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impala

The People's Republic of Pennsylvania

Back when I was a much younger man I first went to a strip club with some buddies of mine. We were in high school (I was 17) and was told of a little road house a few towns over that had strippers and that if you slipped the bouncer a $20 he would let under-agers in. Now, for reference, it was the late 80's and a lot was overlooked, plus a 20 dollar bill went much further then). We were green, and would had done just about anything to see naked women. When we arrived we all had a story to tell to get in, how we had lost our ID's, what our age was, how we come all the time, etc., etc., etc., and was so nervous i think I almost threw up in the parking lot. Once inside we all just handed the bouncer are $20 and sat at a table (looking back at it many years later he probable would had just let us in, and did we ever look like idiots just going in and handing the dude $80 in total).

We were so afraid of getting busted that we didn't even drink beer, just sodas. But once at that table my life changed forever, as there were naked women just walking around. Now, I will tell you the place was dark and run-down, and stank of stale beer and cigarettes, but I didn't care. The women weren't stunners, and actually thinking back they kinda looked tired and had a look of almost depression to them (remember, the late 80's, stripping was more of an act of desperation back then). They could tell, though, this group of young guys had no idea what we were doing, and showed us a REALLY good time, and took us for just about all the money we had. I did have an older one (probably early 30's) give me a BJ in the parking lot, and I think (if I remember correctly) it was $10. See, back then, I had no idea what was what, as did none of us. All we knew was that in strip clubs there were women that got naked and would do stuff that the girls we tried to date wouldn't.

I didn't go to a strip club again until my early 20's, and by then my attitude had changed. I liked the Go Go bars where I could get a beer or two, have a couple of girls rub their ass in my lap and their boobs in my face, and then move on to the next. I didn't have a lot of money back then, so I would actually have to save up for a couple weeks between visits. Sure, some of the girls wanted to go to the back room, and there were offers of extras, but first I just didn't have the bucks for what they wanted, and second, I wasn't that desperate (I was a half way decent looking guy and why pay when I thought I might find it somewhere else for free). But, Like most of us, it was a social environment, good beer, great views, and boy did I try to date some of those dancers. I was naive enough to actually think that the attention I was getting was that they were into me, and not that they just wanted my wallet.

My late 20's I got married and it lasted for a few years, during which I didn't go to strip clubs. I thought that my strip club days were behind me, and that all those guys going were pathetic losers. Well, my marriage came apart in my early 30"s, and this "pathetic loser" started going back to the strip clubs. Again, my attitude had changed. I was angry with women and how they used men, and looked at dancers as objects and not people. I also discovered (or actually, rediscovered), that for the right amount of coin with the right dancer you could get just about anything you wanted. Strip clubs became the place I went to find sex, whether in the back room, or later at some destination. I didn't want a relationship, just to stick my dick into someone. That went on for years.

But, becoming a regular at a few places I started to actually meet the dancers for who they were, and the funny thing was that the ones that didn't fool around in the back I actually started to hang around with. They were single moms with 3 jobs trying to just get by, college girls working their way through school, or women that just got laid off and were just trying to stay above water. My attitude once again changed, and I had several relationships with dancers in that time.


Now, well into my 40's, I look at strip clubs in a different light than I did as a younger man. I'm not saying that I don't visit the back rooms to "sample the menu's" or get some take out, especially at a club where i'm not know and odds are I won't be back for a while (my job takes me all over the country). I look at strip clubs now more for entertainment value, a place to kill some time, drink some beer, see some good looking women naked, and maybe have a little extra fun.

When I started writing this article I didn't know exactly what I was going to say or write. I had an idea, but I think the need for me was to look back and reflect on my journey that I have taken. Sure, I have left a lot of gaps, some on propose and some not intentional. I have met many many people. I have "fallen in love" a few times and been hustled even more. I have had people that I thought were my friends only to be betrayed, and ones that I didn't realize were until I screw it up. Strip clubs are a microcosm, a world of excess and envy, feast or famine, and in that world it is easy to get caught up in it.