I visit my physical therapist this afternoon. We were born in the same town (Duluth), and went to the same junior high school (Ordean). He was a year behind me and we didn’t know each other. My family left town, and he went on to become a ski jumping champion and twice a member of the U.S. Olympic ski jumping team. So far, so awesome.
We were talking about those faraway times, and he said, “There’s one thing that nobody ever believes, which is that the boys were naked in swim class.”
Which is true. The girls got to wear swimsuits, but the boys were starkers, as if we were all at the old swimming hole, or something.
I was not particularly interested in the sight of thirty naked boys all shivering and blue-lipped in the cold water, but as it turns out they were interested in me, because it was soon evident that I was the only one among them who wasn’t circumcised.
They asked me about it, and I told them.
“Noooo! You’re just making that up!”
“No, I’m not. That really happened to you.”
“NO WAY! MY PARENTS WOULDN’T CUT OFF THE END OF MY DICK! YOU’RE LYING!”
“Well they didn’t actually cut it off themselves, they paid the doctor extra to do it for them.”
“NOOOO! YOU’RE A FREAK! GET AWAY FROM ME, FREAK-OH!”
This was far from the last time that I was shunned for speaking the absolute truth.
