Friends give a helping hand

I am in my early 50s, maturing in the mid and late 1950s (before the "sexual revolution"). I have been married for 30-plus years. I began masturbating at the age of 8 or 9 (about 4th grade). I did not discover this amazing pastime by myself; rather, I was introduced to it by 2 friends, both older (10 and 11). This started before I had begun to physically mature, so my penis was only about 2 inches long when erect. I used 2 hands, sliding up and down the shaft. Rapid pumping up and down would get me to orgasm. Orgasms were dry but they felt good, so I continued to masturbate. After about a year I began to spontaneously lubricate, and by age 11 I was ejaculating and was fairly fully developed. I switched to a one-hand grip at this point.

Having been introduced to masturbation by friends, it was only natural that we would spend some of our time together masturbating. During the summer we often slept out, and on these occasions we (the 3 of us and sometimes a 4th) would masturbate at least twice before going to sleep. We often stroked each other at the start of our sessions, but usually ended up by getting ourselves off. (In contrast to lots of JackinWorld readers, we never considered this "gay" -- it just felt good!) We masturbated in garages, tents, under water, sitting in trees, in a boat...just about anywhere we found ourselves. In high school we would get together at least once a week. During the summer of my freshman year, the 3 of us took a camping trip and tried to see how often we could ejaculate in a day. The record was 10 times in 24 hours, and boy, was he sore! (I made it only to 4.)

Dating in high school was highlighted by a girlfriend who was fascinated by the whole process of ejaculation and enjoyed giving hand-jobs. While my wife-to-be and I did not believe in premarital intercourse, we did indulge in the exploration of each other's bodies and practiced mutual masturbation (something we still do). Once married I continued to masturbate, 2 to 4 times a week, well into my 40s. My wife, who was never as into sex as I was, took a lot of manual stimulation to get to orgasm. I bought a small battery-operated vibrator, and after much coaxing got her to agree to trying it. She literally orgasmed in 10 seconds -- it was incredible! After that, the vibrator became part of our sex life. She has orgasmed as many as 5 times in one hour. For the past several years, frequency of intercourse with my wife has increased and my sexual drive has abated somewhat, so I feel the need to masturbate only 2 to 4 times a month.

I never tried to see how long I could go without masturbating, but minor surgery on my penis (in my early 30s) kept me from ANY sexual activity for 5 weeks -- which seemed like an eternity! At first there was no guilt associated with masturbation and it was just fun. Later my Catholic upbringing intruded, and I felt a sense of guilt but continued to masturbate anyway. However, after counseling with 3 different priests and listening to their arguments for and against masturbation, I came to realize that for me, masturbation was okay. I have never regretted my decision.