My Mother started stripping on the burlesque circuit when I was 6 years old. Thinking back, that would have been in 1971 when she started dancing. She had just divorced, and was on her own raising me and my sister. I remember her agent booking her at different burlesque theaters around the country. She was just starting to dance on the burlesque circuit when she sent me to military school.
I went to military school the first 5 years of grade school. It was a boy's military school in Bloomington Springs, Tennessee. The school I went to took boys from the first to the 5th grade. I remember the first day she took me there. I did not want to go. I loved traveling on the road with Mother, and wanted to travel with her on the burlesque circuit. Now, looking back, I can see why she couldn't take me with her; home schooling was illegal back in the 1970's. And she wanted me in a safe environment.
I remember watching her drive off after taking me to the school. It was the end of summer, and I wouldn't get to see her again until Thanksgiving. I can't explain how it felt watching her drive away. Words can't explain it. That first day, I couldn't stop crying. And I cried myself to sleep that night on the bunk bed.
I ended up really loving being at military school. But I still wish I could have travelled with her on the road all those years. I did get to travel with her in the summers. But it never was enough....
My Mother, the Old Stripper, aka PHONE SEX GRANDMA:
