The Pill

What pill? There was a time when that question wasn't needed, it was simply "The Pill," and people slyly smiled and nodded. The pill, that pill, was a thing of beauty, a leap in bio-technology that started a revolution. From its initial release in 1961, prescribed to married women, its use ballooned in just two years to over million users as it opened the gates to a new sexual freedom for women, a freedom that helped fuel the sexual revolution of the '60s. Of course I was a bit young to really take notice of these modest beginnings.

Ah, but as I was entering my teens I began to take notice. People were talking about sex and war and so as I watched I witnessed one of the beautiful phenomena of the 1960s, the flower children. This was a group of young people who grew their hair long, dressed in wild, far-out fashions, experimented with drugs, protested against the war, but most of all they had sex, a lot of sex. These people, all presumably (in deference to the rules of Literotica) over the age of 18, though I had my doubts, seemed so beautiful as they danced in their colorful clothes to folk, rock and roll and protest songs and then they had sex.

Yeah I was at an age when I was heavily involved in sports and had a few favorite sports stars, but the real heroes I looked up to were the flower children. They were "out there" with the courage and conviction to be different, though many were all acting different together, they were still out there screaming "I exist, I matter," as they protested the war, protested ROTC programs in school and political hypocrisy in general. When the government stepped in to quell the protest, the flower children had the audacity to face down the soldiers, slip flowers into their rifle barrels and profess love to them all. Then they would all go back to their cars, their busses, their tents and houses and have sex.

I'd watch them on TV, the men and women chanting together, dancing together, running together through the tear gas, knowing full well they would, sooner or later that day, have sex. Beautiful wonderful sex all brought about by free love, the sexual revolution and the pill. Of course I also watched the horror of April and June in 1968, sang "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" with the delegates that delayed the Democratic National Convention for over fifteen minutes in a tribute to a man who would, sadly, never be President, I watched as the Chicago Police beat down the students and flower children who nominated a pig for President in the park and saw the dark clouds as Nixon was elected President.

In my mid teens I watched in amazement as Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon and then in horror in May of 1970 when American kids young enough to be my older brother or sister were shot down by American Soldiers, some young enough to be my older brother. It continued as in September Jimi Hendrix died at 27 and less then two and a half weeks later Janis Joplin died at 27. I didn't see as many flower children watching all that, yet I did remain optimistic, you see, millions of these people were still having sex.

Yes, my heroes were dwindling, I did read Abbie Hoffman's "Steal this Book," though I didn't steal it, a friend of mine lent it to me. I never returned it but that wasn't really stealing. I did finally have sex. I won't go into my age, but on a Spring Break in my past I met a woman from Vanderbilt University who did take the pill. Later, as I was finishing college my girlfriend began taking the pill and I rediscovered the joy of sex without a condom. Yes, there were no more nights running water into the used condom just to make sure it didn't leak. I always wondered what might happen if there was a leak, I mean the cow's out of the barn by then, if you excuse my cliché'. I'm sure if there ever was a leak I'd have been double or triple bagging it after that.

I don't remember the sun shining a lot after that for a while, Nixon got re-elected then resigned, Ford tried to teach us the mediocrity could be good, Carter was elected, which was good, but then the Iran hostage thing made it cloudy again. I did continue having sex, but it wasn't the wild and free bright shiny orgy of the sixties, I got married to my high school girlfriend, the one who later had me checking the condoms with water while we were in college, and sex was nice, calm and sedate.

The eighties came, with AIDs and the flower children of the sixties moved well into their thirties and some into their forties. One of the Chicago Seven ran for congress and actually won, there was peace, well not really, it's just that the United States wasn't directly involved in any real war at the time (we thought) and an ex-actor was President. Hey, a lot of people really liked Reagan. Me? Well I missed the sixties and the first Iraq war was on the horizon.

Years passed and "The Pill" became available in a patch, in an implant, and in something other than a daily dose. Of course sex for many became a life or death decision, for too many it was the latter. Birth control medication is now available in nearly forty different varieties and condoms are used for something more than birth control.

"The Pill" is not just a pill any more, in fact, some might argue it's no longer "The Pill." Yes ladies, step aside, there's a new sheriff in town now, it's The Pill, no not that little white one you took, it's blue and it's not for women. Viagra and its many competitors have brought back the sexual revolution and by God all us old and impotent wannabe flower children can suddenly have sex again.

It's the new sexual revolution and just like back in the sixties, when the men graciously helped the women explore their new sexual freedom, the sixty, seventy and eighty year old (not to mention the forty and fifty year old) flower children women are helping out too. Why just the other day on Oprah older women were discussing how they enjoyed pornography and they discussed the studies showing more and more women are purchasing and enjoying porn.

So now, as one President redefined what sex is and another continues to find new lows in mediocrity, it is good to know America is fucking once again. It took the wizened, old flower children, my heroes of the sixties to get it all started again. So now I once again watch all the action, waiting for the day that some hot mama in the nursing home bends over her walker to let me have her from behind.

"Make sure you wear a condom when you do that," she turns and says to me as she lifts her dress.

"A condom? Why you're way to old to get pregnant."

"Not me, I took the pill, I'm just waiting for the right guy to be the father," she replies.

"Oh no, not another pill," I moan to myself.

"And when you're finished run water in it and make sure it doesn't leak."