Richard Rosenberg

Chapter I The Beginning

Watsonville, California, December 28,1903.

Born to Naomi Rosenberg, nee Goldberg, a baby boy, five pounds, 9 ounces. Baby boy circumcised at birth. Father - Jacob Astor Rosenberg, prominent Apple Grower in Pajaro Valley.

Thus, in the wee hours of the night at the sprawling farmhouse set in the Orchards of apples, was born Richard Moishe Rosenberg. Mrs. Rosenberg later told her circle of Jewish Ladies it was a miracle of Chanuka, for having no children previously, at an old age, they were given a son. Little did she know that 18 years later she would insist that he be put out into the world and not to return.

Dickie, as he was called was an average infant, growing strong, and as a child was an obedient bay who- loved his mother and father, and they in turn loved him. As he grew, he was a good kid, a bright boy, and studious and playful. At the age of nine he started masturbation and soon realized that his fantasies were those of members of his -own sex. By the age of twelve he became more interested in his fantasies, fantasies which he sought to fulfill. A fact not difficult to do because other pubescent boys were as interested in experimentation as was he.

As a bright student he maintained good grades at the One Room Salispuedes School not far from his father's orchards. He loved going with his father through the orchards, anti, in the fall, when apple picking and packing took place, it was even more exciting to him because there were so many more workers in the groves, mostly men. Those days he would sometime climb an apple tree and scrutinize the men picking the apples, shaking the trees, and hauling boxes of apples by carts into the packing sheds. The aroma of apples was always equated to him as the smell of men, an arousing aroma.

He soon went to the three story wooden High School on East Lake Avenue, downtown in the city of Watsonville. There he maintained his grades to the point that he was a scholar student. He loved studying world history, geography and the English language. He sometimes looked at the world map, hanging down in front of the blackboards and look at all the lands and continents and countries, dreaming of faraway places.

High School was a little more difficult for him in terms of sexual affairs. Most of the boys who were his age, willing to experiment earlier, were now more interested in girls. It was difficult to find a suitable classmate with whom to share a secret hideaway, but find he did.

On graduation of High School his father enrolled him to the San Jose Teachers College, where after two months, he returned home. It was just not to his liking. He was beat up twice by other young men while there, and his style of openness was taboo Once, in a downtown department store in San Jose he was accosted By an older man, and ran. Only later he wished he had not run, perplexing him more about his own peculiar sexual situation.

In his last year of high school he had written a mystery novel. This he mailed way to a publisher in New York. To his surprise they bought it and sent him a check for $50. He told no one of this. The year following High School he wrote another mystery novel and this time received a $100 check Again he kept quiet about This . His father, not knowing about this, continued to give him an allowance, but was visibly displeased of his quitting the Teacher's College. He offered to