As I re-watch Longtime Companion, I reminisce of my trip to Fire Island.
First I remember that I was at a court show and drank too much the night before, which caused me to oversleep and miss my plane. I got out of Lexington, but stuck in Atlanta for a day. A rainstorm had caused many flights to be canceled, and I as a missy-miss (my flight that is) was a low priority. At one point I was announced a standby site, only to be pushed aside by some other person running late. I talked to Jeffrey and told him I'd be late, and persuaded him to leave and go to the Island as scheduled, and I would find my way there.
I made arrangements to stay on Long Island with Mary Susan. We caught up a bit, but she was very tired. The next morning we had press pot coffee, went out for bagels, and she dropped me off at the ferry in Sayville. Not before she taught me how to make butter. A procedure I'd use later. As I was on the ferry I realized I had not called Jeffrey that I was on my way. But - he was there waiting for me. As I left the boat, someone noticed my carry-on, a bowling ball bag, and remarked "Bowling Ball?" and I just joked back, "what! There are no lanes out here?"
The cabin, known as the YMCA was sparse. It reminded me a lot of my grandparent's Hide-Away Resort cabins. It was actually half a house, the other half occupied by the owner. A gay senior that bought it with his lover in the 1950s. The lover has since died, but (Stanley?) continues to come every summer, and is joined daily by other seniors for cards and stuff.
Jeffrey's roommate was Craig. I had met Craig briefly when I was at Night of 1000 gowns in 2001. He was originally from Portland and was friends with The Lovely Suzanne. The guys had an inflatable mattress for me to sleep on. Shortly after arriving, I think we made the rounds, and visited Panzi and Billy Anne Miller around the corner. Jose, Mama, would be staying with Billy Anne that weekend too. I'd get a chance to visit with her later.
That night we walked to the bay-side to see the sunset. We were joined by two of Jeffrey's friends, Coffee drinkers. I had brought some of my home roasted coffee only to find Jeffrey and Craig did not drink coffee. I am glad I remembered to bring my single cup drip coffee maker. In the house, I was determined to be the best guest ever. This because there is a reputation of weekend guests being awful burdens, and I got the feeling that Jeffrey may have anticipated some form of amorous payment in return for the invite. I did the dishes, I made breakfast, I kept the Britta water picture filled, and bought pizza for dinner. For breakfast I even hand-churned butter using the Mary Susan mason jar method. I did it very casually. The result was a nice sweet unsalted butter.
Jeffrey seemed to know quite a lot of people. Cherry Grove was a very friendly place. He told me he met more people inn one year than he did for 3 years at the Pines. One drizzly afternoon we walked through he meatrack to visit the Pines. The Pines is the "Chelsea boys" and Money set. David Geffen etc. Where the Grove is in your face cozy, the Pines is laid back and reclusive. We visited a couple more coffee drinkers, but was never able to hook them up with coffee, as I did the two earlier mentioned.
Apparently as I wase getting off the boat, a woman went to Jeffrey and invited him and Craig to a party. It was primarily a property owners party, at least a seasonal renters party. He told her hat I was staying and she said it was fine for me to come as well. At the party we scattered, I chatted with those I had met, and ultimately explored the yard. There was a small fountain with a pissing boy statue and others. I was looking at it, when I heard "Excuse me, Excuse me". Since I doubted it could be addressed to me, I ignored the address. She then said "Do you like my statue? I am the Hostess" (as well as the artist). I then realized she had been talking to me. I immediately offered up my invitation by proxy. "Hello, I am Kevin, staying with Jeffrey and Craig for the weekend". Suddenly everything was fine, she was making sure I was not a day-tripper crashing their party. The woman reminded me of Lainie Kazan. She is apparently a Lesbian, and this skinny near naked older guy is her muse. I chatted with the sunset guys and a few others, but ultimately the party was a typical cocktail garden party. (Stanley) was there in a crazy wacky 70s disco outfit. I wonder if he's had it from the day. The next day she shouted a hello to me from a cafe on the boardwalk. I suspect and at one point somewhat confirmed he had told many of the ICNY court members he was hosting a Monarch from Kentucky.
