Cougar By Gene Fredericks Part of Memoirs of a double visionary Most memories from my time in Greenwich Village are not entirely clear, but some are vivid, like scenes. My night with what we now call a “cougar” was one. As a little background, I would go to NYC before I was of legal drinking age. In New Jersey, that was 21, in NYC, 18. I would go into the city when I was 17 and spend lots of time at a Jazz club in the Village called Jacques. I don’t know what gave me the nerve to ask for a drink, but I did know I had to ask with a confidence that did not cause the bartender to question my right to have a drink. I drank rum and Coke with a squeeze of lime. After the first couple of times at Jacques, I knew I was safe. They served me, and it was their issue now, but that never came up, and I was never carded. Eventually, I turned 18, and I was legal. I went to Jacques enough to become a regular and I got onto their dart team. I’d drink my rum and coke, play darts and join conversations about all kinds of stuff. Several of the people were actors and all, at a certain level, were philosophers, or at least people with opinions they were willing to defend. There was a very strong Objectivist contingent and without knowing what it was called I found out I was a Logical Relativist. That doesn’t really matter to the story but the fact that I was socially and intellectually connected to a Village bar scene does matter. There was a woman, whose name has escaped me long ago, who loved to debate philosophy. She introduced me to Ann Rand and Stravinsky. We’d drink and debate. I’d stop from time to time to take my turn at the dartboard, then we’d get back into whatever it was we were debating about. It was all very exhilarating. She was an attractive woman, I guess she was in her 30’s. There were always guys trying to talk with her, and she was very open to having them around. One night we were having the next episode in our ongoing debate and there was enough distractions in the bar that she said, “Come on let get out of here and continue this with less distractions” I said “Sure!” Not really thinking much of it except that I enjoyed her company. We walked, I don’t know, several blocks, and got to a brownstone. I think it was in SoHo, but SoHo wasn’t SoHo then. It was just a run down tenement building somewhere south of Houston. We went up to her apartment. I think it was on the 3rd or 4th floor. The dark stairwell is all I remember. We got to her place and went in, still talking about something philosophical. She flicked on the flight and there it was. I wouldn’t say it was messy, but it was definitely dingy! It looked like the set from the Honeymooners. There was a bathtub in the room, which was also the kitchen. A board covered the claw foot tub and made it into a table. I sat down at the makeshift table and she asked if I wanted a drink. “Sure” I said. “I only have red wine is that OK?” “Sure” I said. She handed me a tumbler of red wine and sat next to me. Well the debate slowly changed and took on more of a foreplay twist. I was young but not that naïve, although I was not expecting it. I couldn’t see any reason to turn down her offer and our philosophizing turn to biology and we retired to the boudoir, which was a tiny room off the kitchen, bath and living room combo. What followed was also an exhilarating new experience, which eventually led to exhausted sleep. I woke up and had to go to the bathroom. I got out of bed and went into the combo room, which I surmised must be where the bathroom was. I turned on the lights, and what seemed like a dozen cockroaches ran for cover. I shook my head and looked at the scene. I was kind of grossed out. I went into the bathroom, which had those adult female touches with lots of makeup items, containers, and stockings hanging above the sink. It wasn’t dirty, just in use! I remember there was a rust stain in the pedestal sink, and the water dripped. I looked in the mirror and shook my head. “Well, this is interesting,” I thought. I went back into the combo zone, and a few cockroaches were bold enough to be out. I turned off the lights and went back to the tiny adult recreation room. She rolled over and said, “Do you want to stay?” I thought for a moment and said, “No, I'd better go.” She said, “OK,” and gave me a little kiss, which expressed an odd feeling of gratitude and the distinct acknowledgment of our age difference. It was like she gave me a pat on the head. I smile and said, “OK well thank you!” She smiled and I left to go back to where I crashed when I stayed in the city. It was the apartment of some coworkers in the theater district near the Film Center building. I worked as a Kinescope operator. My friend were nudist, well at least in their apartment, but that’s for another story for another time. I didn’t have a key to the apartment yet and I rang the bell.David opened the door naked and let me in. I told him and his equally naked girlfriend of my age gap sex exploits and they seemed to enjoy it! I did kiss and tell but no more than just about the kiss. The story after all wasn’t really about the sex, well maybe a little.