Chris Jones had married his girlfriend Pat and moved to Taft, California. Taft is an oil town west of Bakersfield in the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley. In the early 1960’s, between Taft and Bakersfield there was a huge and booming oil field.

As soon as school was out, I moved to Taft and stayed with Chris and Pat. Turns out oil jobs were plentiful. So I explored my opportunities going from one oil drilling rig to another. I got a job on a rig as a roughneck the first day and started work immediately. The work was exhausting, filthy and strenuous. Once drilling starts, the rig works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Depending on your shift, you could be on the drilling platform at 3 am in the morning.  At that hour, you could see at least a dozen active rigs lit up in the middle of the night.

Laurie drove the 100 miles north to Taft  in her baby blue MG the first weekend. I introduced her and Chris and Pat.  We all got along great. It was a hundred plus degrees every day. The nights didn’t even cool down much. We had a good time but I quickly realized I could not impose on Chris every weekend and I wanted more privacy. So I investigated Bakersfield which was a little less than 40 miles from Taft. The oil rig I got the job on was roughly midway between Bakersfield and Taft.

Housing in Bakersfield was old and incredibly cheap. I found a furnished one bedroom place and set up house-keeping. I was buzzing with excitement and anticipation of Laurie’s first visit to my place. I had never had my own place let alone have a tall, blond, tanned female visitor. I made sure my place had air conditioning – a big, bulky unit stuck in one window.

I’m sure I would have had a difficult time sleeping waiting for Laurie’s first visit except I was so exhausted from my work on the oil rig. I was up early every work day. Drove to the rig. Worked my brutally demanding shift in heat that often exceeded 110 degrees midday, drove back to my place in Bakersfield, stripped off my filthy clothes, took a shower and collapsed on the bed.

I barely had time to run to the laundromat and to get groceries. I had never worked so hard in my life. But I was quickly getting reasonably good at my job and I was definitely getting very strong. My hard hat no longer looked like a new guy hard hat.

Laurie arrived in the evening after her drive from Pasadena. We talked, went to dinner at Denny’s which, of course, was open 24 hours a day. Back at my place, we were both awkward. This was new territory for both of us. We made out and ended up falling asleep naked on top of the bed.

Waking the next morning with no place to go, we fumbled through our mutual loss of virginity. Neither of us was relaxed but we managed it.

Breakfast at Denny’s and a drive around broiling Bakersfield.

We retreated to my air conditioned house, made out, gradually took all our clothes off, and tentatively explored each other’s body. I loved looking at her lean, athletic body. We were both self-conscious. By the time the weekend was over, we were a little more relaxed.

My biggest concern was, was Laurie ok with everything. Of course I took precautions. We had long relaxed conversations. She was just having a hard time relaxing. I wasn’t much better. I wished I knew how to help her relax and how to please her better.

And so the summer went. I worked my ass off all week long on the drilling rig. Laurie drove up most weekends and she slowly relaxed a little bit more each time. We drove over and visited Chris and Pat in Taft. One weekend we drove down to Los Angeles to see a movie: Lawrence of Arabia. It turned out to be one of my all time favorite movies. It was just a little ironic we drove all that way to see a movie about a hot desert.

I drove down to Pasadena and stayed at Laurie’s. We quickly missed the privacy we enjoyed in Bakersfield. Sex was dramatically curtailed in her parents’ house. It was pretty weird being around her parents knowing I was having sex with their daughter. I had never been in that position before.

I enjoyed Laurie’s visits to Bakersfield but it seemed we plateaued. The only thing I could really compare it to was making out with Pam at the Coyote Point campus of CSM. Pam was always excited to see me and was a passionate enthusiastic kisser. I could make out with her for hours. She always turned me on and it was always fun kissing her. Her passion and enthusiasm fed my passion and enthusiasm. We would get really hot kissing each other on that bench on the campus. I loved her soft, sensuous, amazing mouth. All these years later I often wondered what Pam would have been like if we had gone further. Thank you Pam for some of the warmest, most affectionate, sexiest fun I have ever had.

It is hard to describe. Laurie drove up. We had sex several times over a weekend visit. Laurie was always willing and cooperative. What was missing was that enthusiasm. She seemed just too inhibited to really let go passionately. Or maybe, despite having a gorgeous body, she was just not that passionate a person. I was beginning to learn what I was looking for in a partner. I wanted a partner who was enthusiastic about sex.

As the summer wound down and I got ready to go home and resume school, I realized I had learned a lot. I had lived alone and supported myself in a strange new city. I had proven I could work hard in the grind of a tough physical job. I also realized I wanted more. Despite great money, there was not much of a future for me anyway on an oil rig. I began to appreciate school more for the doors a college education opened.

As I made that last drive home from Bakersfield to San Mateo, I was in a thoughtful place. My direction forward was still vague but I had a clearer idea what I wanted and what I didn’t want. And, though I was not particularly good at it, I was no longer a virgin.

Thank you for listening.

As always, I wish you and your family the very best of health.
Joe