Oscar was brought up in a era that introduced Elvis Presley, also The Temptations, and The Kingston Trio.There were groups, such as The Greasers, The Preppies, The Jocks, and The Beatniks. Oscar came from a Greaser neighborhood, went to a Preppie High School, and thought the Beatniks were cool. This became of concern especially when he obsessively tried to style his hair. Now a teenager, he outgrew his golf ball bouncing. He tried the DA, referring to a Duck's Ass, The waterfall, and buzzcut.
Each cut required different clothes and since his family had little of it, he often found himself shopping with his buddy, Louie, on the East Side, where he could find bargains at Robert Hall, Federal's, Crowley's, and small shoe stores that offered weekly sales. No matter what outfit Oscar found, he did not seem to impress his fellow classmates. Most of them were jocks or intellectuals. He finally discovered, to his surprise, that he loved to dance. Sock hops became his life. He found it was a great way to meet girls because most guys couldn't dance and most girls wanted to dance. He did the: Pony, Monkey, Swim, Twist, Watusi, and whatever else came down the pike.
He watched American Bandstand to learn some of the smooth moves,which unfortunately, became the name of a popular laxative in his later years. But then again, he was a trend setter. He introduced The Penguin, which had it's run as dances. Later he created a mock social club, SCOA, which meant Scrap Club Of America. It grew and he designed logos for sweatshirts.
The Club took group trips to Boblo Island, an amusement park near Detroit. Everyone enjoyed both the boat ride and the island. There was a small band and bar on the boat and people drank and danced, usually through the whole trip.
Oscar disliked sports, but he did like going to the gym, especially the locker room. The smell of sweat, dirty uniforms, and jock straps seemed strangely appealing. At that time, Oscar didn't know why. He had been indoctrinated by the nuns and knew it was a mortal sin to touch himself or others or to have impure thoughts or desires. He found that although these were sins, he couldn't help himself. His member seemed to be in a constant state of arousal. Little did he know, 99% of his classmates went through the same thing. They were male teenagers.
Oscar had not been good in sports and the only reason the boys tolerated him was because he let them copy his homework. The girls liked him since he enjoyed playing jacks, hopscotch, and dress-up. He was too young to know that Broadway show tunes existed. Oscar's father wanted him to be like other boys. He dragged him to baseball games, kicking and screaming, and forced him to play. "You swing like a girl. You can't catch a ball, sissy." After one too many jeers, Oscar climbed the fence behind home plated attempting to escape the torture. The coach eventually coaxed him to come down and told his father that he didn't think he was cut out to play baseball. His father cursed under his breath, took him home, and ignored him the rest of the week. Oscar was confused. He knew it was something all the other boys did but he hated it. He'd rather read or dance. What his father had forgotten, or tried to forget, was that when he five, his father had asked him to wear a grass skirt and do the hula. Oscar obeyed and people thought he was funny. Dancing= funny, sports= cruelty. In some ways, his father had contributed to his identity crisis, unknowingly. Or perhaps, his father had secret wishes to wear the skirt.
Oscar would never know. Instead, he began having nightmares and walking in his sleep. Once he woke up and realized he was peeing in his father's shoes. His father was quite angry about this. But, Oscar had been sleep walking and could not be held accountable for his actions.
