A girl named Betty

The following peace was on the GayTalkRadio show Feb 3, 2009 at 9 AM (PST).

Girl Named Betty

In the mid to late 1979’s I met a “cigar smoking” woman on the CB radio. But we ain’t talking your normal smoking tobacco if you know what I mean. For this story I’ll call her Darla.

Back in those days I wasn't so proud of my god given sexuality and I didn't really notice Darla wanted more than just friendship.

Our friendship lasted a couple years.

Her father was a city councilman and he mentioned me to the Chief of Police and I got an interview with the police department.

Darla had a friend named Betty who she introduced me to. Betty was kind of a country girl at heart.

I remember the first time I met Betty was when Darla and her pulled up in an old
car with no passenger seat. It was Betty's car and Darla was sitting on a sack of seed on the passenger side.

Betty had a husband and a son. Her son, we'll call him Dirk, was probably 2 or 3 years old when I first met him and his mother.

His father wasn't around much because he worked on the oilrigs in the Gulf of Mexico. So he would be gone at work for weeks at a time.

One day Darla let me know her intentions regarding me. I was left no other choice and had to tell her I was gay.

Luckily she didn't say anything to her father. The news didn't get out. Darla met another guy, married him and off they went. I kept my job on the police force.

Betty and I became pretty good friends. She was fun to be around.

Perhaps a year or more went by and Betty ended up leaving her husband. She and her son came to live with me. I remember everyday, as I put on my police uniform Dirk would come into my room. He was still learning new words and wanted to know the words for everything I would put on. Gun belt, extra bullets, handcuffs, gun, name plate, collar and other assorted insignia.

After awhile of that he was naming everything all by himself.

I remember one time I went off to work. Dirk wasn’t around that week. He was with his father. Betty somehow got the bright idea to handcuff herself to the couch. Unfortunately she didn’t have a handcuff key. So she was stuck there until I came back home (which was many hours later).

When I arrived she was fit to be tied (literally). Of course I couldn’t stop laughing and that did not help the situation what so ever.

After a few months of staying with me Betty and her husband got back together. I kind of helped with that and sort of regret it now.

Next thing you know, she was pregnant again. She would give birth to twin girls.

They all ended up leaving Texas and going to Louisiana where his family had a little land.

The years passed and it was now 1985 and I was with my first lover. We decided to visit the Worlds Fair in New Orleans that year. Betty lived about 2 hours from there so we arraigned to stay at her place.

I was surprised when we arrived because her husband wasn't there. She told me he couldn't find any jobs in that rural area so he went to Dallas to find work. She added that he would send for the family when he had saved up enough money.

I don't remember how long she said he had been in Dallas but it had evidently been too long.

Betty talked my lover and me into taking her, her kids and their belongings back to Texas.

So we did. Upon arrival and unable to locate her husband where he was supposedly
staying, we took her, the kids and her stuff over to her mothers house.

Turns out her husband was living with another guy in apartment and was busy going to the gay bars every night.

Of course this explains why he couldn't save up enough money to send for the family.

Betty and her husband would try joining swinging couples clubs and many different
aspects before the eventual end. Her husband finally told her he was gay and had to live his gay life

He would end up contracting HIV very quickly and passing away within 2 years.

Betty ended up with the wrong crowd which cost her 5 or so years in the federal
penitentiary. During that process her ill husband would talk Betty into signing
guardianship papers to his mother, her mother-in-law.

Betty’s husband passed on and when she got out of prison she was only allowed supervised visits with her children. Seems her mother-in-law had practically brainwashed the children regarding Betty. How terrible she was.

Dirk the son, being raised by the same “mother” as his father was ending up with some similar issues. Dirk wanted to speak with me on a couple occasions but was denied a way to contact me.

Dirk asked his mother how she would feel if he was having similar feelings like his father had. Dirk said he would like to speak with me about it. His mother would not give him my phone number or instructions on how to get to my house.

Dirk ended up living in the streets of New Orleans for a while. Finally he was forced to go back to his grand mother's house to live.

When Dirk was in his early twenties he drove his car into a tree. The impact was so great the engine was found over 100 yards away from the point of impact.

The twin girls both had early pregnancies and some problems with STDs.

Betty has found religion and the bible. She and I no longer speak.