond Feist to publish game expansions based on his long-running RPG campaign that was the inspiration for his Magican series of novels.

During this time a lot of Fantasy and Sci-Fi authors were also involved in RPG games. Many would even create an adventure, play it, then use the actual playing as inspiration for a novel they were writing that was based on it. Some later moved to computer games and did the same thing.

Chapter 20

Yea, the Valley was mostly considered the home of the “Acclimatized Jews” of the LA area. Not many Hasidic Jews like you would see in the Fairfax District, but a large number who were just like anybody else other than their religion. And if like me a lot of them were your friends you made careful when planning meals to accommodate their dietary restrictions.

Which really was not all that hard. No mixing meat and dairy, and no pork or shellfish. That is really it for the most part.

And the video being discussed is “The Damned”, by punk band Plasmatics. The video really does climax with a schoolbus crashing through a wall of television sets. The lead singer of the group was Wendy O. Williams, who actually had a brief porn career.

Chapter 21

Ahhh, the Dagger of Healing. This and similar weapons are something I try to throw into every campaign (along with spears of healing, swords of healing, maces of healing, and even once arrows of healing). Never fails to cause a lot of confusion until they figure it out.

And a real mind fuck when you think that because of magic, you can actually have a weapon you stab somebody with that actually heals them instead of hurts them. Makes absolutely no sense. But hey, it’s magic.

Anaheim. At this time the city was not full of $200 a night hotels catering to the rich crowd, but lots of little ones for $15-20 a night that catered to families with less money. There were probably 30 of them within a mile of Disneyland, with some literally across the street from the park.

And yes, a “Holographic Copyright”, I have gotten a lot of comment about that little bit. Essentially mailing yourself or a third party a copy of your creation to establish a copyright in court. Yes, it is horribly outdated and obsolete today. And yes, it never really holds up in court. But at the time it was not uncommon for this technique to be used if somebody had little to no money.

Getting a copyright at this time was very expensive, and a complex procedure. Much more so than today, where simply putting a “C” after the title and a quick blurb about ownership is often enough. And I have had my own dealings with this several times in the last 20 years. Most recently having to go to a major on-line company because somebody had taken one of my stories and was selling it for $5 a copy as an e-book.

Thankfully that was resolved, mostly because I had originally published it on ASSTR 20+ years prior, and was still using the same email address I had originally posted it with on Usenet. They verified that it had indeed been published by me in the 1990’s and removed it.

Word of advice for any authors, occasionally Google your own works. Take a sentence from the first paragraph or two and search it in quotes. Since most intellectual property thieves are lazy and offer part of the first chapter as a hook to get people to buy it they often pop up fast. I have now had 4 copies of a single work struck because of their doing this.

Chapter 22

Another love of mine, music. During this era in real life I often worked as a DJ at roller rinks and small teen dance clubs for extra cash. And slipping in The Ventures was not uncommon as the “Surf Punk” style of them and Dick Dale was popular once again.

Chapter 24

For anybody that has not seen a roller skating competition, it is almost totally unlike what you see on the ice.

As in ice skating you have the compulsories, which are never broadcast because they are fightfully dull. Literally everybody does the exact same routine that never changes, to the exact same music. It is judged on skill only, there is no originality allowed.

But a couples event, is very different than on ice. If you the reader have never seen one, there are many on a popular streaming site. Instead of the slow lifts and spins ice skaters use that may last 20-30 seconds, roller skaters use what is almost violently fast lifts and spins, where the girl is almost thrown into the air and she will do 3 or 4 spins or movements before being back on her feet 5-10 seconds later. It is like the difference between ballroom dancers doing a waltz, and watching jitterbuggers dancing to fast jazz.

Chapter 26

Ahh, the era where there were no cell phones, or smart phones with cameras. Such a trick with motel phones would never work today. But at this time you could only be called at a specific location, not anywhere you happened to be. And a parent could not have you turn on a camera to prove you are where you said you would be.

Chapter 28

Earlier I mentioned that many writers were involved in games. Tunnels & Trolls was created by Ken St. Andre, a well known fantasy and science fiction writer. Michael Stackpole (famous for his Star Wars novels) also worked on the game. The two of them in 1988 created an early computer RPG called Wasteland, which later became a sensation after a copyright conflict caused the game to be changed into what we know of as Fallout. So any Fallout players, you are actually playing a game based on a 1988 computer game, based on a 1975 table top roleplaying game system.

