KENNY ALTON

Ok so I have been slowly trying to avoid my greatest accomplishment- the event that made me Feathers history. It involved Rodger, Kenny Alton and I. Kenny Alton, my best friend in the whole wide world! I never understood the expression about losing a part of yourself when someone dies, but when Kenny Alton died I lost a part of myself. As I have previously written we worked together in the bar. He was a waiter and I stamped hands. We would go up to the bartenders and ask them to make us their favorite shots- want to get on a bartenders good side ask them to serve you their favorite drink, unless it’s me then I’ll serve you arsenic. Needless to say by two o’clock we were crawling out of the bar. Kenny Alton always had a six pack in his car and we would just chat after the bar closed. His parents owned a business in town and didn’t want him to be gay-very Irish catholic. All he wanted was a boyfriend and a way out of the crazy bar life, it’s what we both wanted and the things we did to find it.
We were tired of the gay games and wanted to meet guys outside the bar life. We’d cruise shopping malls, movie theaters, the show tune sections in music stores; we even went to gay church to cruise the pews for cute guys. I still giggle when I think of how we would try to slip the tongue during the kiss of peace. We were determined to find Mr. Right. We joined a beauty school figuring there would be some gay guys in there. Wrong. No dates to be had. I didn’t even get a career out of it. Once I found out that you had to touch people’s dirty hair I quit the school. (I’m still paying off that loan.)
We even went to the Gay Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Obviously, we weren’t going to meet these guys in the bar if they had an alcoholic problem. Once there, they all swarmed on top of us begging us to share our problems with them. I told them Kenny was the one with the problem and I was just there for support. Kenny denied this and they eat it up! They love someone who denies being an alcoholic and they beg Kenny to get up on the forum and admit he had a problem. He told them that his only problem is listening to me. Then we did shots at the bar and realized that this was one for the memory bank.
Then there was the fat lip memory that still makes me giggle out loud! Big lips were in and I unfortunately was born with the thinnest lips God created. I swore Johnny didn’t love me because of my lips. It was at a time when everyone was getting collagen or Botox or whatever poison was available. Well I was poor and could not afford the treatment. One night Kenny points out this guy that was in a fight and got a fat lip. We both agreed he never looked sexier. So I start to beg Kenny to punch me in the mouth and give me a fat lip. He was refusing. I was pointing out that I could never afford the medical procedure to do it and Johnny will love my lips and he’ll marry me and we’ll be happy and I won’t annoy you anymore screaming “JOHNNY ANGEL”. I was so annoying, but I knew he wouldn’t do it so I turned to pick up my coat but he did do it and swung but instead of getting my lips he got my eye. SLAM! I was in pain and I looked up hoping I was mistaken and it was my lips. We ran into the bathroom and there it was a shiny black eye. There is nothing sexy about a black eye, but it was the bonding of a great friendship.
The last time I recalled that story with Kenny Alton he was in the last stages of AIDS. It had hit his nervous system and I had no idea what that meant. All I knew was that I was never going to see my best friend again. His lover-yes he had a lover at the end of his life- left me alone with Kenny in the living room. I just hugged him, my little Kenny Alton. I was always protecting him and it pissed me off that I couldn’t protect him from this disease. He couldn’t control his body and he twitched a lot. I didn’t care he was still my best friend in the whole wide world. He asked me for a cigarette with a tear in his eye. I lit one for him without thinking. I then went on to remind him about the fat lip and giggled. I noticed the cigarette wasn’t in the ashtray or his hand. I saw smoke come from his stomach. He had dropped the cigarette on his stomach, it had burned a hole in his tee shirt and burned his stomach I jumped and his lover came in and cleaned it up and Kenny Alton just sat there never flinching. He never moved. I left and I cried all the way home and it was the first time I ever cried for me. I cried because I was going to be all alone again. I didn’t want to be alone. I didn’t find comfort in the attic anymore.
I was losing a part of me. I had no one to share childhood stories with, no one to man hunt with, no one to give me a fat lip.
His parents took his body and wouldn’t let any gay people at the funeral.
The day of his funeral I turned on my radio and “My Boyfriend’s Back” came on the radio – that was his Featherette song.
The Featherette’s…
Till Tomorrow Be Kind