This weekend on Facebook, I've have been profusely thanking an old friend of mine, Keith Dunn, for organizing the opportunity for Mark and I to see Bianca Del Rio. For those not in the know, Bianca Del Rio won this last season's RuPauls Drag Race(one of my most favorite shows). She is a wonderfully funny drag queen.
Keith and I worked together in 1985/86 at the Indiana Repertory Theatre in Indianapolis. We were in the box office and sold tickets, and handled customer issues. I don't believe I ever told this to Keith, but he was my first gay friend to pal around with. Oh trust me, I knew gay people, but at that point I hadn't been out long, and those who were gay were closeted. He not only was my co-worker, but he was my bar buddy. He introduced me to the bars in Indy; The Varsity, Talbott Street, OP's(now Greg's), and I think we might have gone to The Unicorn.
Back then, I enjoyed bars to a point, and then I would get depressed. I felt bad for Keith at the time, because I thought he must of thought I was a mess. I kind of was. Back then I was misdiagnosed as HIV+(but would not know it was a misdiagnosis for 2 years), and I felt very alone. So at certain points in the night, I would feel a bit down. He always did his best to cheer me up.
What you don't know then, is what you know now, and I thought about it this weekend. Who knew almost 30 years ago, that he and I would renew our friendship via Facebook, and he would be instrumental in picking up my spirits after a heart attack. Keith put the word out that I wasn't able to get tickets to the now sold out Bianca Del Rio show.
As it turns out an old friend from his Indy days came through. LaNora Takie works at the bar, and is an old friend of Keith's. She got Mark and me into the show, and also the meet and greet. Yes, we got to meet Bianca Del Rio. I had never met her until I went to the bar Friday night, and I made sure to give her a big hug of thanks. She is a sweetheart.
What I'm getting at is, the people we meet in our lives, we are never really sure what roles they will play in our lives. I find it fascinating that you can lose touch with someone, as I did with Keith, then we meet up via the internet years later, and we are still friends. If my today self went back and told 1985 Charlie that in 2014 he would have a heart attack, and Keith would do something kind to brighten a down time, I think 1985 Charlie would have ignored that and asked, "Di I find a hot guy for a boyfriend." Yeah, I was a bit shallow when I wanted to be.
To some of you, this may seem like a "duh" kind of post, but really, you don't know the roles people truly play in your lives. During the 80s, I went through a lot of sad times, so the friends I had in my life, I treated like family. They were family, and in my mind, still are family. I don't keep in touch with old friends like I should, but I treasure the times we had, and the love and affection we shared. Chances are, we still share that love and affection. It just doesn't always make itself known.
Charlie
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