Who knew?

Chapter 31

Yes, adding a cup of salt into a bucket full of ice and spinning a bottle inside is indeed a fast way to chill it down. I am not going to get into the chemistry of it, but it is the same way home ice cream makers work. If you ever need a bottle chilled fast this is the way to do it in about 10 minutes.

Chapter 32

Saddleback Community College had a well respected AV department. And this was just at the point where digital editing systems were first appearing in common use at TV stations. A video switch would start at $15,000 and run to over $100,000, but quite a few of the quality older analog ones (often less than 5 years old) were starting to appear on the market as stations switched to digital.

Something you can get at a department store now for under $50 back then was a huge investment.

Chapter 39

In this I wanted something to not work right, so I basically had the character attempt to create a game like Dungeon Keeper (an early computer game where the player tries to protect a dungeon from invading adventurers), then realizes it would never work as an RPG. Then adding in elements from the classic tabletop game “Magic Realm”, which used a map made out of hexagonal 2 sided tiles for the playing field.

After all, what fun is a story where everything always works out right for the character? I am not writing a Mind Control story, where whatever the character wants the character gets. Or where he finds a book of “Magic Tickets” in a field and after torturing a girl sexually she becomes the love of his life. (yes, a meta-reference to one of my favorite erotic stories).

And the Jeep Wagoneer, one of my favorite vehicles of all time. Really ahead of it’s time as it came decades before the SUV craze.

Chapter 42

Now this is a bit of my game philosophy when designing an adventure.

First, I really do take ecology in mind when making an adventure. There has to be a reason a monster is in a certain location, near another monster. Not just throw them near each other with no explanation. Otherwise they would have killed each other long before the adventurers get there.

And MacGuffins. Something glowing in a briefcase from Pulp Fiction is one of the most well ones in modern cinema. What the item is makes absolutely no difference, it is just the excuse used to get the story moving. I make extensive use of them myself, both when I was still making games, as well as when writing stories.

Chapter 43

Ahhh, the wood paneling on walls which was a huge craze in the 1960’s and 1970’s making an appearance in the 1980’s. During that decade it became known as “old fashioned”, and was most commonly either painted over, or ripped out and replaced. But I did in help a friend decades later stain his from a light to a dark wood in what would become his Home Theater.

Also in here I decided to answer a question that I got a great many times by people demanding to know how the main character lives the way he does. A teen with a single dad living what appears to be almost an upper class life in a middle class neighborhood, with no worries about expenses.

In short, life insurance is a big part. Also this is when many who had made it big in various industries in California started to move to Idaho where the land (to them) was amazingly cheap. And then add in rehabbing a derelict house (which were still not terribly uncommon in the San Fernando Valley of the 1980’s).

The main character had a vehicle he bought himself, and the dad being a RADAR technician would be making a very good income. Many people do not realize that the more skilled “blue collar” type jobs can actually pay more than the “white collar” jobs many think they need to get rich.

When I worked for Hughes Aerospace in the 1990’s I knew guys that fixed RADAR systems would frequently drive a new BMW or Mercedes home to their $2.5 million dollar home. Such an individual would probably be pulling in around $50 an hour. Then add in the extra amounts he would make at $75+ an hour (plus per diem) on a 2-3 day remote job (which I have his dad do fairly regularly). The dad would be easily making over 6 figures, and this is in the early 1980’s.

When lower class income was $21k and under, middle class was $60k and upper class was over $130k.

And in rural places like Idaho, water rights is king. Most land does not come with it, and you can not pull water from a canal or river without those rights. It is not unheard of for a 5 acre plot with water rights to sell for 10 times that of a 100 acre plot without water rights (some will even buy such plots of land simply for the water rights and never actually use the land itself). Without water rights, your only source is either buying it or drilling wells (which in areas may still be restricted or metered).

So now hopefully everybody will understand why the family is so well off. They literally made a killing selling the old farm, and the dad makes good money. Combined with frugal living and paying for everything in cash and not credit.