I met Sal Piro, the president of the RHPS Fanclub, he was the entertainment director of the Grove Hotel. But also the writer of "Class Reunion" (this blog 1-4-04) that weekend's original theatre production of which the previous dressing room story was in preparation. I was appointed bartender before and during the shows intermission. Curiously, I was under dressed and was ordered to change and wear all black. I packed for the beach, and am not one to bring black to the beach. My co-tender went home and lent me a shirt. The Sunday show, where I was actually in the audience, the guys from the sunset the first night were bartending. They wore open Hawaiian shirts and shorts. I think (Barry?) held me to a higher standard because I was on the board of the Arts Project of Cherry Grove. hehe (not at all). During the show, I was down in the dressing rooms. Billy Anne, kept wishing she had some coffee. Hearing this, I sneaked out and got 3-4 large coffees to go from the pizza place under the hotel. When I got back, she was still still saying it in her deep gravelly, wonderful voice, and I was able to pull one out of the bag and say "You ask and you shall receive". According to Craig, Billy Anne was talking about that rabbit out of the hat trick the rest of the weekend. I may well be known as the coffee guy to her from then on.
Saturday night after the play, we went to the Ice Palace. The theme was Hawaiian. They had a Hawaiian dance show. Afterward, they had Karaoke. There was a contest and I entered. I sang Losing My Religion. I came in third. I was definately the dark horse. as the other two winners seemed to be very well known. But I got a trophy. That was the first trophy I ever one. I have a few plaques but not a trophy. The next day I joined the Pareo beauty contest. A kind of sarong, its essentially a beach wrap tied around the waist. I stripped to my shorts for it, and was lucky to have been wearing my Hawaiian boxers. I did not win that, despite flashing the boxers. Many of the contestants wore them over their pants, an older guy stripped to his tighty whitees when he saw me do it. Jeffrey managed to do something with his hair, and I think wore it in the dress style.
I got a bit drunk one night. I ended up doing shots of jaeger with the Daddy Bartender at the back bar. I ditched when it was time for him to clean up. I really did not want to hook up. Turns out he was staying with Panzi's Emperor Bill. I made it back to the YMCA and the boys had my bed ready.
While I was sitting in the audience of the play Sunday, I ended up in one of Sal's seats. Sal had turned some in and I had screwed up and had tickets for Saturday but thought I had them for Sunday. When I realized my error, the ticket guy was kind enough to let me switch. I ended up sitting between some middle aged man from the Pines, and 2 long term lovers from the Grove. They told me they had been coming to the Grove since the 50s. It was so affirming to see these long term couples.
The whole place was like a gay, summer camp - crossed with Disney World. No rides, but quite the attractions.
--
rant
###
First I remember that I was at a court show and drank too much the night before, which caused me to oversleep and miss my plane. I got out of Lexington, but stuck in Atlanta for a day. A rainstorm had caused many flights to be canceled, and I as a missy-miss (my flight that is) was a low priority. At one point I was announced a standby site, only to be pushed aside by some other person running late. I talked to Jeffrey and told him I'd be late, and persuaded him to leave and go to the Island as scheduled, and I would find my way there.
I made arrangements to stay on Long Island with Mary Susan. We caught up a bit, but she was very tired. The next morning we had press pot coffee, went out for bagels, and she dropped me off at the ferry in Sayville. Not before she taught me how to make butter. A procedure I'd use later. As I was on the ferry I realized I had not called Jeffrey that I was on my way. But - he was there waiting for me. As I left the boat, someone noticed my carry-on, a bowling ball bag, and remarked "Bowling Ball?" and I just joked back, "what! There are no lanes out here?"
The cabin, known as the YMCA was sparse. It reminded me a lot of my grandparent's Hide-Away Resort cabins. It was actually half a house, the other half occupied by the owner. A gay senior that bought it with his lover in the 1950s. The lover has since died, but (Stanley?) continues to come every summer, and is joined daily by other seniors for cards and stuff.
Jeffrey's roommate was Craig. I had met Craig briefly when I was at Night of 1000 gowns in 2001. He was originally from Portland and was friends with The Lovely Suzanne. The guys had an inflatable mattress for me to sleep on. Shortly after arriving, I think we made the rounds, and visited Panzi and Billy Anne Miller around the corner. Jose, Mama, would be staying with Billy Anne that weekend too. I'd get a chance to visit with her later.
That night we walked to the bay-side to see the sunset. We were joined by two of Jeffrey's friends, Coffee drinkers. I had brought some of my home roasted coffee only to find Jeffrey and Craig did not drink coffee. I am glad I remembered to bring my single cup drip coffee maker. In the house, I was determined to be the best guest ever. This because there is a reputation of weekend guests being awful burdens, and I got the feeling that Jeffrey may have anticipated some form of amorous payment in return for the invite. I did the dishes, I made breakfast, I kept the Britta water picture filled, and bought pizza for dinner. For breakfast I even hand-churned butter using the Mary Susan mason jar method. I did it very casually. The result was a nice sweet unsalted butter.
