She was only 14, but, yes, a different time…
Yesterday, on the excellent Surfer magazine website, the surf historian Matt Warshaw posted a story on the iconic surf photographer Ron Stoner and his young girlfriend Paulette.
By young, ah, real young. Fourteen. He was 21.
Now I ain’t one to swing back in time to 1967 and start pointing 2015 fingers at a man and an almost-woman clearly in love. That same year, the singer Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu, a girl he met when she was 14.
Meanwhile, American boys were getting shipped off in their thousands, against their will, to die in the muck of Vietnam. Back home, everyone was either soaked in LSD or living in a Mason Family commune in Death Valley. Or both.
Why wouldn’t you chase your kicks?
Anyway, the idea of young girls has always been anathema to me. In year five I had a big-tittied teacher whose uniform was a canary yellow jumpsuit unbuttoned to the naval (did I dream this I often wonder in hindsight?) and, ever since, the sight of an aged, and freckled ideally, cleavage has sent me into the stratosphere.
Which brings me back around to Ron Stoner and Paulette Martinson, the sweet lil 14 year old, he swung with. Apart from the moral question, there was the issue of teen pussy v the seasoned woman.
I had a little back-and-forth with Warshaw on the merits, or not, of both.
BeachGrit: Tooling a 14-year-old?
Warshaw: Fuck, did you even read the post?
BeachGrit: What?
Warshaw: Stoner was, I don’t know what you want to call him — not just schizophrenic, but otherwise damaged. So yes he was 21, and Paulette was 14, and I’m not saying that’s great. But they dug each other, her parents were okay with it, and when Ron went down the tubes, Paulette was pretty much the only person from his past who didn’t bail out. The story here isn’t about sex with a minor. Can you even understand that?
BeachGrit: You’re invested in Stoner, aren’t you.
Warshaw: If you’re a Southern California surfer of a certain age, like I am, Stoner is a touchstone not just for your surfing, but for the whole place, the whole era. He’s Brian Wilson. Terrible beauty and sadness. Paulette, for me, and who knows, maybe I’ve built this up in my head, but Paulette was probably the best thing in Ron’s life. For just a little while, anyway. And how fast it all goes away, it’s like that mid-‘60s period in California surfing. You know the Beach Boys song “Caroline, No”?
BeachGrit: Hmmmm, maybe not.
Warshaw: Paulette was always going to leave Ron, cause of their age difference, and also because schizophrenia was taking over. So yeah, she leaves him, and before Ron falls completely into the abyss, when he’s just heartbroken completely, he does some of his best work with the camera. It’s this last burst of color before his career, his health, his sanity, all of it just gets blacked out. And that’s like Stoner’s version of “Carline, No.” He knows he’s losing it, but still has it together enough to make art. It kills me. The song kills me, and Stoner’s story kills me.
BeachGrit: So the 14-year-old pussy angle. That does nothing for you?
Warshaw: You’re fucking retarded, you know that?
BeachGrit: Answer the question!
Warshaw: Okay, first of all, again, fuck you, you’ve missed the whole point here. But look, I’ll say this. You saw The Graduate?
BeachGrit: Oh my god, yes!
Warshaw: Okay, so . . . Katherine Ross or Anne Bancroft? Daughter or mother?
BeachGrit: Easiest question of the day. Anne Bancroft! Mrs. Robinson!
Warshaw: Yeah, that imprinted on me at age eight. Older woman all the way.
BeachGrit: So what is it about older gals? Describe the thrills you receive.
Warshaw: Older women know how to do subtlety. Sexy-wise, Anne Bancroft does more with an eyebrow and a bit of exhaled cigarette smoke then whatever teenager you’re watching on PornHub right now.
BeachGrit: Oh, Matt, I couldn’t hear you any louder. I’ve been pushing up against older gals since I was a teen and I always found little ones to be unfinished masterpieces, works that wouldn’t be complete until mid-thirties, forties, or later. Nymphets? With their dull, sucked-a-hundred-cocks-already looks? I’m not sure how many people picked it up, but a piece I wrote on Noa Deane’s gal Zoe was all based around Lolita. But, there must be some fire in your groin, for some of the more famous surf teens. Do you like Sage Erickson for example? Malia Manuel?
Matt: Of course. Knockouts, both of them. But I’d crawl over Sage and Malia and a dozen like them to get with Helen Mirren.
I was referred here by google. I wasn’t expecting two dudes trying to compare the size of their egos
Blah Blah….woof woof, the law of nature is the one thing that all these phony bureaucrats and law makers forget to mention. The modern world is so full of you know what. There are men and there are woman. In many countries of the world [ KY & W. Virgina] woman marry at 12 years of age.Oh, it’s such a sin, their brains are not ready! Baloney. You and I know that most American girls are having full blown sex at 14. Just think back when you were that age. It is all you thought about. Now I would never condone this behaivier because it can ruin lives and has, but nature is just that, nature. It gives you the urge to make love to a woman. I would love to learn about these people that make these laws for the good of us, and see what goes on in their bedroom. Also the images that go through mens minds from the ages of 10 through80. Hormones have their own will and nature is what got us here to read this article. Were mommy and daddy waiting until they were 16,17 18? Let’s just get off our high horses and get real about life.
Still using the term “ret***ed” Warshaw?! How can your head be stuck in the ’60s AND your ass simultaneously?
What’s PornHub?
Read it hoping something would come of it…….. nada!
These comments are so much more fun than the trolling on Politico.com or even the Washington Post website. Mahalo. I don’t watch cable TV because I don’t need to…
I hope Warshaw is clipping tickets from the ad revenue at the Grit, cunt is supplying half the content these days.
“cunt”. Meh. Angry is the new “like”.
I use it in the Australian sense; as a term of endearment.
My bad. Haole yank in the Hawaiian Islands. Like is the new like. Doesn’t translate here in normal conversation without coming to blows…
If you’re not a Rachel Steele fan already, you need to get on Redtube and sort that out. Freckles, cleavage, MILFY goodness. Might help you out…
What a tasteless ugly byline, hope to meet you sometime at the beach
It’s Click bait at its best, don’t hate the player, hate the game.
I’ve been listening to Pet Sounds a lot lately, and I get what Matt is saying. Certain people are so talented, but so damaged, you’ve just gotta make allowances. For all the pain they may cause, it’s still a net gain.
Bill Cosby, too…
Well, there’s a limit.
Good grief
And the statute of limitations says move on folks, nothing to see here…
Rielly, please tell me your local spot so I find your car and massage your window with a baseball bat.
Why would you want to hurt my car?
I’m guessing he isn’t familiar with your work….
Jesus Christ what a pair of appalling middle aged creepy fingers.
maybe you oughta interview Paulette.
I did! Like three times! Still beautiful, and still grateful for her time with Ron. Paulette altered my perspective on Ron; made him more human, less an easy cautionary tale.
Are these interviews transcribed ?
Paulette is quoted at some length in the Stoner book I did a few years ago. Her transcripts, and a whole lot of other Stoner-related interviews—and a few hundred other pieces from the ’80s, ’90s and ’00s — are on Word files that no longer open. Software issue, waiting to be resolved.
I have the Stoner book. All time Matt! Stoners life as a movie would be mind bending !
Would love to read them I have always been very interested in Ron’s story
cool. I distrust cautionary tales.
starting to feel like this entire website is one big cautionary tale.
Don´t mess with Malia. She´s James B´s everyday dream.