Now hopefully the letters will stop, demanding why the father would toss off money so casually. Income wise, they are upper class. Asset wise are in the middle upper class (with assets probably in excess of $2 million). But being a middle class blue collar family prior to that they simply do not live as or see themselves as “rich”. With almost no expenses since everything they live in and drive was paid for in cash.

And earlier I made it a point to show their frugality by having them go to a junkyard to get replacement parts for a broken down car (after diagnosing the problem themselves), then rehabbing a used convertible top rather then just go out and buy a new one. They could easily afford to have the Scout customized with entirely new parts and then replace it with a new one. But they simply do not think that way, they still live the way they always have before.

Chapter 44

OK, for those that are to young to know this, Datsun was the name of Nissan in the US until 1982. At that point they started a re-branding to the name they were known by in the rest of the world. First in 1982 by using “Datsun by Nissan”, then finally in 1984 just to Nissan.

And like Toyota and Honda, in that time period Datsun was common for k**s as they were cheap no-frills cars. A high school k** working at McDonald’s could save up and buy one in 3 months or so.

Chapter 45

Ahhh, the “Army College Fund”. In reality, the exact same VEAP VA college program that everybody in the military could get. And that was a dog of a program, designed around 1970's economics. You could put in up to $2,700 and the VA matched it. Which you could then use to pay for college. Your payout could max out at around $140 a month for 3 years.

Even by the time of the story, it was horrible and no longer matched the economics of the time. And by 1985 was replaced with a better program.

And for the real world counterpart of Skate!, that is what happened. I was going with some friends as I had told them about it, and when we got there it had closed a few weeks before. The last time I drove by, it was a large discount shoe store.

Chapter 46

Ahhh, the Suzuki Jimmy. At that point it was not available in the US, so the imports were rare and quite popular. A few years later they would call it the “Samurai” for the US import model, and they were a smash.

And what is unquestionably one of the top 3 porn movies I have ever seen, Misty Beethoven. This is often considered to be the best porn movie ever made, and for good reason. Real cost and production value, a quality script and great acting. Some colleges and film schools even used an edited version with the sex removed for an example of what could be done on a limited budget.

And also proof that “pegging” is not a new thing. This is the first known instance on film of a gal using a strap-on on a guy. Rather shocking in the day.

And yea, “cum shots”. I had sex for the first time when I was 15, and saw my first porn at 18. And the very idea of pulling out and cumming on their belly was so strange to me. But at least in that era, it was generally pulling out and shooting on their bush (no girls really shaved then). At least that was better than what followed, when they first moved up to shooting on their breasts, then faces. I always thought that demeaning, and never got that unless it was part of oral sex play and directed by the gal.

And yes, I will admit I despise modern porn, which tends to degrade the women, implying they are all whores. Whores that will cheat for fuck for money if given a chance, and things like face slapping with dicks, slapping their asses, choking, picking up a random chick then banging her in a car as it drives around then dumping them broke and naked in a strange part of town, all that trash. It all disgusts me, and I revere and respect women far to much to ever do that, or want to see it done to them.

Not to mention no story! At least most of the time in the classic films, we knew they were a parody of real life. But in comparison, those parodies 40 years ago seem more real than the crap we see now. I mean really, high school girl with tattoos and piercings all over gets her teacher to bang her within 5 minutes. Or the girl with huge fake tits claiming to be the friend of the man's 18 year old little sister (and he is like 40).

Chapter 47

This was a little known part of the rules I realized early on, and exploited many times to the surprise of the DM. Start a character I want to use as a human fighter, then a few levels later change to something like Magic User or Monk. Both of those characters were powerful later on, but at the start were very “squishy”, and died easily. Having them start after 3 or 4 levels of fighter gave them a lot more hit points, so they more often survived their earliest levels where otherwise a single blow from a lucky sword could kill them.

And yes, Charli is another of my favorite movies of the “Golden Age”. It is unique in the story telling because although both the husband and wife fantasize about having sex with others, they never actually do. It is actually a great example of “Women's Porn”, fairly romantic and by the last scene you are actually mad at the co-worker for trying to seduce who she knows is a married man.

I have watched it with a gal, and the reactions I give the girls were pretty much hers while watching it. By far a movie that deserves to be remembered more than it is, and an excellent choice if you have a partner open enough for watching “date porn”. It really is a Rom-Com, but with sex.

