Part One of a three-part series.

It all started when I was 12 1/2. I had always been a curious child, ready to indulge in "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" games at any time. Maybe the curiosity stemmed from seeing an uncircumcised neighbor years earlier, discovering the fact that every boy's penis looked different. Whatever the reason, I was playing one of these games with a younger relative during the summer of 1970. Somewhere in my subconscious I knew getting an erection was special, so we were gently squeezing each other's penises so we both could get erect (actually, I always seemed to be erect during these games — my relative needed a bit of coaxing). Suddenly, a drop of "something" appeared at the tip of my erection. We were both very startled. He asked me what it was. It wasn't clear or watery like urine. I didn't know what it was. So we quickly stopped playing our game, and I stored this incident deep in my memory.

The eighth grade in my small elementary school always went away on a 4-day trip, traditionally to the farms and beaches of Long Island, New York. But when my class was scheduled to go in October 1970, our host decided to close her small hotel, so the school had to come up with another locale for the trip. The historical solution was Williamsburg, Virginia. A traditional yellow school bus would be insufficient for the long ride from New York City to Williamsburg, so the school had to hire a standard bus. The larger bus demanded more students, so we were accompanied by the seventh grade. For the most part, we were allowed to choose our roommates (four to a room), but two eighth graders, "Bert" and "Lee," were left out on their own. Bert was the class scapegoat, teased mercilessly by the class bullies, and Lee was the oldest and biggest in the class with a couple of odd quirks. They were paired with two seventh graders. While most of us played innocent games in our rooms or watched TV at night, Bert and Lee decided to show shadows on the walls...without the use of their hands! News of their shadowy erectile images spread like wildfire amongst the boys, which gave Bert a moment of popularity. On the last evening of the trip, while most students were at the "last night" party, a few of us went to Lee's room to watch him demonstrate what he and Bert had been doing the previous nights — but for some reason he couldn't quite get things, um, up. That night, when it was just the four of them in the room, Bert decided he needed to do more than just show shadows. He started squeezing his penis with his hands. Dumbfounded by this new development, Lee asked what he was doing, but Bert was too absorbed to go into any details, until the obvious happened. He ejaculated, and he asked Lee to pass him a tissue. Various versions of the story disagree on what happened next, but that's not important.

This story passed around the boys with the greatest of detail on our way back to New York. It must have been amusing to the few boys who had already discovered masturbation. For those of us who did not have a clue, it was a major revelation. Masturbation became a hot topic! Surprisingly, it took me several months before I had the courage to try it myself, but one January Sunday morning in 1971 — having stayed home from church with a slight cold — I decided to try masturbating by rubbing my penis against my mattress, as if I were humping it. Memories of my first ejaculation are vague, beyond remembering something sticky on my pajama bottoms. Immediately, an afternoon ritual was born. Every day, as soon as I got home from school (and before anyone else arrived home), I ran to my bedroom, dropped my trousers, and masturbated by humping the bed until I ejaculated. I went through tissues like crazy during this period. Many of my classmates were totally unashamed about masturbating, and we shared many personal details with each other. I remember Lee telling me how he looked at his semen under his "junior scientist" home microscope. Not to be outdone, I had to try the same thing — and I telephoned him right after, excitedly telling him I could see my sperm moving. I knew several others masturbated the same way I did, but there were circumstances when I wanted to masturbate but couldn't just "go to bed." Instead, I found I could get the same sensations by rubbing my underwear gently against the bottom of my penis. I gradually discovered wrapping my hand around my penis in the standard "Fist" grip was even more fun. While I regret not discovering masturbation on my own, I am very proud I figured out the "Fist" on my own! I tried to tell Lee about it, but he still liked humping the mattress. Even with our openness, no one ever considered mutual masturbation, although given the right circumstances and a bit of coaxing, Lee or Bert would be willing to show off their erections. (Both were well endowed for young teens).

During my first year or so of masturbating, I did it every day, usually in the bathroom, developing my own "Stop-and-Go" method. I would bring myself to the brink of orgasm using the standard Fist grip, stop, and then ever so gently rub that "sweet spot" on the bottom of my penis, just under the head, with my finger, again and again bringing myself to the brink, and then stopping. This was probably a leftover from my mattress-humping/underwear-rubbing days. To this day, I still find that spot to be the most sensitive part of my penis. Once a day was usually enough for me, but there was one Saturday from those early years I remember masturbating 3 times, which stood as a personal record for many years. I was almost discovered by my mother during my third session that day, since our bathroom door did not lock. I did experiment with soap, water, Vaseline, and other substances as lubricants, but I eventually settled on just stroking and caressing with my bare hand and finger, even though I am circumcised.

Read Part Two.


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