Going to the Strip Club

By Charlie Hunt

In Going to the Strip Club, a divorced, middle-aged man named Charlie is a frequent visitor of his local strip club. During his time there, he begins to study and decode the interpersonal interactions that occur in the seemingly secretive world full of bartenders, bouncers, dancers, hostesses and patrons. Hunt seeks to offer greater insight into

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Release date: Mar 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638370109

Charlie Hunt

Charlie Hunt was raised in the conservative South. He joined the Navy and took full advantage of the opportunity to see the world. He has had a colorful career from a day laborer working in construction to an executive role for a multi-national company. Going to the Strip Club is his first book.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Amber

A

mber is my favorite dancer. Overall, she has a petite build. She has long, below-the-shoulder red hair, that always is freshly washed and smooth. Amber has a bust size of 34B, but to me they look bigger. She is a free spirit and does not like to wear a bra. She does a great job with her makeup, a natural look, and her eyes are always clear and bright. At my third meeting, I learned she is 5’2 and weighs 100 pounds. She easily gave up her height but whispered her weight. Gentlemen are not supposed to ask women their weight or age, but I had a reason for asking. It was coming up on a special Stockings and Heels" theme night at the cabaret. The reason I asked Amber for that information was I wanted to give her a pair of nice stockings. Secrets in Lace (Leesburg, Virginia) is a company that makes 100% nylon, sophisticated, leg stockings. They are high-quality stockings. I know from personal experience they do not run easily. The stockings from Secrets in Lace come in five different sizes: petite, small, medium, long, and opera. I just wanted them to fit.

Amber and I connected immediately on our first meeting. She is very smart. She used to be a graduate student studying neuroscience at the medical university. Now I am a stripper, Amber told me with a short laugh. That is what I like about Amber. She knows who she is and what she is all about. I think she enjoys her work. Amber is hands-down the best conversationalist out of all the dancers at the club. She is familiar with the members of the Supreme Court. She is interested in politics and can tell you the names of the governors of California and South Carolina, as well as what she thinks about them. Somewhere in her past Amber connected with a Navy sailor – a nuc. That is my background, I was a Submarine Warfare Officer. Amber even asked me what boat I was on. Her past, be it a husband or boyfriend, had taken her to San Diego.

Amber did an unusual thing at our first meeting. She offered up her phone number. Now, normally, I would have to carefully plan my approach to ask any woman for her phone number, yet Amber wanted me to have it. The next week, I asked her why. Her reply was: You are an interesting guy. You are smart. We do not get a lot of guys like that in here. Later I looked it up on the internet and searched for Why would a stripper give out her phone number? There were two plausible explanations: #1, the stripper was sincerely interested in the guy, and #2, strippers do it as a sales technique. For the latter explanation, strippers make money off lap dances. In a big way, they are their own sales force. On slow nights, some strippers text regular clients encouraging them to come in. I do not think Amber is interested in me as a romantic endeavor. Her communication traffic has been light. In keeping with the new Millennium, we never talk on the phone. It is all text messages. She has never sent me a message encouraging me to come down to the club.

Charlie, Thursday, Oct. 8th, 11:08 pm - Charlie, sent just to establish initial contact.

Amber, Oct. 8th, 11:08 pm – Yay

At one of our meetings, we talked about Halloween costumes and plans. She loves Halloween as do I. She was not planning on working at the club on Halloween, which may mean she has a young child. I never ask the dancers if they have children. A book I read says every stripper has a child and a boyfriend or ex-boyfriend in the picture.

Our text traffic has been light. We only connect every few days or so.

Amber, Tuesday, Oct. 13th, 11:43 am, Hi Charlie! Did you decide on a Halloween costume? Thanks for the stockings, they are bad ass!!

Charlie, Oct 13th, 1:22 pm, U r welcome. Still deliberating on Halloween.

Amber, Oct 13th, 1:23 pm, I like Superman. Sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye. Was trying to convince my friend not to quit.

Charlie, Wednesday, Nov. 4th Did u say u were a size 2 dress? The objective of this question was to order Amber a special dress. I had shown her a catalog picture and she was interested.

Amber, Thursday, Nov 5th 9:10 am, Hi Charlie. Thanks for hanging out with me. It's nice talking to someone else smart. Yes a 2 (referring to her dress size).