Chapter 48

For those not familiar with professional sound equipment, most musicians keep things like the cable from their guitar to their amplifier in a small space either in the back of the amp or a speaker. Most even have spares there, in case one fails and they need a fast replacement.

And this is where Pete diverges from me. I also had incredibly high ASVAB scores, but purposefully decided on Infantry. I loved the challenge, and being a geek I wanted to show myself that I could do other things. I was what many called “jock lite”, being into skiing and bowling, but not traditional team sports. I was highly competitive, but mostly against myself rather than against others.

And yes, during this era the knit sweater dress was big. A lot of Valley Girls wore them, especially with a wide belt of contrasting color around the waist. And while the belts are no longer a thing, I still love them to this day. I adore how they hug a woman's figure, accenting it and not being obscene in how it looks.

Chapter 49

Ahhh, the Thomas Guide. Before GPS that was how most people who lived or worked in LA got around. A thick spiral bound book, with hundreds of detailed maps covering every street and square inch of the entire city. TV and radio commercials were even known to say something like “Thomas Guide page 46, grid C6” so people could find them easier. Most of us kept one in the car, and another in the house.

And drive-in theaters. At this time there were at least 9 or 10 I went to regularly, all less than 30 minutes away on city streets. I still find it sad that within a decade half would be gone, and within 20 years they would all be gone. I think the last to go was the Van Nuys, which closed in early 1997.

And Nudie Boots, they are a real thing. Most real “cowboys” wear simple boots, with maybe a little subtle embroidery. But singers and Urban Cowboys loved Nudie boots and suits, covered in rhinestones and brightly colored designs. Most I knew would never be caught dead wearing them.

And the company Stetson was famous also for creating the Fedora style hat, the typical wear of Private Investigators in movies and on the street for decades. There is actually a lot similar between them and the classic cowboy hat.

And a big joke in the slang of the period was “wings”. This could mean either sex during a specific time, or in this time oral sex. Red Wings was going down on a girl during her period. White Wings could mean either oral sex after you ejaculated inside a girl, or sex with a virgin. Pink Wings was sex with a white girl, Black and Yellow Wings should be obvious. Brown Wings was anal sex, Rainbow Wings was gay sex, and Purple Wings was sex with a pregnant girl. Knife Wings was sex with a friend of your girlfriend (implying if she found out she would knife you).

Chapter 50

Graham Diamond is a great author, and unusual in that almost all of his fantasy books had a strong female character as the lead. The Haven and Samarkand series are probably his most well known.

Chapter 51

Once again, my real life intrudes. One of the reasons I choose Infantry is because I really wanted the Marine Security Forces option. With bases all over the world, I thought this would be the perfect way to travel and see the world. However, the joke was on me because I ended up spending the next three and a half years stationed near Long Beach, only an hour from home.

Chapter 52

“Baby Lesbian” was a term often heard in that era. Essentially it is a teen girl that may be bisexual, a lesbian, or straight that had an intense relationship with another girl while they were in their teens. Generally it referred to girls that were unsure of their ultimate preference, but were in a lesbian relationship for one reason or another. I knew more than a few during that time that were like that, but ultimately decided they were straight, and settled down into marriage and k**s. But a few also decided that was their life preference.

Fingersteaks, ahhhhh. A true regional favorite largely unique to Idaho. As described, a buttermilk batter over slices of steak sliced to the size of a finger, then deep fried. Delicious, but also a pain in the ass to make. It is one of the things I miss most about not living in Idaho anymore. There are many recipes available on how to make them, but they are best with a real buttermilk batter.

Chapter 53

Yes, if anybody has been wondering what Holly's body looks like, just look at Desiree Cousteau. Just with hair that stretches half way down her back. Mentally, I always used her as my “internal model” when trying to describe what Holly looked like.

And remember, if you look at pictures of Desiree, you can tell roughly when the movie was made by the length of her hair. Her first role was in 1978, and she had a very short pixie style cut. And by the time she retired in 1982 her hair was a curly shoulder length. So the longer her hair, the later the movie was made.

And yes, at that point in time the computer Pete got would have been “cutting edge”. Those first models were only 4.77 MHz, but a NEC V20 chip was around 50% more efficient even at the same speed because of improvements in the CPU. And a 20 megabyte Hard Drive was a hell of an investment, at around $2,000 at that time by itself. With 1MB of RAM and all the extras, that was around $5,000 in total. In 1982 money that would be around $13,000 today.

