Seventeen or So

Eric and David around seven or eight years old.

On this fine June 1st 2007 Eric and I celebrate seventeen years of living together. Oddly, it took us a long time to settle on a date for our anniversary. The big problem was what to use as a starting point.

Eric and I met on July 15, 1983. It was at an Oz convention being held at the Wawona Hotel in Yosemite National Park. Eric was nineteen and I was twenty. We hung out together some, and with hindsight I must admit I was sorta smitten, but we really didn't become friends. Thus the day we met isn't a good day for our anniversary.

We didn't see each other again for two years. Our paths next crossed at another Oz convention in 1985 - this one in Zion, Illinois. Now, by this time I had just discovered I was gay, but I was still a virgin. Eric was flirting with his bisexuality (oy!) and we hit it off much better. I was very tan and I had a bright yellow shirt that caught Eric's eye.

David and Eric Meet again in June, 1986 in Zion, Illionois

Eric and I (and our friend Alice) stayed up all Saturday night after a party at this 1985 Oz Con; and we watched the sun come up and then went into the hotel and had pancakes. Eric invited me to come visit him in Dover, New Jersey. Yes!

Well I went to visit him six months later at New Years 1985-1986. And sometime around midnight on January 1st we ended up in bed together. But we were basically just frinds at this point - and it's unclear whether we consummated the friendship on January 1st or January 2nd since we started in a bit before midnight and finished sometime after midnight. So these "dates" aren't so hot for an anniversary either!

Well, after about a year and a half of "friendship-plus" Eric and I decided to try having a "relationship." This was sometime in March of 1988. No exact date is recalled; and by this time I had moved east and was going to NYU and Eric had moved from New Jersey to San Diego. Thus with 3000 miles between us we labeled ourselves "in a relationship" and introduced each other to our respective families. But this all happened kind of gradually over a couple months and there is no specific date to choose for an anniversary.

When I was about to graduate from NYU it was time to move in together. The phone bill was getting enormous! So since I wanted to get my Masters degree and had been accepted at Yale University, I convinced Eric to move from sunny San Diego to the arm-pit of America - New Haven, Connecticut. And thus we arrived in New Haven, and found a wonderful apartment, and we moved in together, spending our first night together in our own place, on June 1st, 1990!

Summer 1990 - At Another "Oz" Convention in Asilomar, California

In front of our house on Humphrey Street in New Haven, Connecticut 1991

The "Happy Husbands"

Blog Copyright © 2007 D. H. Maxine
Photos Copyright © 2007 D. H. Maxine and Eric Shanower