how i busted my strip club cherry

Kimba commented on my recent post about a night in Kalamazoo that I should write about more strip club experiences.

During the waning years of my first marriage I had begun traveling to different parts of the country on business. Until I was past 30, I had never been to a strip club, and if any of my male friends at the time had been, it had never come up in conversation.

One afternoon in the late 80s, I found myself in Seattle, driving from the airport to my hotel downtown. Driving down Denny Way, I saw a sign that said "Razzmatazz -- topless" or something like that. Without forethought, I pulled into the parking lot and entered the club.

I had heard about "private dances" and even read an illustrated article in Playboy some years back about the new trend of "Texas couch dances."

As I remember, the club had a single stage with a girl dancing. It last late afternoon, and not too many customers in the place. Several dancers combed the room asking patrons if they wanted table dances. I kept saying no, especially as I wanted to witness what this was about before handing over money.

They had cards on the tables advertising "table dances" for $5. After a while a couple of the other customers did buy dances and I could see that the girls stood in front of them by the table, removed their tops and danced. I didn't notice much contact -- perhaps an occasional brush-up.

What I saw wasn't that intriguing, but I thought, "Here I am, I should experience this, and it's only five bucks."

A bit later, a dancer approached me to ask if I wanted a dance. She was pretty cute, and I answered "maybe." She asked if she could sit with me and I said sure, so she took the chair next to me and started a conversation. She, like so many dancers I've chatted with since, was working her way through school.

After a few minutes of this she leaned over, stuck her tongue in my ear, and asked, "Would you like the $5 dance or the $10 dance." This was a great introduction to the world of private dances, the opportunities and negotiations that often arise. I'm no dummy, I said "$10."

She proceeded to give me a dance that, while it wouldn't impress me in today's world of $30 lap dances, had a fair amount of leg-to-dick pressure action, blowing in ears, hair trailing over my head and chest and other things that were a great turn-on to a guy who was more than 15 years into a relatively sexless marriage. Schwing!

I know I had at least one more dance, and maybe two before thanking her and leaving to finish the trip to my hotel for check-in.

I knew I had opened a Pandora's Box of sorts. Although sexually frustrated in my marriage, I didn't want to have an affair. I realized that I could achieve a sort of sexual satisfaction (even without orgasm) this way. It led to many nights on the road experiencing a variety of clubs, and later to massage parlors and (only in Nevada) brothels.

Also, I found that trying to research the sex trade in each town I visited was a challenge and a fascination. Remember, this was before the internet. When I hit town, I would buy the local newspaper, pick up the alternative free weekly and anything else that held the promis of information, and then consult the yellow pages. I learned to parse language, especially with regard to massage joints, to determine what kind of place it was and what kind of experience to expect.

I still find myself doing this kind of research, now on the internet and in advance of a trip, even without any plan to engage in these activities. I love reading escort and courtesan web sites, reading reviews on TER and strip club sites, and finding local sex-trade info sites.