On reflection, it was entirely my own fault. My sexual feelings didn’t start until I got to be 15, and nearly 16. I didn’t realise at the time that boys are different, and that they can experience puberty at 12 or 13.
I was a teenager in the California of the early 1980s – when the economy was booming, crime at least seemed to be down and the sunshine was everywhere. Coming on the heels of the malaise of the 70s, this was a ‘feelgood’ and ‘let it all hang out’ era.