Featherette's 6

I got a call from Rodger bright and early Tuesday Morning, “All you need to bring is a razor, 2 pair of panty hoses, sheer to waist and fake lashes.” I called Kenny Alton right after I hung up with Roger and got a busy signal. I do not miss busy signals! Busy signals meant that there was someone talking to the person you were calling and there were no such thing as answering machines so all you heard was this annoying monotone beep. You had to hang up and try again and hope they were off the phone, but they never were and you could spend up to an hour trying to get through. I didn’t have patience so I would just call the operator and say there was an emergency and ask her to break in. She would break into the conversation and say “Emergency call from Eddie will you kindly disconnect.” I got through to Kenny who was on the phone with Rodger so he knew what I was freaking out over. All of a sudden it became real we were doing a show! In a dress! How did my life end up this way?
Kenny picked me up at 6:30. Rodger was cooking dinner for us and we had to pick up our items. I got in the car and we had to decide where we could buy this girlie stuff and not be recognized. We settled for Newberry’s, a five and dime store in the Bergen Mall. I am too tired to try and explain a five and dime store-google it. You would have thought we were drug dealers the way we slipped the items on the counter over explaining the fact that our mothers were too sick to go to the store for their pantyhose and that the fire burned off their eye lashes. Looking back we were so funny, what people must have thought of us.
We got to Rodgers apartment and the place was set up for a feast! Rodger out did himself and made sure that we eat it all. Of course the only music that played was the Andrew Sisters. The songs were started to grate on my nerves. These weren’t the songs we were used to listening to, and Kenny Alton wouldn’t even listen to them. “But how can you lip sync to songs you don’t know?” I asked, because I was the idiot who locked himself in his bedroom with his stereo system and head phones. How do you explain to your parents why you are listening to the Andrew Sister’s? “I’ll just flirt with my lips.” Kenny Alton smiled. He was so funny in his own way.
After dinner Kenny Alton pulled a bottle of wine out of his back pack. “Now for dessert.” He announced as he pulled the corkscrew out of his pocket- “Always be prepared!” Rodger got up and took the corkscrew out of his hand. “No drinking before the show. I am not going to appear onstage with alcoholics!” Kenny Alton got so serious “You expect me to do this sober? Are you out of your mind?” “You will be fine-look…” Rodger left the room and went into his bedroom and returned with a 1940’s red wig with a red hair net. “How can you fail with such a beautiful wig?” “I still want my wine.”
Rodger told me to go into the bathroom and get a close shave. I did as I was told and came out of the bathroom to find the table cleared and Kenny Alton placing his fake nails out on the dining room table. Rodger had me take a seat and he started to prep me for make-up…MAKE-UP! I just wanted to die! You never met anyone who fought as hard as I did. From the moment he put on the base to the lip liner to the multi-color eye shadow, there was not a moment of peace. The liquid eye-liner and lashes did me in. I was done before I started, but the three of us laughed and giggled every minute we were together.
After, what seemed like a life time, but was more likely an hour Rodger handed me a mirror and said “Beautiful”. I wondered why he handed me a picture of Serena from “Bewitched” until I asked and heard my voice come out of a girls face. It freaked me out- I couldn’t look. Mind you his place was ceiling to floor mirrors. It was frightening. Kenny Alton was next and he was done in five minutes. “You are a natural.” Rodger said with pride as he stepped back to look at his masterpiece. Kenny was a natural beauty in drag. Rodger gave us out outfit and shoes as he got himself made up.
The dresses were a riot! We ended up having to tape up our sleeves and double stitch our hems. The surprise came when we had to put on high heels. HIGH HEELS! It never dawned on me that walking in them would be any different then walking in sneakers. My first try I fell right into the mirrors, the second try finding me on my face. “This not going to be fun Rodger” I realized. “Just get up and walk in them. We don’t have time for you to learn how to walk in heels. You should have practiced in them. Now come on, I want to be at the bar before 11.”
The show was scheduled for 11:30pm.
OMG we had to go out in public looking like this!
Till tomorrow, be kind