Reflections: Gigapets And A Gay Friend

It's a long one today guys! I’ve been reading Lemuel’s latest series, Persons in My Life. It’s very interest and thought provoking – you should definitely check it out if you haven’t already. His posts got me thinking and typing about my younger years (which weren’t really all that long ago).

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On the first day of the 5th grade, an intruder entered our classroom. He was the new kid – let’s call him Jeff. Fascinated but hesitant all at the same time, everyone looked and sneered at him as we always did when anyone transferred into our close-knit school. Besides, it wasn’t often we had someone new around these parts.

But I remember Jeff was different from all of the others. The way he acted. The way he carried himself. Even the way he talked. And I liked it!

Jeff was the definition of a limp wrist, but at the time, I had no clue about all of that. He was just a kid I knew I wanted to be friends with. He seemed fun and outgoing! So while everyone else brushed him off – too young to have learned the marvelous and ingenious insults of ‘fag’ and ‘queer’ (just give it a year) – I quickly bonded with him. We became friends. I guess deep down inside we both knew we had something in common.

Jeff and I soon became inseparable. Where you saw one of us, the other was not far away. I felt closer to Jeff than I had any other friend. Even my 5th grade mind realized that. It was almost like – dare I say – we were dating.

Jeff introduced me to – among other things – those wonderful little creations from the early 90s known as Gigapets. I seem to remember them originally being marketed toward girls. Well, they caught on at our school with everyone, guys included – mostly because of Jeff. I remember talking on the phone with one now very straight guy in my class for hours about our new Nanopets (a much bigger, louder, more developed, and more attention-demanding version of a Gigapet). How gay was that?

With me having a Gigapet enlightenment and demanding my parents buy me every variation of them and even the rip-offs of them (of which they wisely did not meet most of the time), I – being the good little gay boy I was – needed something to carry them all around in. A purse? It would have served my purpose well… and sent the entire community into a loud rumble of gossip. But no, even I knew at that age that it wouldn’t go over well. So I moved on to one of those mini-backpack things. While much more masculine than a purse, it was still considered a girl’s accessory. Nonetheless, I begged my parents to buy me one so I could keep all of my Gigapets in it. After hearing ‘boys don’t get things like that’ a million times, they finally broke down and bought one for me. They didn’t get it for with a smiling face and a spring in their step (I took care of that for them), but they needed some peace and quiet I guess.

The next day at school, I proudly strutted around showing off my new Gigapet purse/backpack. I thought I was something, but Jeff acted like he didn’t even noticed. Slightly hurt by this, the purse/backpack never saw those school grounds again. Now doesn’t that sound like we were dating? I still have that backpack in my closet and use it from time to time when I travel.

During PE, recess, lunch or any break in the action, Jeff and I would commonly compare notes on how our digital animals were doing, different ways of taking care of them, and how we could hide them during class. Jeff’s pets were always doing better than mine. Mine were always on their last leg about to kick the bucket. Jeff and I would even “baby-sit” each other’s Gigapets at times. Occasionally, his came back with the much talked about angel on the screen. Oops! Sometimes we would trade our Gigapets, much to the disdain of my parents. Toward the end of our Gigapet fad, we became abuser. We had grown tired of the annoying little things and needed a new twist to keep it interesting. So we would beat and starve the poor pixilated figures on our screens until we all felt happy inside again. After that lost its spark, we tossed the damn things and moved on to the next fad.

Jeff and I started going over to each other houses not long after we became friends. I went to his more than he came to mine. I remember everytime I wanted to go to Jeff’s house my dad made a big deal out of it (you can figure out why). If it were left up to him, I probably would never have gone to Jeff’s house. Sneaking out wasn’t an option either as the almost five mile walk to his house would have gotten me there by sunrise (and someone would have seen me, picked me up and brought me home to a less than favorable reception). Knowing my mom though, she probably talked to my dad about it early in the morning before my brother and me got up and told him to let me go since she knew we were both close friends. It wasn’t until the later part of junior high that I discovered these secret discussion times.

The most memorable time with Jeff was the night I spent with him at his grandparents’ house in town. We frolicked around their small yard until rain forced us inside. The weather was starting to get bad. After listening to a few stories from Jeff’s grandpa and eating some of his grandma’s crazy good cooking, we went to Jeff’s room in his grandparents’ house and I noticed the yellow glow coming in through his window. I’ve always been told when it’s yellow outside a tornado, hail, or both is on its way (oddly enough – and thankfully – neither has ever followed the yellow glow). I started getting nervous. Bad weather has always scared me. Jeff obviously noticed this because I remember him grabbing my arm as I looked out the window and telling me not to worry about it. How sweet was that? He didn’t have a TV in the room, so he turned on some Celine Dion and a few other artists very similar to her that we listened to late into the night as my concern about the weather slowly faded away. We talked needlessly about the newly released movie, Titanic. Jeff was in love with that movie! It was all he ever talked about. I got sick of hearing about it at times.

It finally came time for us to get in the bed. I remember both of us lying in bed facing each other, Jeff rubbing his leg up against mine and holding my arm (he never held my hand) as we both giggled, I a little nervously. As far as I can remember, nothing beyond that ever happened that night or any other time we were alone together. I can’t say I really enjoyed it though. It was a little awkward and confusing for me.

After the 5th grade, Jeff’s parents divorced and he moved to a different school. I was left all alone to fend for myself. He left with me a few of his diva skills though. He cracked my wrist a little… something I didn’t necessarily need going into junior high. Guilty by association and by then everyone had learned those special words. Most of my old friends had left me behind because of a combination of me spending all of my time with Jeff and them knowing what was different about him (and me too). The next three years would not be kind.

I haven’t seen or heard directly from Jeff since then, some nine years later. I have a habit though of disassociating myself with the people I went to school with before high school. The times weren’t particularly good and seeing those people again only brings back the memories. But I had heard through several people that Jeff had dropped out of high school. Being where he was, I don’t think I blame him too much as I know how the people at that school were and still are. I did, however, see his name in the arrest column in our local newspaper – drugs. I also found him on a personals website. He didn’t have a picture, but I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was him. He was listed as bi. Hmm…

The incident with Jeff was the closest thing I’ve ever had to a gay experience. Yes, you read that correctly – nothing has happened beyond that. Looking back though, I kind of wish Jeff had never left. Things were bound to happen if he had stayed and I don’t know that I would have had a problem with that. Plus, I would have had a buddy in those relentless junior high years. And who knows what might have happened between us? A gay powerhouse around that small country school? I guess I’ll never know, but I wish Jeff the best wherever he is now. Maybe someday in the future we will meet again.