Fire Island 1986: A Trip To Remember

"I can't think of one thing I'd rather have than somebody loving me."
-as heard while watching
"The Secret Life of Bees", 2008 film

Twenty-five years ago today:

August 17, 1986
Sunday

I went downstairs and bought seventeen postcards at a nearby newsstand. I also bought some bagels and coffee at the neighborhood deli and gift shop. I couldn’t believe myself (eating breakfast at 3 o’clock in the AFTERNOON!).

I wrote out all of my seventeen postcards to the following people: Mom, Dad, Tony and Helen, John and Sherri, Anne Alberti, Jeanette Melcher, Mark Landreth, Chris Cordellos, Paloma Sanchez-Guerra, Ginny Hari of Pac Tel Info Systems, Barbara Reynolds, Steph Redding, Judy Geniella, Mary McTiernan, my Grandma Mary Genevieve Leyba-Lucero, Margaret Lai and Johnny Schaeffer. I guess that’s enough for now. After completing the cards I took a walk (with Lenny and Ron) to the Port Authority Bus Depot. We made arrangements for a train ride to Seville and then onward via a ferry ride to “Fire Island”.

The train ride gave me a fairly good overview of Brooklyn, Queens and other sectors of New York (including Long Island). The houses are very big and beautiful in other parts of New York.

The ferry ride was soothing and nice (quite relaxing). I liked the views. I really felt like I was on vacation. And guess what---I was! Ha-ha. There were a number of beautiful looking houses on this “Fire Island”. I would later see Calvin Klein’s house as it was pointed out to me. I also heard that CHER and a number of other celebrities have homes here on “Fire Island”.

Lenny’s house rental on the island cost him $5000 for the summer. I certainly feel that’s a rip-off (but it’s his money—I guess). Once we were on “Fire Island” we went to Lenny’s and lounged around a bit. We went for tea time at a major club. I thought it was going to be afternoon tea but they just call it a “tea dance” at this very GAY club. Lenny had friends there: Frankie, Anthony (both Frankie and Anthony are hairdressers), Steve, Joe and more. I was a bit on the quiet side as I was quite plainly observing all of the people. Ron was going off on his disappearing acts for ‘pot’ and ‘coke’ and ‘who knows what else. I noticed a lot of these guys were very much ‘into’ the whole pot and coke scene.

After the “tea dance” club we went to Joe’s house where we all gathered and watched some Rome, Italy flick. The film was rather boring (I thought). Joe was a nice guy. He had an RH Factor (what I refer to as a Receding Hairline Factor). He made us eat some of his leftover dinner (pasta, broccoli, and salad). It was yummy. It hit the spot. We watched more of that movie.

By midnight or one o’clock in the morning we (Ron, Lenny and I) left to shower and change to go out! I wore my spandex bike shorts to the club (the same club on the island that we had visited earlier that was having the tea dance party). Before we entered the club we stopped at another chaps house. His name was Gary. There was a guy there (named Peter, I think) and I learned that he was big fan of Ann-Margret (like me). I could really relate to that. We all waited for Gary to come out of his bedroom because he was going to impersonate Patty LaBelle. It was pretty silly. Then Frankie and Anthony (the hairdressers) who have very long, long hair got all dolled-up in drag and did some improvising to the songs VICTIM and AMERICAN LOVE. They were two songs that were constantly playing while I was there. After the amateur drag show playing we went to the PAVILLION CLUB.   I took a couple of souvenir postcards for forthcoming events at the PALLADIUM (in New York City).   I one of the promotional cards had the words "A Trip To Remember" on it.   I thought that was interesting.

I danced with Ron and Lenny and some new fella that I met (his name is Paul Dean). Paul was ‘ok’.
Paul said, “I work on ANOTHER WORLD and GUIDING LIGHT soap operas.”
I assumed this meant that he was an aspiring actor.
Paul continued, “Right now I’m rehearsing a night club act in-between for some joint that I’m planning to connect with.”
We exchanged address and telephone number information. Then I took a walk with Paul Dean through a street known as TINA TUNA Street. I thought the street name was funny. Paul led me to his house and it wasn’t as nice as the place that Lenny was supposedly renting.  Alas, I stayed there for a while and had a relatively good time.

I walked back to Lenny’s house at around 5 in the morning. Ron, Lenny and Frankie were all there getting high off of pot. They were smoking tons of it (I guess). Ron was massaging both Lenny and Frankie.
Frankie asked, “So where were you…out trashing around?”
“No,” I answered, “I went for coffee off of Tina Tuna and just now got back.”
Besides, I thought, it’s my business what I do.
Suddenly I heard Ron ask me, “Where were you?”
I replied, “I just told you!”

I went and fell asleep on the couch. I think it was around 11AM when I woke up again.

"Have I done something to vex you?"
-Wives and Daughters
BBC mini-series, Episode #4