[fingpilot]

I had this surgery done in sixth grade, the string method. When all is done, you have a string tied to a ball, exiting your sack, and then taped to your leg just above the knee. The scar runs from your hip/beltline along the inner part of the groin to just above the pelvic bone. Mind you, this is 1966. A Catholic altar boy, in a Catholic hospital in a small town (Oxnard, Ca.).

While I had had the 'talk' with my Dad ( a Dentist), it was in a 1962 MGA doing 100MPH along a beanfield road one night on the way home from a sailboat race. I remember hearing the words 'pecker' and 'burn in hell' and something about it didn't get any better even after being married. That was all I 'officially' knew about that.

So I go into the hospital to have this surgery done, most of what they were gonna do was a little unclear, but not to worry, it will all turn out OK. All the docs and nurses knew my Dad, so I felt reasonably ready.

Imagine my horror waking from the surgery, finally left alone in the recovery room, and 'feeling around' 'down there'......

A week or two went by, I discovered that I had to learn to walk again, and in a gown with the back end pretty much open to whoever was behind me. Late one afternoon, a classmate came in to see me, but unlike prior visits, this was a girl, and all by herself. She brought the card, signed by most of the class, saying get well soon, and some homework the nuns had assigned me to keep me reasonably up to speed.

This particular little Catholic girl was a distant friend, but was one of the ones in class that had 'developed' early, and truly was a 'standout' in any lineup. She pulled a chair up alongside the bed and confided (we were the only two in the room), that she had had the exact same surgery a year or so earlier and she had turned out perfectly OK.

So here I am, picturing this bloody yarn-string tied to one of my privates, and trying to figure out how they had done that to this girl. My mouth was hanging open, and she kept asking if I was all right.... she ran out into the hall and got the doc..... He dismissed her, and asked me what was wrong. Of course I spilled the beans, and he fell out of the chair laughing, followed by the entire floor of nurses all laughing their butts off.

It took me a long time to adjust to this deprivation.