And a “Promissory Ring” is now a quaint old fashioned tradition, largely forgotten. They were normally used in cases like this, when things (like age) prevented a formal engagement, but were intended to signify just a step below. In Idaho I knew more than one girl that wore hers proudly in High School. And at least 2 actually ended up marrying their boyfriends at a later date.

Chapter 54

Yes, a stile is a real thing. In basic, it is a stairway that went over a well or fence, to make it easy for humans to cross from one side to the other without a gate. Very common in rural areas, Pete and his father of course would be very familiar with them. But to “city folks” they would be a marvel, something they had never thought of as a way to connect 2 backyards for a party.

Office Clusters are another thing that have died thanks to technology. In an era where fax machines, copiers and second phone lines were very expensive, many people would rent an office, generally as part of 4 to 6 offices with a common reception area. Many had a secretary and other things as part of it, and it let a small business have a professional office without the cost associated with doing it all themselves. What today would cost a few hundred dollars was several thousand dollars then.

Chapter 55

Yes, “The Guild Wars” is a name I picked, inspired on the MMO computer game of the same name. And the idea of a module where any one of the players could be working against the group I actually lifted from a Thieves World module called “Traitor”. Where any of the 6 players could be the villain, I simply expanded it even more this time.

Chapter 56

In case nobody gets the references, the soundtrack they are listening to is “Flashdance”.

And do not bother looking for the Embarcadero Freeway, it's gone now. Badly damaged in the 1989 Earthquake, it was torn down. Although of a similar design, it did not have the same catastrophic failure as the 880 Nimitz Freeway.

And the “World Famous Bushman” is a real street performer. There have been at least 2, and have been doing that shtick since at least 1980.

Chapter 57

For the younger readers, “Japan” in the 1980's largely occupied the place “China” does now in business. Increasingly Japanese companies (Sony, JVC, Toyota, Fuji) were replacing the place of companies like Quasar, RCA, General Motors, and Kodak respectively.

Chapter 58

The “Movie Ranch that no longer exists” is another reference to Balboa Park, which plays a big role in this series. That was from 1929 until 1954 the location of a film studio, and had multiple sections covering everything from modern to medieval sets. The 1929 Hunchback of Notre Dame was filmed there, as well as It's A Wonderful Life, Cimarron, King Kong, and Citizen Kane. After 1954 it was torn down, and part was sold for housing, and the rest turned into Balboa Park.

The Magic Mountain presented here is not the same one visitors experience today. Some of the rides are still there, but many are gone. The Sailboat Ride was destroyed a few years later. But over part of it they built the employee cafeteria. I remember having lunch there in 1993, and looking out over the remnants of the abandoned ride. And sometime after 1983 the train ride was removed.

The sky car was removed after the 1994 Earthquake, and the monorail a year or so later. Even by 1993 the little garden at the top of the hill was largely abandoned, and the restaurant there had not been used in years.

But I do remember Grad Night there in 1983. There were an amazing amount of couples on that Sailboat Ride that night, almost all making out as soon as the boat left the station.

And also, a lot of girls learned the hard way to wear a bikini on the raft ride. That area became popular with guys as they would watch the girls get off, and look for the ones that had gotten soaked and were not wearing a bra (or only a thin one).

And for the life of me I can not remember the band that played that night. But they often booked big acts that night. Free Fall, Wang Chung, Talking Heads, Night Ranger, or some other pop band of the era.

Disneyland also had one, but it was limited in how many could get in, you needed to buy tickets a month or more in advance, and you had to take the bus there and back. Most of us in the SFV just went to Magic Mountain instead, it was cheaper and we could drive ourselves. I actually went in a limo with 5 friends, the father of one owned a limo service.

Chapter 59

Ahhh, another nice thing about being a teen in Idaho in the 1980s. Not only could you drive at 14, you could buy beer at 18. Beer parties were a common thing in High School, but we were also very careful. Get a DUI, and you lost your license until you were 21. More freedom, but also a lot more responsibility.

