Swingers!
Roger “Roj” Emocle is ninety but looks much younger. His thick hair laps his forehead in a messy wave of white tendrils. He still lives at home, and after arranging it with his grandson, we agreed on a Zoom call to talk about swinging.
Couple swinging.
“In the Air Force, stationed in California, we all did it,” he tells me, “we’d have parties, wild-wild west ones, and at the end of the night we’d just wind up with each other’s wives.”
“What about later?” I asked.
Roger squints into the screen. This is probably his first Zoom, I think, but he later would tell me he Zooms with his family.
“In the 1970s and on it was a popular thing. Not for me. I settled down then, after my first divorce.”
Sexual experimentation via partner swapping and other taboos is nothing new. In the 1950 and 60s, Air Force pilots — like Roger — traded wives like baseball cards, and later, movies and books portrayed the era with memorable scenes (leaving keys in a bowl at a cocktail party, etc.).
Roger squinted again and massaged his neck. Comfort gestures. I sensed he wasn’t completely comfortable with our topic.
“I guess you can say that it became a chore. The jealousy between everyone.” Roger paused and titled his head to someone offscreen. He moved his face closer. “I realized I missed having that one person. One person to depend on.”
Roger’s response surprised me at first. He agreed with the sacred creed of a singular monogamy.
Yet, he was from a different generation, a generation that coveted it. As you’ll see, this generation disagrees. Or does it? But I’m getting ahead of myself.
(See the full story here.)
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