Thanksgiving 1983. I was 14. My birthday was a week away and I only really saw my mother's sisters and brother once or twice a year, so this is usually when they gave me my birthday gifts.

My uncle was gay. I mean very, very gay. Lisp and everything. He had this long beard that went all the way down to his belt line ZZ Top style. Family of redheads, so he had this long, thick bright orange beard that he obsessed over (I have my Dad's blond hair but thanks to my mother, my beard comes in red). He also smoked a pipe and had a belly so I was always calling him Santa Claus which he didn't appreciate. He was a great guy with a heart of gold so I always enjoyed talking to him (RIP). He was extremely intelligent, he was working on his PhD dissertation when he died (brain aneurism in his car).

My grandmother had no idea which blew me away. It was so painfully obvious. He always brought "guy friends" to Thanksgiving and Christmas. The lisp obviously isn't just a "gay" thing but you know how that goes. Between the lisp, his friends, the complete lack of women in his life, his obsession with his beard, and several of his friends contracting AIDS it was pretty clear. He was open about it too, with everyone except his mother. We were raised devout Catholics and two of my grandmother's sisters were nuns so it's something she just wouldn't understand. To make matters worse he tried getting close to his father a few years earlier. His father molested my mother and was an all around prick who walked out on the family. My mother was terrified of Uncle Tommy getting to know the father so wrote him a letter telling him his son was gay and being the prick that he was, completely disowned him. For obvious reasons Tom just didn't want Nana to know.

She did find out a couple of years later. My loud-mouthed mother opened her mouth again. This time it wasn't intentional, she just wasn't thinking and started talking about Tommy's boyfriend. Nana was devastated. It took a while for her to reconcile it all but she was a good woman and loved her son so she learned to accept it. She invited him to bring more of his friends over and even started volunteering for an organization that helped care for AIDS patients. She did a complete 180.  He died 15 years ago and she still goes to visit his old long-term boyfriend, he flies up to Boston to visit, and she went to his wedding a few years later.

Anyway.....I'm opening my birthday gifts and my sister asked me why I never wore the sweater she gave me the year before. Without a moment of thought I just blurted out, "Because I don't want to look like a fag". The moment I said it I regretted it. I couldn't apologize because my grandmother was right there and didn't know. The rest of the night sucked, I felt horrible.

My sister, brother, and myself made dinner and my mom never showed up. I think my sister was 14 , my brother was 8 and I was 11 and we sat at a table for hours waiting for our mom to come home so we could eat. We lived with our dysfunctional mom

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Ok 1975 I was a senior in HS. I was dating the absolute best looking female I had dated, before or since. Her dad was a Lt Colonel in the AF and had been shot down on a mission somewhere Laos I believe. He was still listed as MIA. (The did recovery some of his remains a few years ago, so her family was able to get closure). Her mother HATED me. Was never at a loss to tell me how her husband would disapprove of me dating their daughter. So the stage was set.

Several of us guys had rented an old auto repair shop. We kept cars and motorcycles in there. Had parties there, you know usual crap you could do back then.

So up pulls the daughter in her moms 1970 GS Buick. Yea it was fast for it's time. She tells me to get and come help her with something. I hop in and off we go to her house. We're talking as we pull up about wht we are doing later that day and I didn't notice some extra cars in the driveway. Kinda in a puss induced moment. In we walk and to my suprize her whole family is there. Now here's the awkard part. I'm standing in the living room in front of her uncle, who by the way is a full bird colonel, hair down nearly to my waist and wearing a t-shirt that says.............I May Not Go Down In History, But I Will Go Down On Your Little Sister. I wish I'd had a picture of everyone face. Man it didn't take long before I was asked to leave. The uncle volunteered to drive me back. For some strange reason we stopped dating the next day.

And that's how Five Guys burgers began...

Boy was it!