And farm life. For those that think it is all easy, it is not. Every morning one of the first things most do if there is livestock is go out and check the fences. Make sure none fell down, were cut, or a****ls got in or out. And make sure that the gates are all still secure. And yes, rustlers are still a thing to this day.

The part with Pete's mom is actually a kind of blending of 3 people I knew. I was just starting to date a girl when she died of cancer at the age of 15 right at the start of our Junior year. That is kind of mashed up with 2 friends I went to school with like Pete and Kim, grew up almost next door to each other all their lives, then suddenly started dating at 16. And almost 40 years later they are still together, with 4 k**s and 3 grandk**s.

And the Sun Valley trip was real for me, but I was single. I was already an expert skier, and when it was taking them 10 minutes just to get to the lift I just took off. I spent the day alone skiing the entire resort, and taking some great photos. I got hell when I returned, but the Pastor knew I was already into racing and gave me a pass. He also had followed me, and said after 2 runs that he knew I would have been bored if I had stayed with the group. I was doing all Advanced and Expert runs, they spent the entire day on the bunny slopes.

After that trip, he always broke them up into 2 or 3 smaller groups, depending on ability. That was his second time arranging that trip, and I was the first one that had gone that was nowhere near a beginner.

And a fast head check on a heard is not an exact science. The cows (sheep, etc) are always moving so you generally make a quick count as best as you can 2 or 3 times. And so long as the count is close to what is expected you consider it good. More than 3-5% off, and you may be in for a long day cutting and recounting over and over again.

And the ranch winery. This is based on a true story. In the mid 1980's, a couple from California bought some good grazing land with the idea of turning it into a winery. They knew almost nothing about how to farm, or what was involved in farming lightly rolling rangeland. They took out the pumps, tried to “modernize”, and jacked it all up. Left a few years later, the land almost worthless.

Those that live in such an area know you do not do a single long lift of water, you do it in stages. A catch basin or cistern half way up the hill, then another at the top (most general use farm pumps were not strong enough then to pull water up more than 25 yards or so of elevation). We also know to cut roads in a diagonal up the slope to prevent washouts. It uses more land than a straight run up the side of a hill, but it prevents erosion and makes it easier to go up or down after rain or snow.

And JR Simplot, the largest supplier of potatoes in the world. If you have eaten at a fast food restaurant, you have eaten his products. Most in Idaho had a kind of love-hate relationship with him. He bought out a lot of farms, and at least at one time owned more Idaho farmland than the next 3 owners combined. He would buy questionable land just for the water rights, and would go to farms on the verge of bankruptcy and buy them out before the bank foreclosed.

But he also offered to let the farmers remain on the land in a co-op arrangement, and was a large donor to a lot of projects, including 2 ski areas, museums, auditoriums, and not only helped found other businesses (like Micron), he would save others on the verge of bankruptcy with very generous terms. Even 12 years after his death, many have a very mixed opinion of him to this day.

And Angus beef was a staple in Idaho long before most even knew what it was. I still laugh when people started to rave about “Angus Burgers” about 20 years ago, I had been eating them almost all my life.

And yes, this is an accurate description of pig sex. The bore has a penis with a corkscrew on the end, and it matches the cervix of the sow. He literally “screws” it into her cervix (hence the origin of that term for sex). And ejaculates into the cervix, not into the vagina as in a human.

And where as in a dog the penis has a “knot” to keep the 2 linked, in pigs the cervix locks onto the penis. This keeps them locked to help ensure fertilization.

I knew many farmers that refused to raise pigs. Not because they are dirty, because they are mean. Farmers have been found half eaten in their pig pens, and turn a pig loose in the wild and within 2-3 generations they will no longer be the pink cute barnyard a****ls most know. They grow tusks, their hair turns black and bristly, and they become wild boars. One of the nastiest a****ls you can meet in the wild.

Chapter 61

Deleta Skate is where they go. The history in the story is true, in around 1970 it became a full-time skating rink, and is still there to this day. With the original wood floor.

The “Jack Jew” line is a reference to a “Jack Mormon”. That is somebody who is a member of the LDS church, but does not follow all of the rules. They may drink, use birth control, have sex outside of marriage, drink coffee, and many other things prohibited yet still consider themselves members and followers of the church.

And setting up a light away from where you are going to be yet still illuminating the area is well known by campers and country folks. City folks always set them up close to them, and we laugh as they spend the night swatting bugs.

