Before my recent retirement, I worked as a college professor of English at a small but expensive New England college. Most of the students at the college came from wealthy families.
I was a single man during the latter days of my professorship, since my wife of many years had died at the age of 49 of breast cancer, and at the age of 55 I lived alone in a nice old home by the river.
Since most of my time at home was spent reading and grading student essays, I didn't have time for much else other than a little reading for pleasure. But occasionally I would turn on the TV for diversion. That day I just happened to turn on the Oprah show.
What I heard absolutely shocked me to the core—as it did her regular audience—and the show was later to become quite famous and generate a lot of controversy.
The gist of the show was that oral sex performed by young girls on boys in high school and even middle school had become as common and ordinary as a handshake.
I could not believe it since I had grown up in an age when "good girls" did not do that sort of thing, and you were deemed extremely fortunate if you later had a wife who would do it. I did not.
And yet, most men if pressed would admit that they actually liked oral sex more than intercourse. I have always thought that oral sex, whether performed by a girl on a boy or a boy on a girl, was much more intimate than intercourse.
But here, it was referred to as "no big deal" and a good way for a girl to satisfy a boy without running the risk of getting pregnant.
The show even spoke of the "Rainbow Party", in which six or eight girls would wear different shades of lipstick, then perform oral sex on the same number of boys, leaving them with multi-colored rings around their rosie, so to speak.
Unbelieveable! Obviously I had been born too soon.
Finally, they referred to another way young girls had found to keep from getting pregnant. They could get their salad "tossed", which was a euphemism for engaging in anal sex—and yet still remain a virgin.
Unbelievable! And one of the most amazing things of all was that these girls did not come from the poorer neighborhoods—but more than likely from the wealthier enclaves. I began to wonder if this was really true or if it was just an "urban myth."
There was one way to find out. From Stacey. Maybe.
Every professor was allowed to have a student assistant or intern. Usually he or she was picked from the freshman class and presumably would stay with you all four years if he or she stayed in college. It was expected that you would pick one of your top students. That one in my case was freshman Stacey.
Stacey was just 18 years old and had come to our little college from a wealthy suburb of Boston. She was the ideal American girl: blonde, blue-eyed, a perfect figure, about five foot six and 110 pounds. Her father was a doctor, and her mother was a teacher. She worked at my office from 2-5 five days a week, but usually during the last hour there would be little to do, so we could just sit and talk.
"I have a question to ask you," I said on the day after the Oprah show.
"Okay."
"You don't have to answer it if you don't want."
"All right."
"Did you watch the Oprah show yesterday?"
"No, but I heard about it—and read about it in this morning's paper."
"About oral sex among high school girls."
"And middle school girls."
"Yes, and the Rainbow Party and Tossed Salad."
"Right."
"Is it true?"
"Is what part true?"
"Any of it."
She smiled. "Are you asking me if I did it?"
"I told you that you don't have to answer."
"I don't mind answering. Yes, it's all true. Most girls start doing it by the time they're in ninth grade. They find out it's an easy way to satisfy guys and to be popular. You don't have to take your clothes off, and you don't have to worry about getting pregnant."
"What does the girl get out of it?"
"Popularity."
"Amazing." I shook my head. "And did you---?"
"I was fifteen when I started."
"Is the Rainbow Party true?"
"I never saw one, but it's probably true."
"What about tossed salad?"
She smiled again. "I never experienced one, but I guess that's true too."
"Thank you. I appreciate your candor. I could hardly believe what I was hearing on the show, since when I was growing up, that was the hardest kind of sex to get."
"You know kids today. All boys want is to get a job."
"You mean a---"
One last smile. "A blowjob, right."
I thought no more of our conversation until the following week. My birthday was coming up on Thursday, and I was planning to do pretty much what I did every year—which was nothing, since I had no one to do it with. Little did I know how memorable a birthday it was going to be.
"Your birthday is coming up this week," Stacey said on Monday.
"How did you know that?"
"I read your college bio. As your student assistant, I should get you a nice present, but like most students, I don't have any money."
"I don't expect anything from you," I said. "No one notices my birthday."
"Still, I would like to give you something personal." She paused. "What would you think about the something we were talking about on Friday?"
"What something?"
"About the subject on Oprah."
"What do you mean?"
She sighed. "Professor Baxter, how would you like a nice delicious blowjob from a pretty college girl for your birthday?"
"You're kidding me, right?"
"I'm not kidding you. I wouldn't mind doing it—in fact, I think I would enjoy it. And I'm sure you would enjoy it. I'm very good at it. And since I'm already getting A's in your class, there's no question of a grades-for-sex kind of thing."
"You're right about that."
"Well?"
I thought about it. "I'm reminded of The Godfather. I think you've made me an offer I can't refuse."
"Good. Thursday then? Four o'clock, the last hour?"
"All right."
I knew it was the wrong thing to do, but I ask you---. Never mind, I know what you would have done.
And I did the same.