Day 3

As we covered the last miles toward our first stop, my mind drifted back to how this whole Gor thing had begun in the first place. I am not even sure of the date, but I do have a time reference. My nephew, John, was leaving for the Navy. He was a brilliant kid who had not adapted well to school and was wasting his potential and heading for trouble. The service was the perfect answer for him. Just before he left, he showed up at my door and handed me a box with 13 paperback books. He told me he thought I would enjoy them.
I thanked him, and he was off to Navy basic training. He was also correct. I did enjoy them.

I wish I could say that fireworks went off in my mind or an inner voice in my brain screamed "Eureka", when I first read them. I have heard men speak of how they reacted to the books when they first read them. Many females have said similar things. They felt that the books were putting into words feelings and thoughts that had been inside them for years and years. Even lily related something much like this when she spoke of reading "Slave Girl" for the first time.  It wasn't like that with me at all. I liked them, and was excited about the plot and was awed a bit by the sense of honor of some of the characters. I was, perhaps, a bit critical of the writing style. I remember thinking that he had seemed to get a bit excessive about this "slave" girl business,  but most exciting adventure stories or films had to have a bit of "love interest" in them, so I skimmed quickly through the mushy parts to get back to the action.

After I had read all of them, I put the box in a safe place in the attic knowing that I would want to reread them sometime in the future. When that time rolled around, I went to retrieve the box, but it was gone. I discovered later that my ex-wife had tossed them into the trash, because, as she put it, "they had trashy covers and so that is where they belonged." I suppose that could easily have been the end of Gor for me, but fate is inexorable, and even as I looked around for some other reading material, the internet was being invented.

(A side note:  Later on during the tour we will be visiting John in Virginia Beach, Virginia.  I have not seen him since I became a Gorean, nor even talked to him long enough to speak of it. I will be anxious to ask him how he came by the books, and why he thought I might be the person to give them to when he went to the navy.)