Eddie

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Today my story is about my friend Eddie. We went to High School together but we attended different Elementary and Junior High Schools due to living in a different district for those two schools.

We always teased Eddie for being Gay since being Gay back in 1969 to 1972, our High School years, was considered rare and amusing at the same time. We even taunted Eddie, but as our friend and not maliciously, by chanting EDDIE IS A HOMO!

Yeah I look back on that now and realize me and my friends were morons but Eddie didn’t mind.

Was Eddie out to recruit others into being Gay? Nope! Eddie was the nicest and generous person you would ever want to meet and have as a friend. Many times I visited Eddie at his house and we got high on drugs and I would pass out. When I revived I was fine. Eddie never laid a finger on me and never touched me in any manner. That is how much of a true friend and gentleman Eddie was.

We hooked up in the 1990’s by chance through Classmates website. Want to know what Eddie told me?

Eddie asked me if I remember all of us calling him a Homo and I said I remembered and I apologize for my actions. Eddie said not to apologize as it was a rare concept from 1969 to 1971.

Eddie then asked me if I hear the stories people tell that you are born as a homosexual or lesbian and I told him I have heard of that. He said that is bullshit. He said you are born heterosexual and you are “indoctrinated” into being homosexual or lesbian. He said one of his Uncles introduced him to same-sex affairs and told him it was not unusual and to accept it so Eddie told me he did accept it but it never felt right.

Eddie then told me he realized it was wrong, and against how he was born, so he left being a homosexual, got married to a woman, they are happy and they have two children. Eddie told me to never buy into the concept that people are born homosexual or lesbian as that is not true.

I learned a lot from Eddie that day.

Richard

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Growing up in Oakland, California, one of my best friends was a guy named Richard. We went to the same schools from Elementary, Junior High, and High School. The event I will mention in this article took place during our Senior year at Skyline High School in Oakland in 1971.

Before I go into that I need to give you some background information.

Me and Richard were best friends. We were inseparable. We did everything together. Now remember this started in 1964 when we moved to live in the Oakland hills near Sequoia Country Club.

Back then we didn’t have the stupid racial bullshit we have today. I am White. Richard is Black. We were like twins only different skin colors.

It was maybe when me and Richard were in either 9^th Grade in Junior High or in 10^th Grade in High School when my mother walked up to me while I was alone in the house, as Richard just left to return home, and she said the following:

Mother: Andy I just noticed something.

Me: What?

Mother: Richard is Black.

Me: Yeah and Richard has been black since we became friends in 1964 so your point is?

Mother: I just never noticed he was Black.

For me that was a good thing. My parents didn’t look at others as White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, or something else. They looked at them as people.

So what happened in 1971 during our Senior year at Skyline High School? I drove to school and was walking past the Administration building where our flagpole was located. I noticed about 10 to 15 Black students marching around the flagpole chanting things about equal rights, equality, and saying things like they were under-privileged. I saw Richard, my best friend of seven years, marking around the flagpole with a sign that said I’M UNDER-PRIVILEGED.

I walked up to the group marching around the flagpole and up to Richard. I asked Richard how he can hold a sign saying he is under-privileged when his father, as a Deputy Sheriff with Alameda County makes more than my father who woks as an Electrician for the City of Oakland. I also asked Richard since we both live in the same well-do-do rich people neighborhood of Oakland, and his house was nicer than our house in the same neighborhood, how can he say he is under-privileged.

Richard’s answer: ANDY YOU JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND.

My response: YOU KNOW WHAT RICHARD? I GUESS I DON’T UNDERSTAND.

I turned and walked away. I lost my best friend and never got to hook up with him again.

Today we see the same bullshit where people are being brainwashed into believing things that are not true and they mistreat others based on their false assumptions.