And for JR Simplot's house, it was known as “Fort Simplot”, and I lived less than a mile from it. The crack of that damned flag was like a shotgun, and on windy nights would keep us up at night. And his solution was to make the pole higher, which stopped the noise. The house was torn down a few years ago, but the flag pole is still there and in use to this day.

Chapter 62

Big Burger is inspired by the first place I regularly played D&D at in Boise. A young couple owned a drive in restaurant, and sold D&D out of display cases in the front, and held games every weekend. They did this for 2 years, until 1981 when they closed the restaurant and moved the store into their house. It was listed as the only game store in Idaho in the early 1980's in Dragon Magazine. The Kent and Karen are directly inspired by the couple that owned it.

And yes, I bought my “D&D Slide Rule Matrix” there. A really clever item, it had all the charts you really needed to use in a simple paper slide rule. It was just as described, a guy made them himself, and right after he started selling them TSR sued him out of business. I lost mine decades ago, but I wish I had been as Pete and bought all they sold, they go for around $100 today on auction sites.

And I was first introduced to the game by my Pastor. The “D&D Scare” was a big deal in Idaho in around 1980, and many church leaders were speaking out against the game as “Satanic”. Thankfully my Pastor was of the type that he wanted to see for himself before he condemned something. The Youth Group played a kind of “D&D Light” he developed, with only Good and Evil, no other alignments (we were all good). No spells, just fighters and a cleric who could use some “prayers”. When I wanted to learn more, he directed me to Kent & Karen who taught me how it was really played.

Chapter 63

Grand Central was a chain that died in 1984, sold to Fred Meyer's. But it was a major regional chain. And as described, in many ways Idaho then ran 2-3 years behind California in fashion. I still remember skating in Idaho where girls mostly wore skirts and dresses to their knees. Then a month later being in California where the skirts and dresses barely covered their ass. And even things worn in school in LA that would have had a girl sent home in Idaho.

And yes, B.A.D.D. Was a real organization. Created by a mother that lost her ten son to suicide, she blamed D&D for it. A staple on TV shows and news for years, the organization never really expanded beyond one person, but many others did emulate her and tried to stop the game in their own communities.

I still remember reading the Chick Tract “Dark Dungeons”, as well as movies like the early Tom Hanks film “Mazes and Monsters”. The disappearance of James Egbert, and the popular belief that Heavy Metal as well as D&D promoted Satanism, suicide and murder were common beliefs in the “Bible Belt”. It was many years until that belief faded away.

And for anybody that wants a laugh, a satire of “Dark Dungeons” was made a few years ago as a short film, and is available for free on several streaming sites. The filmmaker got the rights from Jack Chick before he died, but I doubt that he understood it was intended as a satire, and not an accurate portrayal of his short comic.

Chapter 64

Yes, Red Steer was a popular local restaurant chain. They were the first I knew of that sold a “Bacon Burger” called the Baconeer, kind of like a single deck Big Mac but with bacon. They also offered finger steaks. The last time I ate at one was in 1991, and when I came back a few years later Jack In The Box had bought them out and they were gone. If I was ever to win the lottery, I would try and open a similar place and bring the menu back, if not the name.

And yes, even in the early 1980's there was a Fundamentalist LDS presence in that area. This is a break-away sect of the LDS that still believes in Polygamy to this day. As does the expulsion of many young boys in their teens, forced to live on their own in a society they do not understand. They are commonly called “Lost Boys”.

And yes, I am 1/8 Pottawatomie. The story of my grandmother and great-grandfather is true. He changed his last name many times during his life, and generally told people he was “Spanish” in the 1920's into the 1950's as Indians at that time were still considered by many to be “Savages”. I am one of those that prefers “Indian” to “Native American” or any other PC term. The word was good for my great-grandfather, grandmother and mother, so it is perfectly fine for me I believe. And it is funny, while some other Indians do see me as “polluted”, amazingly the most resistance I get is from “whites”, who try to say I am a “fake Native American”.

And I am not unique, I lived until early 2020 just outside of a Reservation in California, and most of the “Tribe Members” were as “white” as I am (or more) and proudly said they were “Indians” and not “Native Americans”. And most had absolutely no problem with how I identified myself. Which by the way is almost always as “American”.

