Roy Orbison LIVES!

On Friday night I received a summons from Eric and Christopher to attend them at the Albuquerue Social Club. I was terribly frigthtened. You see...I'd heard great and horrible rumors about Albuquerque's "members" only gay bar. Two of my good friends were kicked out of the bar once for not possessing memberships. I thought to myself...what in elitist hell am I going to do in the ASC...and why the heck does Eric have a membership?

As I passed through the doors of the social club and was greeted by the world's oldest living lesbian...I felt as if the Queer Gods on high had transported me back to the year 1954. I checked to make sure that I had on at least three pieces of clothing from the appropriate gender, and I flicked a nearby light switch on and off just to make sure all was in working order in case of a police raid. As I wound my way through a gaggle of bearded white men...some doing some very public fondling in a bar that was way too bright for all that to be going on...I scurried quickly to Eric and Christopher...noting that our little table of blessed melanin was the only table with any flavor in the whole joint.

Eric and Christopher were not so slyly trying to get me out of the house since they'd read my blog and knew that I was probably moping in the dark, with the heat turned off, eating endless bowls of cereal and crying into my milk. And I am very grateful to them for that. I'm just as greatful to the two housewives that stumbled into the social club and began throwing down old school for us as they finally expressed their same gender love for one another. The big woman in the hot pink skin tight onesie quite literally made my day as she shucked and jived across the dance floor moving from lesbian to gay man...and finally settling on....much to my surprise...Roy Orbison. Yes...Roy is alive and well...living as an F to M tranny in Albuqueurque, NM where he is putting the moves on the down home dykes.  It was great to see Roy out in the world...even if it was in this run down piece of queer nostalgia. We sat there imagining the pick up lines he was using with the ladies...something like..."You know...I used to be a Vegas headliner....had my own show and everything....can't tell you who I was...but it wasn't Elvis...and it rhymes with Toy Robison...," and then with a wink...he and his lady for the night would shimmy off behind one of the fake Christmas trees...and Roy would give her a personal performance of Pretty Woman.

I didn't stay very long that night at the Social Club. I left the bar knowing that I'd left at the right moment. I'd seen a little glimpse of our pre-Stonewall History...and I felt all the more appreciative of the strides we have made as a community. So, with a smile, and checking to make sure none of my orifices had been violated by the bear daddies...I walked into the cool desert night, got into my car, and headed home.