Mazer Oral Herstory Project, "Jinx Beers Interview: Love At First Sight", Jinx Beers and Angela Brinskele, Jinx Beer's Home, 2013/11/21
[caption: The June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives]
[caption: Real Life Lesbian Stories from our Oral Herstory Project]
[caption: Jinx Beers tells the story of the first time she ever lived with a woman.]
[caption: No lesbian will come to a tragic end in this video.]
Beers: I was stationed in the Air Force, in Germany–
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Beers: –for two and a half years, four years, in the military. And then eventually, I came out. And like most people, I went back home to live. I didn’t have any clothes, I didn’t have anything, I didn’t have a job–you know how it is when you first get out. And at any rate, my mother did go to church; and I’m not a church person, I’m not a religious person, but once in awhile, I would go with her to church–just to go with her. And we were sitting in church, and I’m looking at this woman in the choir. And I turned to my mother and I said, “Who is that woman who’s up there in the second row?” I think she was, like, third from the right or something. I said, “Who is that woman?” And she said, “That’s MRS. So and so,” is what she said. And I said, “Thank you.”
And as it turned out, what I actually did was, I joined the choir, in order to meet this woman. You talk about love at first sight; you know, I’m not sure I believe in love at first sight, but it’s happened to me, so I do! I maneuvered myself so that I was sitting next to her; got to know her; invited her out to dinner one night; took her out to dinner, and on the way home, I went right by her house, drove right by her house and parked, about half a block down, and turned toward her to kiss her. And I did kiss her, but she had absolutely no reaction whatsoever–just sat there. And I thought, “Oh, shit, I didn’t, you know–WRONG!” So I went around the block, just went forward, went around the block, stopped at her house, let her off, and that was it. I came back and I saw her the next day. And I cornered her in the kitchen, and I thought, “I’m going to try this again.” So I cornered her, and I kissed her again–and this time, she kissed me back.
And I ended up living with her. My mother could not understand why I wanted to move from my home into Mrs. So and So’s home, whose husband–and she was married, but her husband was in Alaska. He was a furniture mover, and during the summertime, while the weather is still reasonably good in Alaska, he would go up there and he would earn a year’s living–because everything costs so much more. So he was gone, making his living in Alaska when I took over his wife. He eventually came back later that year, a little bit surprised to find he no longer had a place in the bedroom, because I was sleeping there. He got to sleep on the couch for a while until he could find himself a place to live–remember, he didn’t know he wasn’t going to have a place to live when he came home. So the three of us lived there for a couple of weeks until he could find someplace else to go.
But that was Virginia. And we did stay together about five years, the first couple of which were really great, the last couple of which were not so great. She really couldn’t handle being a lesbian and she was afraid of what other people would say. I think she did pretty good lasting three or four years, you know, with the difficulties she had. But she sang with the Sweet Adelines if you’ve heard of them. And I joined Sweet Adelines to be with her. And I need you to understand that I really don’t sing! So for me to join a choir, to start with a church choir is sort of ridiculous–but, of course, church choirs never turn anybody down! And then I was in Sweet Adelines but not in a quartet–just in the chorus. At any rate, that was my first person that I lived with. And it was an interesting experience.
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[END OF VIDEO]
"Love at First Site" story told by Jinx Beers, founder of the Lesbian News (LN) during an oral history for the Mazer Archives as part of our True Life Oral History Project.
Jinx has also written a book entitled, "Memoirs of an Old Dyke" by Jinx Beers.
Interviewee: Jinx Beers
Interviewer: None
Transcriber: Aliyah B.
Transcriber: Dave P.
Formatter: Serena R.
Recording Date:
Release Date: December 31, 2013
Location: Unknown
Interview Length: 00:05:03