We enjoyed a wonderful home cooked meal with two bottles of wine that we had brought for our hosts, including a nice domestic red and white from the Napa Valley area of California.

I glanced at my brother frequently, indeed seeing myself in him. His hair was as golden brown as mine. He wore it close cropped, conservatively parted on one side, squeaky clean with a nice shine. His eyes were dark brown like mine. We both had that cleft chin, inherited from our mother and we were both olive skinned. While he was a strapping six foot tall to my five foot six, there were so many other similarities Our smiles were the same and I could see myself in many of his gestures. It was amazing that I never really paid that much attention to it before.

When the children were excused to their bedrooms for the night, we stayed at the dining room table and chatted. Bette and Chuck talked about education, from his perception of being a high school teacher to her being the dean of a college. My brother was no match for her but he seemed to enjoy the ping pong back and forth of their repartee and Melissa and I enjoyed listening.

In fact, I listened very closely, hoping for a segue into our purpose in coming. Bette was ahead of me, though. She eventually touched on the subject of student behavior and gradually got to what I knew was her point. She said that her students were very open and progressive about such things as homosexuality, for example.

“It’s not unusual to see same sex couples holding hands on my campus,” she said. “In fact, some of the more bolder ones are openly affectionate without recriminations.”

Chuck laughed. “I’m afraid we’re more conservative in Milwaukee on that subject.”

He cited a situation that had recently happened in the halls of his school. Two boys were caught kissing and were punished for it. Their parents were called and the students were banned from extra curricular activities for the year.

“Do you ever see boys and girls kissing?” Bette asked.

“Yes,” said Chuck.

“And are they punished for it?”

“Yes, they are reprimanded but not as severely as those gay boys were.”