I've talked about my old neighborhood and the close relationship I had with a bunch of my neighbors there before. The other night I was thinking about them and this memory popped into my head. I hadn't thought about this in years!In November of every year, most men get out their weapons and head for the woods so they can rough it for a few days hunting deer. They don't wash or shave (they want to blend with nature so it won't scare the deer.....at least that's the excuse they tell us) and probably don't change their underwear or socks either during this time. I'm not even sure they brush their teeth and I don't even want to know. Anyway, the wives of these 'great white hunters' also look forward to them leaving. I don't know what a lot of the wives did, but in our little circle of friends in our neighborhood where every man was gone....we women had a ball. We ordered dinner out and in some cases even had it delivered. We had get-togethers at each other's homes and we played cards, drank, cussed and generally had fun. We slept in, watched what we wanted on TV and took up the entire bed, loving every inch of it. For the most part it was all good innocent fun.
Now this story takes place back in the early 60's. Most of us women were pretty darned innocent. I think I was just 21 years old, if that. You have to remember that society, in general, was pretty prudish then. The movies on TV as well as the box office did not have a lot of swearing and never EVER the F-word. Now....all of us had heard about these so-called secret movies called smokers. None of us had ever seen any or even knew anyone who had seen any. It was a guy thing....it was p.o.r.n. Curious? You bet. We all were. Well, for THIS hunting season one of the girls had a real treat for us....or should I say "reel". She said her brother, who lived with them but who had also gone hunting, had a couple reels of smokers.....and she found them in his room. We all put our heads together....one of the other girls had a movie projector. There were no VHS tapes back then....or at least not in my circle of acquaintances. We decided we would meet at my house because I was the only one who didn't have kids at the time.
The night of the 'showing', they all brought snacks, their choice of alcoholic beverage, wore comfy clothes, and the ones who needed it had babysitters at their houses....we were ready. The one with the projector showed up and set it up and it wasn't until then that she said what are we going to show these on. I didn't have any wall space that was suitable.....and we wanted a good view! Someone suggested a sheet thrown over the traverse curtain rod....so we did that after first closing the drapes. We turned off the lights and settled in for the show.
The movies were old 8 mm, black and white. They were so faded and such poor quality you could hardly see anything......probably they were copies of copies of copies....well, you get the idea. Anyway the plot line lacked imagination big time. Woman's husband out of town, she orders pizza....pizza guy delivers, she answers door with next to nothing on and before you know it they are in the bedroom and she's moaning and groaning like you would never believe. The more we drank, the funnier it became. Each movie was rather short, maybe 25 or 30 minutes, hard to remember now. I can't remember how many movies she had....maybe 2, maybe 3, but we watched them several times each, laughing harder each time.
I don't know who now.....I guess the shock from the realization sort of emptied my memory banks a little....but one of the girls went outside for some reason....maybe for some fresh air.... and she came back in, wide-eyed and terrified. At her news, we all ran outside and looked. Seems as though the movie was showing right through my picture window (even though the drapes were closed) and from outside it was like being at a drive-in theater. We all were half drunk, half hysterical, scared and laughing at the same time. We closed up and dispersed faster than an illegal gambling joint.
I lived in absolute terror that the police were going to break down my door and search my home looking for contraband.....I envisioned my picture on the front page of the paper......the embarrassment I would bring my parents. We girls all talked about it in hushed whispers. Then after weeks passed and nothing more came of it, we breathed sighs of relief. We all vowed that we'd never ever do anything like that again.....and we didn't. But now as I think of it, I have to laugh out loud.....and I'm also wondering if old Mrs. Fugate on the next street over had been looking out her window that night. LOLOLOLOLOL
