Fire Island 2

Casper, Alton and I left for Fire Island at 8am on a Saturday morning. We were to perform at 8 that night. Being we were performing in the amateur show we were given a room and we were three friends out to party! Imagine a free Saturday night on Fire Island AND to be able to tell people you were “guest” of management. Alton was going to perform Sheena Easton’s “For your Eyes Only”, Casper was doing “High Energy” and I was performing my dream song “Quiet Please there’s a Lady on Stage” by Gloria Loring the star of “Days Of Our Lives”. I died that I was able to perform my idol! While the others went to Mandee’s and bought girlie outfits, I went to the fabric shop and decided I would make my own dress. Black skin tight outfit with sequins on the shoulder, I was going to knock them dead!
The black satin was twenty dollars a yard, similar looking material (Coat lining) one dollar a yard-who would know. I bought 25 bags of sequins and started to sew on Thursday and continued Saturday morning in the car. We laughed, but I knew I was going to be breathless. The whole shoulder was going to blind the audience, or me. I was going batty looking at the gold shining in my eyes.
I remember how fabulous I felt as we loaded our stuff onto the boat that took us to the Island. Smelling the salt, fresh air and watching the lovers hug as they went on their exciting escape. I continued to sew my sequins. The boat landed and there were guys on top of guys, shirtless and laughing holding drinks. Casper and Alton were like dogs in heat, I sewed my sequins. We checked into the room and met up with Chris-he encouraged us to dress in drag and mingle. Casper and Alton mingled, I sewed sequins. It was time to get ready for the show I finally tried on the dress. They were dressed in their Mandee sales outfit and I was in my homemade-lop-sided dress with sequins on the back! When I sewed it pulled the material up and one side was four inches higher than the other. I sequins were very heavy and pulled the shoulder behind my neck-in fact it was choking me. The announced me and I went out to my tape recorded number of Gloria singing on “Days” as Liz which on a nightclub speaker does not sound that great. I tried to sell the number , but spend most of the time trying not to gag from the dress choking my neck. I almost fell off the stage straining to hear my number, never mind lip-syncing. Casper got his high heel stuck in the floor and fell flat on his face. Alton went out to his song and they played the instrumental side, he just pulled a Rodger and walked back and forth waving. He laughed as we ate the pizza we bought with the winnings-Alton pulled it off and got lucky along the way. Casper got a proposal and a man offered to take him away if he lived in drag. We had a great time that night dancing on the decks and walking on the beach with a guy who swore to love me forever and I am not sure he even exchanged phone numbers, but had a great two days.
The three of us met at our hotel room the next afternoon. It was Sunday and the big tea dance began at 1:00 pm. We cleaned ourselves up and laughed at our adventure. We had all went to different house parties and had stories upon stories of unique people and insane situations. When we went to Tea we were the stars of the Island. Between the three of us we had met three quarters of the Island and was about to meet the rest. I laughed with Alton because Casper had returned to the room and got in drag for his millionaire. Chris had secured a room for us if we wanted to stay an extra night-We wanted to stay all summer!
Sunday night found the Island quite quiet and serene. We laid on lounges at the pool with our beach drinks. We laughed into the night at what an adventurous week-end and the stories we would tell our grandchildren…We laughed ourselves to sleep and woke up in the early morning island fresh air. Well, left the island and smiled at the thought of returning…What a life we had!
Till Tomorrow, Be kind