My closest friend, Alan – his family bought a color TV. And they were also the first ones on the block to have central air conditioning. On Wednesday nights, all the kids in the neighborhood went to Alan's to watch Batman. ABC made the most use of color with that show...by overdoing reds and purples as much as possible. Looking back at the reruns, I think there were a lot people like me, huddled with many others in the living room of a neighbor's house oohing and ahhing over the bright, bright colors on the caped crusaders' outfits. Black and white seemed so passe.
Alan's mother Millie had a sister, and we all called her Aunt Gerry. I guess short for Geraldine. Aunt Gerry would often visit Alan's family, and she would stop in across the street to say hello to my parents, my brother, and me. She was very friendly. She never came with anyone, no kids or husband. I liked Aunt Gerry but noticed that she, unlike most other women her age, had very short hair and always wore a black leather jacket. It was one of those thoughts you don't even know you're noticing, just something that would sneak to the back of your mind and reside there for years until the thought decided to advance a few paces. I was in my 40's before I realized that Aunt Gerry was a lesbian. It just occurred to me one day out of the blue. I brought it up in conversation with my mother, and she had come to the same conclusion many years ago when we actually knew Gerry. But nobody spoke of such things back then. It was the 1960's, and yet it might as well have been the 1360's.
Often I have wondered what it must have been like for Gerry, a very nice, kind lady living her entire life in the shadows, never being able to be who she really was. Never knowing if the people who she had always said hello to in the neighborhood, all those who engaged in small talk with her, would ignore her or worse if they knew who she really was.
