I foolishly left my journal at home yesterday. Well, not so much foolishly as forgetfully. I meant to bring it, knowing I was working a double. In actuality, though, I worked a tripple. The AM shift had two banquets overlapping.
Anyway, The Restaurant seems to have hired a pair of children. (I assume they are 14.) The one is about 5’8″, red headed, changed voice, and slightly overweight. The other, on the other hand, is 5’6″ (still tall for my usual taste), brown haired, skinny, unchanged voice, and has a very cute face. And beautiful skin. Quite attractive. They were stationed by the dish washer to clear a la carte servers’ trays.
Also that day, in my second room, there was a boy probably about nine years old who looked a lot like a slightly younger version of the boy in the JCPenny’s comercials on Hulu. (The Ice/Nice one.) Every time I walked out of the kitchen, or carried a tray toward it, he would watch me openly. He probably watched all the servers as they did their jobs, since the impression I got from him was one of strong curiosity. He was very cute. It seems to me that he was watching to see how the job worked. Where we went, who was where, what we were bringing in/carrying out.
He’s not the first boy to watch me so closely while I waited tables. Many weeks ago, near my beginning but after my training, there was a wedding when I had my tray stand right next to a boy I took to be around 10. He also openly watched my every move. I spent the whole time hoping he ‘d ask me questions. He never did, of course.
With the dish boy in the kitchen and the JCP boy in the dining room, I noticed that I worked harder, more diligently. I moved with greater purpose, made sure to smile, follow procedure, do everything with greater efficiency. It’s something I’ve thought of before, and even considered writing about but never did, in part because I never had this tool – the journal – that is so welcoming to such observations.
The observation being: boys inspire me. I mean, really. They have shaped me since I started noticing them. While being a pedophile/boylover in an intollerant society has shaped me in various ways – some positive, some negative – the boys themselves have only ever been positive influences.
So many pivotal moments can be dated to when I was 13. Christmas when I was 13 I discovered (rediscovered) my great-uncle’s colection of English men and boys choirs Christmas carol albums. Those recordings inspired more interest in the other classical LPs in the basement. I was drawn to them because of the boys’ voices, but in listening raptly I learned to love the music and the genre as well. I’d always had an interest in classical music, but that’s when it became a passion. In those other LPs I discovered Mozart, and then as my ears matured, Bach and Beethoven.
I bought from Boarders two CDs of boy music, also when I was 13 I think. A compilation recording of Westminster Cathedral Choir and a Vienna Boys’ Choir CD featuring mostly solos by an also 13yo Max Emanuel Cencic. The Cencic CD I loved, with its Handel, Mozart, Schubert and Strauss. At first I didn’t like all the 20th century stuff on the Westminster CD, but again the voices inspired me to grow. It eventually became my favorite CD.
A leadership position got me over my first hump in Boy Scouts (13 yo), but it was the boys (Candy, Orange Hat, Owl, CIA, N, Casper, Little Man, Fox, and finally The Beloved) that got me over the second, so I stayed to and beyond Eagle Scout.
Boys are the reason I joined the Citadel, and that has been an excellent post to have for many reasons.
I’m sure there are many more examples, but now I must eat, shave, change and go to work, yet again.
*I found some pages of skit scripts I wrote for skit night at music camp. Kinda funny. I was 14 when I wrote them, I think. I had horrible handwriting.
To all men else uncouth 