This document is being continuously revised and added to. It seems to be rather poorly organized but at least it tells the story.
I was born in Bluffton, Indiana at a very early age and don't remember very much about the event having been so young at the time. The first 4 and a half years of my life we lived in the southern part of Wells County, Indiana and we moved into a house near Bluffton when I was 4. That was the first time I lived in a house with indoor plumbing. I thought it was so cool to get water by just turning a knob instead of having to use the hand pump out by the back porch. We could even get hot water by just turning another knob instead of putting cold water in a big pan and setting it on the stove to heat up. The best part was not having to go out to the outhouse any more. We had a flushable toilet right in the house.
My first 8 years of school were at Lancaster Central School north of Bluffton. I graduated from Norwell High School near Ossian, Indiana in 1973. All the way through my twelve years in the public school system I knew I was different from most of the other kids. The differences became more pronounced in junior high when all the other kids were turning into couples and I still preferred hanging around with the guys. I just could not understand why my friends suddenly wanted to spend time with girls instead of with me. By the time I was most of the way through high school I had figured out what was "wrong" with me. I told my best friend that I thought I was gay but he talked me out of it. I don't think he really understood the full meaning of what I was saying and didn't want to deal with it. I was convinced that being gay was a bad thing so I tried to keep my feelings buried for the next 20 years.
During those years a lot of other people told me that I was gay and some called me all kinds of nasty names but I fought it with every ounce of denial I could come up with. When I was 35 I finally decided to stop making myself miserable trying to not be something that I most definitely was. I am 45 now and I came out to my family a few years ago. I told my little brother first because I knew he would be easy and I told my big brother last because I thought he would be the most difficult. My 3 sisters all took it real well and my mother cried and said she had suspected but hoped she was wrong. She said she still loves me. I consider my self very blessed that after all was said and done I still have a family that cares about me and just wants me to be happy.
I don't know if there is anybody in the whole world who really wants to know that much about me but it feels good telling it. I debated with myself for quite some time whether or not to publish this. I am no longer ashamed of who I am . I have a family that loves me no matter what and I have friends who know me and still love me. With all that going for me I guess I have decided that if anybody else has a problem with all this it is their problem.
I worked for Caylor-Nickel Hospital in Bluffton during my senior year in high school and through the summer after I graduated. In the fall of 1973 I went to work for Corning Glass also at Bluffton. Corning closed in the summer of 1983 and it was 2 years before I was able to get another steady job. In 1985 I went to work for Standard Federal Bank as the custodian for their Bluffton, Indiana branch office. It was only 20 hours a week so I was still looking for a job. In 1987 I got another 20-hour-a-week job at the Air Wisconsin maintenance hangar at Fort Wayne International Airport. For about a year I had two 20-hour-a-week jobs. I worked 8 hours Saturday and Sunday and 4 hours Monday morning at the airport and I worked 4 hours Monday through Friday evening at the bank. In 1988 I had a chance to go to work full time for Air Wisconsin so I took it. In the spring of 1993 Air Wisconsin closed the hangar at Fort Wayne so I was unemployed again. The day after I worked my last shift for Air Wisconsin I started working at Aeroquip in New Haven, Indiana. I still work there but Aeroquip got bought last year so now I am working for Eaton Corporation.
I will probably add more details to some parts of this document at some future date. If you have any questions or comments about anything or would just like to know more about me feel free to email me at [email protected].