February
29, 1976 I celebrated my 10th Leap Year Birthday by having a party at
the Memphis Hilton hotel for 300 of 'my closest friends', more about
that in a minute. There was a reception from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM in the
Toastmaster's room with cocktails, appetizers and a jazz trio followed
by a sit down dinner, in the Director's room, featuring Prime Ribs,
Yorkshire pudding,Caesar salad and a band ending with desserts and
dancing in the Corporate room with another band and a singer.
 

Needless
to say, if you know me, the 5 tier cake was a carrot cake with cream
cheese and walnut icing. The whole affair was on the front page of the
Commercial-Appeal society section and hundreds of pictures were taken
which is a good thing as I was drunk the whole evening, (that wasn't
inthe newspaper story), and only remember minutes here and there
including a 'thank you for coming' speech sitting in front of the
bandnext to the singer and not making sense!
 

Regardingthose
300 'friends' there was my lover, Johnny, his parents, most of the
employees of the business I had started, Our Weigh, plus about a
dozenpeople who had lost 100 pounds and more under my guidance , 2
tables of gay friends and friends who had flown in from Chattanooga,
Atlanta, Kansas city, New York, St. Louis and so on. It was the people
who weren't there that was a bummer such as my Aunt Flo who was the
first one to show me unconditional love, my father who had come to
Memphis the year before and we were on the verge of a reconciliation, a
group of people who decided to stay with Bernie when we split, not to
forget Bob, Nina, Jean, Ladye, BJ, Chuck, Bob,  Gene, Joan, Addie,  Joe,
Issac and, yes, Bernie himself (which didn't surprise
me) and my
brother and his family and many others. Of the 300 people there I have
only heard from and/or seen 5(!) of them since 1979--goodthing I have
albums of pictures of them!  LOL

I
promise there will be no mention of food in Part 4 but right now I want
to share another memory of that time. Memphis was sort of a hub of many
cities within reach by car in a few hours such as Atlanta, Houston,
Dallas, Hot Springs, St. Louis and, one trip we took, was on July
13,1974,  to Fort Smith, Arkansas, on the far west boundary of the
State. Why? Food, of course.They were offering, to anyone who could eat
it all, within an hour, a
free meal of a 72 ounce sirloin steak, a
shrimp cocktail, a salad and abeverage. I still have the notarized bill
stating that I did it. The next day I had to go on radio and talk about
being a Weight Watcher!!! LOL
 

I
didn't
drive a car until the age of 33, October, 1969, when I moved to
Memphis. Up to that point I had lived where transportation was readily
available or I had friends to rely on. Before I left NYC Bernie said I
should have a few driving lessons because I would really need a car when
I got to Memphis. Joan took me down to Wall Street on a Sunday in her
VW Beatle, with a stick shift, to give me a few lessons and without
going into the gory details, and her pulling her hair out, after an hour
the lessons were over! When I got down to Memphis Bernie spent a
weekend teaching me how to drive, then that Tuesday I got my license and
three days later the company leased me my first car--a brand new1970
white Cadillac convertble --which I would walk into the dealer 5 years
later and pay cash to own it.
 

 
Coming up: Our Weigh, Weight
Watchers, Gig Young, Chuck, Bob, picking greens, Overton Park and
Overton Square, Cotton Carnival, mid-South fair, Jwags, Mudd Island, the
pyramid, my last trip to Memphis, Issac, Joe, red light, Pink Palace,
Millington navy base, Carbondale, Jackson, Jonesboro, Chattanooga and,
oh yes, SEX IN MEMPHIS