Jeffrey seemed to know quite a lot of people. Cherry Grove was a very friendly place. He told me he met more people inn one year than he did for 3 years at the Pines. One drizzly afternoon we walked through he meatrack to visit the Pines. The Pines is the "Chelsea boys" and Money set. David Geffen etc. Where the Grove is in your face cozy, the Pines is laid back and reclusive. We visited a couple more coffee drinkers, but was never able to hook them up with coffee, as I did the two earlier mentioned.
Apparently as I wase getting off the boat, a woman went to Jeffrey and invited him and Craig to a party. It was primarily a property owners party, at least a seasonal renters party. He told her hat I was staying and she said it was fine for me to come as well. At the party we scattered, I chatted with those I had met, and ultimately explored the yard. There was a small fountain with a pissing boy statue and others. I was looking at it, when I heard "Excuse me, Excuse me". Since I doubted it could be addressed to me, I ignored the address. She then said "Do you like my statue? I am the Hostess" (as well as the artist). I then realized she had been talking to me. I immediately offered up my invitation by proxy. "Hello, I am Kevin, staying with Jeffrey and Craig for the weekend". Suddenly everything was fine, she was making sure I was not a day-tripper crashing their party. The woman reminded me of Lainie Kazan. She is apparently a Lesbian, and this skinny near naked older guy is her muse. I chatted with the sunset guys and a few others, but ultimately the party was a typical cocktail garden party. (Stanley) was there in a crazy wacky 70s disco outfit. I wonder if he's had it from the day. The next day she shouted a hello to me from a cafe on the boardwalk. I suspect and at one point somewhat confirmed he had told many of the ICNY court members he was hosting a Monarch from Kentucky.
I met Sal Piro, the president of the RHPS Fanclub, he was the entertainment director of the Grove Hotel. But also the writer of "Class Reunion" (this blog 1-4-04) that weekend's original theatre production of which the previous dressing room story was in preparation. I was appointed bartender before and during the shows intermission. Curiously, I was under dressed and was ordered to change and wear all black. I packed for the beach, and am not one to bring black to the beach. My co-tender went home and lent me a shirt. The Sunday show, where I was actually in the audience, the guys from the sunset the first night were bartending. They wore open Hawaiian shirts and shorts. I think (Barry?) held me to a higher standard because I was on the board of the Arts Project of Cherry Grove. hehe (not at all). During the show, I was down in the dressing rooms. Billy Anne, kept wishing she had some coffee. Hearing this, I sneaked out and got 3-4 large coffees to go from the pizza place under the hotel. When I got back, she was still still saying it in her deep gravelly, wonderful voice, and I was able to pull one out of the bag and say "You ask and you shall receive". According to Craig, Billy Anne was talking about that rabbit out of the hat trick the rest of the weekend. I may well be known as the coffee guy to her from then on.
Saturday night after the play, we went to the Ice Palace. The theme was Hawaiian. They had a Hawaiian dance show. Afterward, they had Karaoke. There was a contest and I entered. I sang Losing My Religion. I came in third. I was definately the dark horse. as the other two winners seemed to be very well known. But I got a trophy. That was the first trophy I ever one. I have a few plaques but not a trophy. The next day I joined the Pareo beauty contest. A kind of sarong, its essentially a beach wrap tied around the waist. I stripped to my shorts for it, and was lucky to have been wearing my Hawaiian boxers. I did not win that, despite flashing the boxers. Many of the contestants wore them over their pants, an older guy stripped to his tighty whitees when he saw me do it. Jeffrey managed to do something with his hair, and I think wore it in the dress style.
I got a bit drunk one night. I ended up doing shots of jaeger with the Daddy Bartender at the back bar. I ditched when it was time for him to clean up. I really did not want to hook up. Turns out he was staying with Panzi's Emperor Bill. I made it back to the YMCA and the boys had my bed ready.
While I was sitting in the audience of the play Sunday, I ended up in one of Sal's seats. Sal had turned some in and I had screwed up and had tickets for Saturday but thought I had them for Sunday. When I realized my error, the ticket guy was kind enough to let me switch. I ended up sitting between some middle aged man from the Pines, and 2 long term lovers from the Grove. They told me they had been coming to the Grove since the 50s. It was so affirming to see these long term couples.
The whole place was like a gay, summer camp - crossed with Disney World. No rides, but quite the attractions.
--
rant
###
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