Hiding in the Backwaters Just one more blog on the net.

A walk down memory lane.

People often talk about when it was they first realized they were gay. I have explained elsewhere that I didn't figure it out until I was around 20. That I couldn't put a name to it doesn't mean there were not experiences prior to that time that would have tipped off most any other individual who was in possession of something even resembling a clue.

Of course, hindsight being 20/20, one can look back on one's life and say, "Man you were dense." My earliest "gay memory" would be around the age of ten, maybe eleven. My dad and I are both fans of science fiction movies, so he had taken me to see 1978's latest addition to the genre: a disaster of a movie called "Starcrash." It's only thanks to a friend and IMDB that I even have a name to put with the train wreck. All I could remember about it was that Christopher Plumber played in it; something, I am sure, he wishes I would forget.

The double feature of this incredibly awful movie—yes, I'm dating myself. Did I mention we were not at a drive in? Anyway, the double feature of this incredibly awful movie was another incredibly awful movie: "National Lampoon's Animal House." Now what possessed my father to stick around and watch the first few minutes of "Animal House" with a ten year old I've never bothered to ask. Not sure that I really care.

Early in the movie, we meet one of the main characters with a towel around his waist. In the course of the scene he turns his back to us and drops said towel and proceeds to get dressed. I still vividly remember how the sight of that bare male tush grabbed the attention of a ten year old kid sitting toward the back of the theater. My dad got a up a few moments later and I was disappointed because I was hoping I would see it again.

The name that goes with the bare bum is Tim Matheson. I looked over his filmography and didn't see anything else that I might have remembered him in. He seems to have done a lot on television, but I don't watch much TV. So, for old time's sake, here they are: the buns that launched a thousand fantasies...or something like that.

Either the version shown in theaters in 1978 was slightly different from the DVD release or my attention was absolutely riveted. I did not remember there being anyone else in the room with Mr. Matheson.