in early teens to help support his orphaned brothers and sisters. Art reads nothing to "stir head storms" (his phrase for strange ideas), knew he "loved men more than anything" by the time he was twenty, and was mercifully delivered from an early, family-forced marriage by divorce. He had a routine job for twenty years and saved carefully to buy a country house which he operates as a tourist home. This business demanded some help so there were no questions when younger men lived with him for months.
Eventually, an older man shared his love and together they helped more than one bright youngster through. school. Arthur has a monogamous streak which satisfies him, as in a perfect marriage. Now in his seventies, he regrets nothing except the minor irritation of why he didn't invest more in a particular rose-bush which did not survive in the sandy soil on his property.
DE
Friends he has made over the years, some meeting him as guests or lovers. are enough to make life full and stimulating. Always devoutly religious, he could never feel his homosexuality as a "sin" (his first lover was a member of a celibate clerical order). He does regret not having children by some
"understanding woman," although this unfilled wish is based upon his shrewd observation of the amorality of children. "Children," he is fond of saying, "never question your morals!" I might add that neither do civilized and intelligent people where adults are concerned.
No one can think of "Dottie" and "Lottie" as separate personalities, for they share many avocations and much property. They have been Lesbians since high school, journeying the same professional road in the publishing field and also active in social reform. They have traveled widely and had summer vacations together in their shore cottage. Only a few isolated quarrels have disrupted their quiet life. A beautiful gentlemen's agreement works wonders when one of them will find a short visit to a relative necessary whenever antagonisms arrive.
While age has taken the usual toll, and sexual contact may be a thing of the past, their emotional attachment to each other is beautiful to see. One, the tinier, has been the Hetty Green of their relationship and this has accounted for their financial comfort nearing eighty, and also the anticipatory interest of their more conventional relatives! They have no regrets and certainly no pangs of conscience nor fear of the supernatural, as their personal philosophy is contained in a quotation by Theodore Parker, "Man is greater than the churches which tyrannize over him."
One of the most fascinating men I've known can very well follow the conceived notion of the homosexual "Auntie," but this act does not fool close friends. "Sparky," a life-long nickname descriptive of his champagne personality which made each moment an incandescent bubble, is still a "bachelor" playboy at seventyfive. His home is the gathering place for all ages and the center for social
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