Content note: bullying, sexual slang, taboo numbers

It is no trick question when I ask my audience to take a wild guess at what kids used to shout at me, knowing how obsessed I am with numbers particularly in the 60’s range.

I was eleven at the time, back in 2003. At first, I did not even know that the number carried such a connotation until months after people have been asking me “who is 69” and “is he hot and sexy?” Embarrassingly enough, I did in fact have a character for number 69, and he was considered “attractive” by tabis-cat standards. 1969 was after all a great year for music, not to mention that it was also the year of the trip to the moon. What could be so bad about that?

It wasn’t until an acquaintance on the bus bluntly told me that 69 was a sexual number, and that I would not have figured that out had he had not told me. Turned out he was right, and another teenager told me that it was a specific position that looks like that number.

I was horrified that one of the sixties numbers I love so much has such a nasty connotation. Fortunately, number 69 never had much character development anyway. I knew that I was going to have to factor out that number for the best.

Twelve years later, back in my long-lost world of numbers, I always try to prepare myself to answer the inevitable question “what does number 69 look like?” Because 69 carries such a strong sexual meaning in this culture, I do not even bother trying to make a character out of it. I will tell people that 69 is salmon and purple. “Seems pretty close to the colors of 69ing!”