Ever since I found out about Keith I have been sad and looking back too much on the past. What could have been, what wasn't, what might have been, what never was. Often times when I do that I tend to romanticize the past. I was doing this with Keith, the "Lost and Found" and the "Disco Era".
The reality is...was...most of the times I went to the L & F I left sad and lonely and tipsy or drunk. I remember one night stopped at a light in Springfield, VA and a car pulled up next to me. A girl looked over and in a nice voice, not condescending, said "Smile, it can't be all that bad". I wanted to say "yes it is nobody wanted me tonight" but I didn't. I smiled!
Keith wasn't even a one night stand, more like a one night almost was. John Nevins was a "summer fling" as was Chuck Hummer. I hung out with Robin Fletcher but most of the time we were both on the prowl. Of all of them, I do miss him the most and wish I could make amends to him. I've looked all over the Internet and can't find him. The last time I did was back in the early 90's. I was in LA working at MCA/Universal Home Video and I found a phone number in Alexandria, VA. I called it and he answered, but it took me aback and I didn't know what to say, so I hung up. When I called back, it went straight to voicemail. I did leave a message, apologizing, but I never heard back from him.
I did run into Chuck once outside the auditorium where The Arlington Players did their shows. He had come to see a friend who was in the show. We chatted very briefly, but then he had to leave. No love lost there it seemed. John Nevins lent me the Beta videotape he had of "Grease" the movie so we could look at the dances for our version of GREASE we did at Radford University back in the spring of 1982. He had already moved onto another boyfriend by then. Nice enough, but no love lost.
My friend Bennie Russell moved to LA and I did see him once. My sister Cheryl had just moved to LA so we both went over to his apartment and spent sometime. We had been friends ever since we both worked at the Roth Mt. Vernon 1 & 2 movie theatres in Alexandria, VA. We came out together, but went our separate ways. I think I found him on Facebook, Bernard Russell, but I haven't heard back from him yet.
The Lost and Found is no more. It stayed open till the mid 80's, closed, reopened under a different name, but now is no more. I drove by once, long ago, and it seemed so small.
I guess the reason I feel such "affection" for it and that time is because, that was my sexual awakening. My "Spring Awakening" as it were. Back then, there was no Internet or chat rooms or Gay and Lesbian Centers per se. If you were gay, you went to bars to dance and find love or romance or sex or a combo thereof. For me, I'd grown up thinking I was the only one. When I went through the doors of the Lost and Found, I was with others. Just like in the song "Different".."then I discovered some others like me....wonder no longer together we're stronger...it's not so bad to be different..."
I have a lot of the songs from that time on my Mini IPOD. John Nevins had made me many dance tapes. Cassettes. I recorded them onto my computer when I moved to NY and then uploaded them onto my IPOD. Now I ride the subways in NY listening to them, with the sounds of the tapes and all on them. Some crackles, some pops. As soon as the songs start I am transported to that time. Music does that for me. I can hear a song and it takes me right back to where I first heard it, or where I listened to it the most. I can still remember dancing to "Let's All Chant" "Lay All Your Love on Me" "Walk the Night" "Dancing is Dangerous/Is There More to Life Than Dancing" "It's Raining Men" "The Boss" "No One Gets the Prize" "Upside Down" "I'm Coming Out" "I Need a Man" "Leave That Boy Alone" and my ALL TIME FAVORITE DANCE SONG "Gloria" by Laura Branigan!!!
She is gone too. Many of that era are, either from AIDS, drugs, after effects of drugs like heart attacks and strokes and brain aneurysms.
For me, it was sort of an innocent time. I didn't do drugs, just drank too much beer. I sniffed poppers but hated the way they gave me a headache after. I remember seeing porn "stars" there. Jack Wrangler. He's gone too.
It was really only a short time. Starting with the summer of 1979 through the summer of 1985. The last time I can recall going there was in the summer of 1985 with some of the cast members of GODSPELL. I did go once with a guy from the cast of CABARET. Kevin. But, the "magic" was gone.
I got involved in Community Theatre and that drew my interest and took up my time.
Except for seeing Keith when he played Hero at Lubber Run in "Forum" or Chuck after that performance of, I think OLIVER or MAN OF LA MANCHA.
The echoes and reverberations of that time fade...then come back...then with finding the articles on Keith, come crashing back. As Liza sang "It was a good time, it was the best time..." but it really wasn't that wonderful. There were some times. Many times though as I said I went home alone.
So, time to shut the door gently again. Sadly now I can say that yes, people my age have passed on and are no longer here. They are, though, in my memories. What did Dickens write "it was the best of times it was the worst of times".
Chic "Good Times"...these are the good times!
Lost and Found The Other Side The Frat House Badlands SE Dupont Circle P Street
Goodbye...Goodbye to you...
