It was almost scandalous when a swingers club opened in my hometown of 45,000 people in 1997. People thought those types of places had vanished by the end of the 1970s. Nope. That year about 20 likeminded couples rented a downtown locale that at various times had been a ceramics store, a yoga studio, and a martial arts dojo, and converted it into a fucking facility for couples who enjoyed swapping sexual partners. The locale was cleverly called Swap Meet.
I, Arnie Madison, was 33 years old at the time. As I hold libertarian viewpoints about allowing adults to do whatever they want to do as long as it is consensual and harming no one else, I had no qualms with the place at all. In fact, I learned that my neighbors, Bob and Millie McCord, were members there from Day One. From conversations with them I learned how the place operated.
Membership was only open to male/female couples. They didn't have to be married, but that was the norm. To acquire membership, the couple underwent an interview process to make sure they were healthy and responsible people who were not especially weird or sleazy. A few applicants did not pass muster according to the panel that accepted or denied memberships.
The club was open each weekend starting Friday at 1 p.m. until 11:59 on Sunday nights. You had to come as a couple, disrobe in the unisex changeroom, shower for the purposes of hygiene, and enter the "playing area" nude. The floor was covered with numerous, cushy gymnastics type mats on which people got friendly, if they chose to do so. Typically, one couple would change sexual partners with another couple, but that was not an ironclad rule.
If three couples happened to arrive at about the same time, there might be a case where Male A paired up with Female B, but Male B got together with Female C, and so forth. You get the picture. No one was forced to copulate with anyone. Sex acts were all completely voluntary.
The participants were responsible for tidying up and sanitizing their fucking area once they had finished their business. I thought that was very quaint.
At its peak of prosperity, Swap Meet had nearly 50 member couples who paid $250 per month for the upkeep of the place. Over time, however, the novelty of Swap Meet began to wane. Its members got older (and less sexually active) or moved away. A few died. By 2015, membership numbers dipped to just fewer than 20 couples, so the remaining members decided to liberalize the rules to attract new people. You could now join as an individual for a monthly price of $180. Its older members jokingly referred to the revamped version of their club as "Swap Meet 2.0" .
New applicants still were screened to keep out the riffraff, but overall membership at Swap Meet returned to its heyday levels. There was a local newspaper story about Swap Meet's membership crisis. When the numbers rebounded and the club was saved, an updated story was published. A reporter interviewed one anonymous, longtime member who humorously said, "Thank heavens! I can continue to have sex with someone else other than my wife.
I'm sure she feels the same way about me."
Among the new members was…me! As soon as membership became available for individuals, the McCords paid me a visit to officially promote Swap Meet. I was 51 and unmarried. The latter characteristic would have disqualified me under the old rules, but it did not anymore.
Bob said in his sales pitch, "This is perfect for you, Arnie. I assume you're a healthy male who enjoys sex.
Now you can drop in during the weekend, befriend some agreeable female, and do what men and women are designed by nature to do. What can be better than that?"
Millie agreed. "Arnie, off the top of my head, I can think of at least 10 female members who are about your age who would love to fuck with you. One of them is me!"
I chuckled aloud, but that last bit of info convinced me to join. Millie McCord was a fetching and busty brunette beauty whom I'd long admired from afar. Getting a chance to screw her—with the approval of her husband—was a dream come true.
"Do you have an application form with you?" I asked.
Part Two