Before he was "Hollywood Jim" in Los Angeles, he was a geeky kid with a funny nickname in the Connecticut suburbs . And before he had numerous starlets as friends, he had various girlfriends. Here then are the "Adventures of Hollywood Jim-The Early Years"
*
Things quickly changed after my night with Rose and Kelly. Rose left town to spend the remainder of the summer with relatives in her native Colombia before leaving for college in Boston. Kelly got an early admission to a college in California and headed off there. My family had long owned a summer home in New Hampshire and it had been a fixture of my life for as long as I could remember. The area was filled with antique homes of various years, all with stories to tell. So I was headed there for the remainder of my summer.
One of the biggest homes on the street was owned by the Baldwin family. Although my parents had known them for years, I knew little about the large family, whose home seemed (at least to me) on a scale with the Kennedy compound in that there were two smaller houses in addition to the huge main house and its prime lake frontage. Soon after we arrived my Dad told me of an opportunity to make some money helping to paint and clean out their barn and storage buildings. The family had decided to "clean house" of things no longer needed that could be sold, donated or trashed. The money was a good incentive but I was curious what treasures might await me.
The work was good for me. The sun shined every day and I liked the crew I worked with. They were mostly members of the family with assorted friends. Clearing out the hot barn was tough and sweaty. It was a lot of junk.
The members of the family were old, young and in between. They even had a nanny for the younger kids who seemed exotic in her looks and had a thick accent whose origin I wasn't sure of. Jeff Baldwin, the only one close to my age explained she was from Russia and her name was Marina and she was working with one of his sisters.
"Where do you find a Russian nanny? The U.N.?" I asked
"Funny, my Aunt is a college professor and she's one of her students."
"Oh, that's convenient." I said.
As the barn worked rolled on, we hauled out box after tattered box. And everything would be examined by one of his older brothers.
I headed into one room of the barn that seemed like a makeshift library with different books scattered about. I casually looked through it and spotted some vintage Life and Sports Illustrated issues.
"Wow, this is great stuff!" I said to Jeff.
"Oh, yeah you can take that. Mom's wanted to unload it for years."
"Great!" I looked around for an empty box to take them home in.
On another shelf I grabbed another stack of magazines. But these were different.
"Oh my..." I muttered to myself.
I had stumbled upon someone's collection of Playboy issues.
Jeff saw what I'd found.
"Whoa, I thought these were gone forever." He said as he looked through the covers with me.
The issues seemed to be from the late 60's and 70's. My favorite era of the magazine.
Jeff and I looked at each other.
"I'll split 'em with you, how bout that?" he said.
"OK, I know which ones I've got."
"Deal." he replied.
We heard his older brother coming so we quickly stuffed them into the box I put the other issues in. When he left, we quickly split "our winnings" as it were, hid the box in another part of the room, and went back to our work.
At close to 5 PM, Jeff's brother called it a day and we went back into the small room to check out the issues again. Jeff thought there might be more hidden somewhere. So we hid them securely before leaving for the day.
"This is a cool little room." I said looking around
"Yeah, my cousins used to hang out here, smoke a little pot, drink beer, play records. It was like a clubhouse long ago."
"Man that must've been cool." I knew his older brothers and cousins were 60's kids so I could only imagine what the area had been like then.
"You said it!" he replied as he walked out "see you tomorrow."
As I was getting my gear together, a little boy ran inside the barn and I heard what sounded like Marina's voice calling him. He stopped as he collided with me.
"Hey kiddo, where you goin'?" I said.
He smiled in response.
"Joshua! Come here!" she said sternly.
It was the first time I'd seen her close up, she definitely had that Eastern European look about her. She had short black hair and a cute body with just enough baby fat on her.
"I'm so sorry, sir." She said in her accented voice.
"Hey, no problem. I've seen him running around, you've got your hands full with him."
"Yes, he is good boy." She said in somewhat halting English.
"Oh, and you don't have to call me sir, my name's Jim."
"Marina." She said with a shy smile. "You are...working here, yes?"
"Right, with Jeff and the other guys."
"Ah, yes...I see you with them." She replied. "You taking, um, how you say? Mahmento?"
"Oh, this...yes" I said gesturing to the magazine box "a memento, right."
Just as I said that, the bottom of the box fell out and its contents spilled onto the ground. Amidst the old Life issues were a couple of Playboy issue.
"Oh crap!" I thought.
Marina knelt down and helped me gather them up.
"Oh, I've never seen one of these." She said as she examined one.
I looked around and hoped none of the other kids saw this, let alone their parents.
"Um, yes...it's uh, a good issue." I immediately wished I could crawl in a hole for saying something as dumb as that.
"They are very...pretty." She said as she flipped through the old issue.
"Uh, yes." I said, not sure of what to say.
Marina gave it back to me and went off to find Joshua.
"It was nice to meet you Jeem." She said as she walked away.
"Yes, see you tomorrow."
Over the next few days, we continued our work. Jeff and I kept an eye out for another stash of issues. Somehow, Marina kept appearing throughout the days, with and without the kids in tow. Today she had on a loose t-shirt and shorts that did little to show she might have quite a nice body underneath. I was right when later on she reappeared with several other family members as they headed out to the nearby lakefront. She'd traded her t-shirt/shorts combo for a bright red form fitting one piece swimsuit (I wonder if being from Russia, the color choice was coincidental) that really showed off her body. We seem to catch one another's eye and she gave me a little smile and wave. I smiled and waved back.
In the midst of our work, we found an inflatable boat that looked like a relic from the D-Day landings. Jeff and the others were surprised it was still in one piece and we hauled it down to the lake to see if it was still sea-worthy. Marina was there with Jeff's parents and assorted youngsters who were eager to see if it would work and were all overjoyed when after a little air from a bike pump it floated like it was yesterday. Marina looked very sexy as she lay on an air mattress, her nipples started to become prominent as she sat up at one point.
"Jim, you can take off if you want, we're pretty much done for the day." Jeff said before leaning in and saying "If I find any more issues I'll add them to our stash."
"Okay, thanks Jeff." I replied.
Mrs. Baldwin told Marina she'd take the kids inside and left us alone.
I sat on the large dock and let my feet cool off in the water. Marina came over and sat next to me.
"Hi, Jim...done for the day, yes?" she said
"Yes, it's hot in that barn." I said
"Very nice down here, I love this whole place, so pretty." She said looking at the lake.
"Yes, I don't get up here as much as I used to."
"Oh, you don't live here?"
"No, I'm from Connecticut, my family just has a house here."
"Ah, you are in school there?"
"No, just graduated."
"Me too!" she said excitedly "so good to be finished."
"What will you do now, go to college in, where is it your from again?"
