and on...

Meanwhile, on the bar circuit my popularity was growing. Terry stayed at the Jersey shore and tried to break into the drag circuit down there.I came back to Feathers and told Hank my sad story of living in a laundry mat. Hank felt sorry for me and actually gave me pay to stamp hands and started asking me to do favors. Looking back, I realize that is when I should have gotten my head examined. I would beg Hank to let me do him favors, “Oh, let me get the liquor from the liquor cabinet.” “Please let me bring the ten cases of beer to the bars.” “I’ll scrub the dance floor with a tooth brush.” I was going to do whatever it took to have a place in Feathers…Be careful what you wish for.
“Where’s Terry?” “Where’s Terry?” This annoying queen would hunt me down every night looking for Terry….My pal Kenny Casper. We laugh about it now. He would never say “Hi how are you? Where is Terry? “-Remember Kenny is really Casper and is underage, but we don’t know it yet. All we know is that he is a LOUD, annoyingly nice guy who is just as determined to be a part of Feathers as I am. I was at Sammy’s bar (Big bar upstairs) when I finally confront him about rude he is to me and he laughs in my face. In a straight bar there would be a brawl or something, in a gay bar what do you do? I looked at him puzzled when he says, “I am a rude bitch. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” I think that moment bonded us because twenty four years later we still laugh and Casper is still loud and rude and Sammy still mediates us.
With Terry gone Kenny Casper and I started hanging out more and going to the diner. We would take a table near the “skid row” group and hope that one of them would look in our direction, they never did. Mind you we weren’t discreet with what we were doing. If one of them went into the bathroom we followed. Kenny Casper would yell to Annie, our waitress, what are they eating over there, at that table. Over the months they warmed up to us and we were allowed to hang in the “skid row” corner. I am laughing remembering how I would be talking to Steven and Michael and then excuse myself so I could hang at skid row with my friends. They knew they weren’t allowed in that corner of the bar. Back then you could smoke in a bar and that corner had all the smokers. Smoking really was a part of the scene back then. Casper was forever asking someone to “Hold my ciggie’s while I dance.” Meanwhile, I would be going shot for shot with Dominick at the bar. Dominick was like the head of the skid row group. If you could out drink him you were in, being I didn’t drive Casper threw me as the one to go shot for shot. Casper was the dancer and could grab everyone’s attention when he danced, but remember skid row didn’t want the attention.
I’m not quite sure how it happened, but we got in and Dominick became one of my best friends and Casper became best friends with Johnny. Life was looking great for us. We were friends with the skid row gang -sitting with them in the diner; we were friends with the bartenders and management. It was during this time that Feathers had its first fire. It was the back wall of the bar and the place was evacuated. We all had to go to Charlie’s in East Orange. It was an ok bar, but not safe. Someone stole my coat from the car! It was there I met Randy. Randy built log cabins for a living. We slow danced to Air Supple “Two Less Lonely People in the World.” It was one of those romantic moments, but he could have been a forever. We kept in touch, but the fact I didn’t drive put an end to our romance. He was going to build me a cabin in the woods. It was a nice dream, but my reality was bar life and being a bar star!
My favorite part of the bar was the side door exits, they have the wrought iron platforms and we would sit on them and get air, actually it still is. One night I went out and I saw this HUGE Brooke Shields running across the street. She was so big she looked like a Macy’s Balloon Float from afar. That night I was introduced to the parking lot kids. The parking lot kids were a group of kids that were underage and couldn’t get into the bar. The leader of the parking lot kids was Tony- the giant Brooke Shields. They drove around in Barbara’s Subaru.
Till tomorrow Be kind