Bill Ryder in my family room, Spring 1979

While George labored in the kitchen, Bill Ryder, the third friend of the Academy gay trio, was shining his shoes, I believe, in my family room.

 

Bill had had some minor medical issues that Spring, but I think his main problem was that, discovering the bars and bathhouses of Denver, he partied way too much that Spring.  He failed enough courses that, meeting an academic board, he essentially flunked out and never graduated.  Like Dan, he was not even commissioned.  Instead, he was required to serve out his required time as an enlisted man.

 

The last I had heard was that Bill was stationed at Travis Air Force Base in Northern California.  He met a guy and they settled in together.  Whereas George had probably been a bottom, as had Dan, Bill was exclusively a top.  That and his relationship probably prevented his getting HIV.

 

After Dan moved from Denver, I never heard anything further about what happened to Bill Ryder, the only other survivor of our little group.

 

You can see that I went with chrome furniture and chrome lamps.  That couch and chair looked really nice; however, the fabric shed a lot when it was new.  Also, the fabric supports for the cushions tended to tear with repeated wear, especially with the larger, three-cushion chocolate fabric couch I bought for the living room.  I was always having to order replacement support pieces, take the couches apart, and fit them back together after the replacement. 

 

The little stools were part of a set of four that came with a game table that I had bought.  I used a stool to set a plate on when I was eating and watching TV on my large Advent 6-foot TV that I bought on credit that Spring.

 

In the window behind the couch, I had to put aluminum foil and heavier currents to block out the brutal afternoon sunlight that faded the picture of the projection TV had I not done so.

 

The family room, and other rooms in the house, would feature prominently in many photographs in the decade of the 1980's after I was forced to resign from the Academy.

 

I was able to get just under $10,000 as severance pay for having a regular commission.  That allowed me to buy some bedroom furniture, two dressers and a night stand and headboard, which I still have.  The headboard and night stand for the spare bedroom I sold off or gave away when I moved to Denver in 1991-2.

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