Lavender Larry

Bears first two initials are both L. One of my early gifts to him were two shirts with all three of his initials embroidered along the top of a pocket. He wore one the first time to a dance at the Lodge.

Bear is one of those men who like to embarrass the men at the bar in the Moose Lodge by stepping up behind them and surprising them with a kiss. Of course everyone at the lodge knows him. Still, I tell him it's a wonder someone hasn't killed him. Some will joke back in the same way, and others are furious. He likes the angry ones the best. Especially when they are drunk.

The evening he was wearing the new shirt, someone asked him what the initials stood for. He teased them with some outright silly names. So this man turned to me and asked me what his real name was. I answered with all seriousness, "Lavender Larry." Everyone he had been tormenting loved it. For awhile, that was all anyone called him. It still comes back into play, and I still hear guys greet him with it on the street.

Shortly after that, Bear was off work for awhile, probably a lay-off at the factory. Remember my trucker friend PNT? The one who helped me so much through my roughest times. The one I had to stop seeing because LTR was uncomfortable with our friendship. PNT is also a Moose member and he and Bear had become friends. (PNT and LTR didn't go to dances, and I was seldom at the lodge any other time. I don't get to see my old friend very often. ) While Bear was off work, PNT asked him if he wanted to ride along in the semi truck on a run to Cleveland. I had stopped riding with anyone when I moved in with Bear. (Bear asked me to stop. Gee, here was someone who cared.) (I missed the rides a long time though. If you've never ridden in a big truck, you can't imagine what it's like. And talking to a friend makes the trip go fast, so I use to get asked along a lot.)

So Bear went with PNT to Cleveland. Now PNT made this same run often enough to know there was an old gay man who sat in a truck stop and tried to pick up men on the CB radio. When they got close, PNT shouted for this guy and told him he had a "good buddy" with him who wanted to talk to the guy. Then PNT introduced Lavender Larry, and handed Bear the mic. Bear proceeded in his idea of a male/female voice to flirt over the radio. I guess the rest of that ride was a regular circus for Bear and PNT. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have wanted to hear it. There are truckers who are not amused by that kind of thing. And I'm sure these two pushed it to the limit.

When I was riding with PNT, he would occasionally change his handle and call himself Peter Dragon. Or more accurately, make it sound like Peter Dragging. Then he would brag about the "pretty seatcover" sitting beside him. The responses to that bit of hourseplay would always make him laugh. I can just imagine what Lavender Larry and Peter Dragging were up to that day. Men are such boys. And, I still find it hard to believe someone hasn't shot my manboy.