Having gone from longtime singlehood into a live-in relationship clear across the country, he felt he had lost his freedom of expression. Still he entered into marriage. And not long after, although the union continued, his wife’s health problems got in the way of conjugality.

Now he told her he’d never known anyone like her, that she had an energy and a passion for life that is very special. He said he was grateful to have met her and shared intimate moments with her. And he still fantasized about making love confusingto her.

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copyright Carolan Gladden

That said, she would love to see him. He was someone she could feel really close to. And she meant that in the nicest way imaginable. She so much enjoyed their shared music, photography, Brasil and African-American interests.

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copyright Carolan Gladden

But you, how exciting to have lived your dream and shared in such close proximity with the people you admire and love so much. I’m in awe of the fact that this lovely and loving white woman embraces culturally, emotionally, physically, me and my wonderful black folks just as I embrace you.

Really it’s just a matter of preference and admitting to those preferences. It’s our choice to make and our inalienable right to those choices.

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copyright Carolan Gladden

But then for what seemed like an eternity she had tried to end the marriage. Tried in ways good and bad, ways that helped or hindered the painful process of unwinding a marriage that had resulted in five children before she turned 25.

Marriage to a man firmly set on his own path. A path that suddenly detoured into the military and Europe. When she made the decision to pack up their baby and belongings and head to Orleans, France, knowing that his answer would have been a deafening NO.

Living for 14 months with a husband, a baby girl — and soon a baby boy as well — in a French apartment with its changed her life, saying to her, “There’s a world out there just waiting for you to discover and learn about it.”

However, the times being what they were, she had to get his permission to reach for jobs, classes, a new house, a vacation. And she never could get him to accept the new rock-n-roll music. As she later wrote, “Music so imperative you HAD to move to it. But not him — or me. At dances I’d shift from one foot to the other, avoid closing my eyes and dissolving into it. The glide, the hully-gully, the mashed potato, the swim, the jerk, the watusi … “

So came tries at counseling, then living separately, as she wanted the freedom to be herself. But ultimately he filed and forever said it was rock-n-roll that split them up.

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copyright
Carolan Gladden

“That the Defendant has treated the Plaintiff cruelly and subjected him to personal indignities rendering his life burdensome. That said cruel treatment and personal indignities consist of the following: That …

• Plaintiff left the family home as Defendant was continuously nagging at him and made life unbearable.
• Defendant finds fault with most everything that Plaintiff does.
• The parties fail to agree on any issues of importance including recreation, finances, etc.
• Defendant has been cold and indifferent towards Plaintiff.

“All of the aforesaid conduct on the part of the Defendant has occurred without any fault on the part of the Plaintiff and the same has caused him great mental worry, has greatly humiliated him and has rendered  his married life burdensome in the extreme and has caused the Plaintiff to lose his love and affection for the Defendant, and it is impossible for the parties to live together longer as husband and wife.

“Plaintiff is granted a divorce upon the grounds of mental cruelty.”

All we can say is thank heavens for eventual no-fault laws!

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copyright Carolan Gladden

“An ideal band for me would be two keyboard players, a drummer, a guitar player, a bass player, a conga player, three background singers, a three piece horn section, a 3-man road crew and enough money to pay them all well.”

Heaven on earth?! Yet, Curtis regularly wrangles spectacular sounds and lofty lyrics from his current small, tight group, as witnessed here, with “20 Years of BB King” …

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copyright Carolan Gladden

Ahhh …

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copyright Carolan Gladden

He had thought he’d simply find someone like her here, but that was a faulty assumption. A big mistake.

Of course over the years he had met and dated others, but never ever been able to recreate the magic. Now he realized he had taken someone precious for granted and oh how he regretted it.

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copyright Carolan Gladden

It seemed there was no explaining it … no matter what age I was,  no matter
what was on my mind,  what I should be doing or who might be around … I still succumbed to sun and heat … preserved the erotica in photos and prose, reveled in nudity, pleasured myself by hand or toy … and loved/loved/loved orgasms, the hotter the better …

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copyright Carolan Gladden