Charlie, Nov. 5th 9:19 am K

Charlie, Nov. 5th 9:55am Santa brings presents to girls that are good.

Amber, Nov. 5th 1:33 pm I’m in trouble then. LOL.

Part of my reason for detailing these out was I wanted to get a baseline as to Amber's sleeping habits, strictly because I did not want to disturb her sleeping. The club closes nominally at 2 a.m. Typically, it takes an adult an hour or two to wind down from work. I am surprised to see several texts from her in the 9:30 a.m. time frame.

Amber is the one dancer that I know and talk to the most at the cabaret. We have connected in a natural chemistry way. I feel like I can tell Amber anything. You will be reading more about her in this expose.

CHAPTER TWO

Charlie

C

harlie is not my real name; it is the name I go by at the strip club. It is also my pen name. A definition of a pen name defines it as a shield used to conceal the author's real identity. It sets the writer free to write uninhibited. My favorite example of a famous author who used a pen name is Mark Twain, true name Samuel Clemens. Strippers use stage names at the strip club to conceal their true identify. Strippers may in real life be mothers, wives, or churchgoers. Taking your clothes off in front of strangers does not conform to social norms, so strippers use stage names to maintain some anonymity. Sometimes at the club, I jokingly say Charlie is my stripper name. This inevitably generates a chuckle from the dancer I am talking to. They apparently appreciate the irony of it.

In my mid-sixties, I like going to the local strip club. I like looking at and talking to women. At my age, I am not going to attract them. At the strip club, I can see pretty women run around in their brassieres and panties or sexy club attire. I do not get that at home. I am single. I was married for twenty-five years, twenty-three of which were wonderful, the last two years were terrible. Going to the strip club is one of my social outlets. I am not so old that I want to sit at home on a Saturday night and watch a movie or read a book. I prefer a good, provocative conversation to a lap dance.

I have gone to strip clubs sporadically my whole adult life. It all began when I was young and in the military. This year, the frequency of my visitations has increased. What started it all was Valentine's Day. In 2020, Valentine's Day happened to fall on a Friday. I did not have a current sweetheart and just wanted to do something special. Who wants to sit alone at home on Valentine's Day night, especially a Friday night? So, I put on a red dress shirt and tie, donned a black suit, and went down to the local strip club. A dancer sat next to me, stroked my tie, and told me I was a handsome man, which I enjoyed hearing. That one sentence and the fact that I had a good time that evening is all it took to motivate me to visit the strip club more frequently.

CHAPTER THREE

Terminology

S

tarting with the facility itself, I have heard three different terms. Strip club is probably the most common. Another term is gentlemen's club, which is somewhat of a misnomer as women are increasingly patronizing strip clubs. A more refined term is cabaret. I have seen this term in local ordinances, which categorize these types of establishments as a type of sexually oriented business. Other examples of sexually oriented businesses are: adult bookstores, adult arcades, and adult car washes, where apparently you can get your car washed by women in bikinis or skimpy outfits. I have not tried that one.

As far as the girls go, I have used three different terms. They are in ascending order of refinement: strippers, dancers, and at the top of the pyramid – entertainers. I tend to use the middle one, dancers. I let the girls themselves use strippers to refer to themselves, which sometimes happens. Entertainers is heard less often, but it seems very polite.

Conversely, the people who patronize the cabaret are called: clients, customers, patrons, or regulars. The specific label applied largely depends on the frequency of their visitation.

CHAPTER FOUR

Bethany

I

have not figured Bethany out. She is younger, wholesome-looking, and very pretty. When I first met her, she was wearing her hair in braids coiled up on the side of her head like Princess Lea in the Star Wars movie. She has perfect skin. She does an excellent job with her makeup, that highlights her eyes, but you do not see the makeup. I was drawn to look at her, still am. She is also shy. Often, I feel like I must fend off the dancers at the strip club. Not so with Bethany. She quietly circulates so that you see her, but rarely approaches you. You must come to her.

The first night I saw Bethany, she made an impression on me. I thought What a pretty girl. The second time I saw her, she was quietly sitting at a table behind me. I turned my head and motioned for her to join me, which she did. I asked her if she was local. Some of the girls are local and some travel into the strip club from neighboring states. Bethany confirmed she was local. I asked her: "If you do not mind telling