'She knew I was ready for business'

[Roger Baldwin (one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)):] My first sexual experience was with a maid in the house when I was about 12 or 13. She seduced me. I knew everything that was to be known, even how to prevent getting her pregnant. That lasted for two or three years. Right under the nose of my parents. We had adjoining bedrooms on the same floor. A big mistake to put boys up in the attic with the maids.

She was pretty enough but I don’t think I was making such distinctions. Good enough. She was an Irish maid. She left after a couple of years, went back to Ireland and raised a family. No emotion, a purely physical thing. She knew I was ready for business. She had seen me taking a bath and was aware I was prepared for an experience.

source: 'Roger Baldwin 1-12-72 5555 notes relating to his boyhood in Wellesley Hills' by Joseph P. Lash; Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Joseph P. Lash Papers, Container 49; www.consentingjuveniles.com/Case_Narrative?case=Roger_Baldwin; 12 January 1972