I have been promising to start writing this memoir for forever… I have a Gold medal in procrastination on this project not because I’m lazy but because I may have set the bar way too high for myself - which has led to a lot of second guessing and delays - because hey, if you never start, you can never fail, right?

So I’m starting. Here goes.

I grew up in Mosinee, Wisconsin, population 3,000, a paper mill town along the banks of the Wisconsin River. If it sounds idyllic, it was - beautiful country - trees, fields, rivers and even a mountain nearby. I often describe my hometown as a Norman Rockwell painting come to life. My hometown gave me a decent education and some values that have seen me through a long and winding life and I am definitely the better for having grown up there.

But, like many, I had the desire to go out into the world - I wanted to embrace whatever was out there and, as a comics loving, cartoonist, theater kid and closeted gay man, there just didn’t seem to me to be a lot for me if I had stayed.

I think of it this way - my brother tells the story of bringing a male friend home from college one weekend and the guy happened to wear red tennis shoes. For Mosinee in the early 80s, apparently this a major sin - when they went out drinking (as people do in Mosinee) to a dive bar, it wasn’t long before one of the older drunk guys sitting in the back of the bar said in a voice that boomed to my brother and his friend who were seated at the bar in the front of the room - ‘WHAT KIND OF MAN WEARS RED SHOES?’. I wasn’t there, of course, but I imagine that the whole place got very very quiet and, from the way he told the story, it was at this point, my brother, suddenly, I think, realized just where he was, and rushed the friend out the door before anything could happen (you know, like a fight… over RED SHOES!).

I kinda felt that even without the actual red shoes, it wouldn’t be long before I’d do or say something that would elicit a similar reaction and threat. I was the subject of a lot of teasing (and some physical threats) growing up (“fem”, mostly but a few “fa**ot” s here and there) and that was with me just being artsy and sensitive; how much worse would it if I came out. I mean, that was still years in the future at the time I graduated high school, but I knew the score and I knew it was time to get out.

But I eventually found and later even created a community or two where I could wear all the pairs of red shoes I wanted to (like the current ones below). That would take some time but it was well worth it.

To be continued…

Sending out this message to let you know that, at long last, I’m going to start posting my memoir, JOHNS AND MARYS, this week. I’m also launching a new serial, THE NANNY & THE PROFESSOR this week in MEMO (the comic strip). Both will be posted weekly for the foreseeable future.

Since there seems to be some ongoing confusion on how to subscribe to specific newsletters, I’ve added ALL existing subscribers to each of my newsletters (Andrew’s Totally Awesome Substack, MEMO the comic strip, Today’s True Story, and Johns and Marys) but you can always unsubscribe.

It seems as though I must have set the site up wrong initially so I apologize for this in advance. I’ve tried to get some assistance from fellow Substackers (since Substack itself has no customer service) to figure out how to fix it, but ‘sigh’ it looks like I’m on my own when it comes to this.

Anyway, keeping this short, thanks for the support/interest and please drop a note to say hello.

Best,

Andrew

Below: “Sunrise in the 10708” by Andrew Altenburg