Chapter 1What does a single, retired, gay man do in a town like Stafford, North Carolina, especially if he doesn’t golf?
Well, he can read, garden, and volunteer at the Arts Alliance. At least that’s what I did.
I never thought I’d be moving back to my home town. Things were much more difficult for gay teens when I was in high school. They can be bad now, but back in the fifties, there just weren’t any gays in Stafford High. Oh, there must have been some, of course, but I didn’t know anyone who was out. In fact, except for Burke, my occasional companion in m**********n who was just as much in the closet as I was, I didn’t know any gay guys at all. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t wait to shake the dust of what was then a sleepy Southern town off my shoes and go north to college.
As things tu