And ironically, my wife who was born in South America is even more of a “pale face” than I am. Most do not readily see it, but if we hold hands my skin is very obviously several shades darker than her skin is. But I have had other 'Skins ask me my tribe, as they see in me the same things they see in themselves. And yes, we often jokingly refer to ourselves as “'Skins”. Making a joke of the old term “Redskin”. And we love that sports teams and schools use us as their mascot. We get no more offended at such uses as the Irish do over the mascot of Notre Dame University. In fact, my High School in Idaho had “Braves” as their mascot, and a requirement to play the mascot in sporting events is that you had to half or full Indian. And the competition was fierce for that honor among those eligible.

“o'haa” is one of many variants of the Shoshone word for “Baby”.

And yes, I was surprised when on leave I visited my family in Idaho, then when stopping for the night in Reno discovered I could not see a show when I was 20. I do not remember who the group I wanted to see was, I only threw in Paul Revere because I had seen him perform a great many times (including fairs in Idaho, Disneyland, and in city park “Oldies” concerts in California) over the decades.

And Doug Henning is sadly mostly forgotten today, but he was like the David Copperfield or Chris Angel of the 1970's and early 1980's. The first of the modern “Spectacular” magicians, he was also the first to recreate Houdini's “Chinese Water Torture” act. In a live, nation wide performance. There are many videos of him still available on the 'Net. Including a very touching one where Chris Angel impersonates him, and lists him as a major inspiration for him.

Chapter 65

And yes, part of the inspiration for having Pete get into writing adventures and articles is based on real life. Now famous Science Fiction author Charles Stross got started at 14, with articles published in White Dwarf (the UK game magazine similar to Dragon). He created many monsters that are still used to this day, almost 40 years later. The cover monster on the Fiend Folio was one of his creation, and he was 16 when that was published.

I have been a fan of his work for over 15 years, and I was surprised in 2007 when I read his biography, and realized I had already known of his work when we were still both in school. Mr. Stross and I are indeed of the same age.

And World on Wheels is a real skating icon of LA. Opened in 1981, it was a mecca to skaters and teens in that part of town, and was a big influence in the early LA Hip Hop scene. And like most rinks, it finally closed in 2013.

But in 2017 rapper Nipsey Hustle got some backing and reopened it. Beyonce, Jay-Z, and Snoop Dog have been seen spinning their wheels there in recent years. And they still hold “Oldies Nights”, where they mostly play music from the 1980's.

Chapter 67

If somebody does not know who Allen Funt is, just look up an old show called “Candid Camera”. In short, a popular TV show where people are put in compromising or embarrassing situations in front of a hidden camera.

And yes, Timerider has long been one of my favorite movies. Written and produced by Michael Nesmith, it is a classic time travel movie that is largely forgotten.

Chapter 68

While many have castigated me over the “Kissing Games”, in reality it really was pretty tame. And much of that inspiration actually came from things like Archie Comics. In that comic that has run for over 80 years now (1939), most do not realize that Betty Cooper was his original girlfriend. 3 years later they introduced the Veronica Lodge character (1942), and a complex 3-4 way love relationship started. In one issue he might be making out with Betty, then the next issue it was with Veronica. Then it might be with Reggie and Veronica while Archie was with Betty, then a few issues later they would change again.

Nobody has ever thought anything wrong with that, and it always kind of amazed me that some got upset in my rather graphic sex story that people would get upset and write me that they did not like Pete kissing say Holly as Linda kissed Keith. But in reality, it is nothing more than would have been seen in a 7 decade old comic.

And yes, by 1983 most modules were amazingly dull. Almost all shared common plot points, and it had become almost a joke. I myself by that time only bought them to farm for ideas like magic items and monsters, I never used one. I would just buy it, pull idea, then sell them for half my cost. And a few of the independent publishers (Judges Guild) did make some content that was really original, while TSR largely sank into almost “Pulp Fiction” type adventures.

Other than say Ravenloft. Which when played as intended is almost impossible. I have participated in that many times, and unless fudged heavily in the favor of the players always resulted in a complete wipe of the party.

Chapter 69

I lived about 5 blocks from the recruiting office in downtown Van Nuys. On the day I left for boot camp, I literally just grabbed a bag with a few things, and walked there.