The Grove Gang
Volume 49, Issue 3
By Susan Freedner

Well the temperature finally matched the calendar and the season got going. There is nothing quite like warm, sunny weather to improve the outlook and disposition of everyone in the community. Sometimes it doesn’t even have to be sunny. Quite often I say I don’t mind rain. Just cold rain! Just like I really don’t mind cold weather as long as it’s sunny. Anyway, where was I? I could blame my mindless meandering on lack of oxygen to the brain as I experienced quite an eerie co-inky dinky as almost one year to the day I was again diagnosed with ‘occult blood loss’ as the reason I was feeling fatigued after minor physical exertion and yes, that is the actual medical term. I’m about a pint short and I was told to take iron supplements and to take it easy. Hmmm… Isn’t that what I do on an ongoing daily basis?

I don’t want to dwell on medical issues however on the morning of Saturday, June 11, we at EasTWINdS experienced a distressing veterinary emergency as our houseguest Shou-Who, a very gentle and affectionate Shih-Tzu, was rushed to the Animal Medical Center in NYC by her mommy’s Denice and Robin. We thought she had an infection but it was significantly more serious, Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia. The hospital was fantastic in stabilizing her condition and although she remained gravely ill on Sunday by Monday the treatment began to take effect and she made substantial progress in her recovery so that she was able to be sent home on Tuesday albeit with quite a protocol of meds. My VSO (Very Significant Other) Cathy and I are her godparents and are quite relieved and remain cautiously optimistic and pray she continues her recovery.

Warm thanks to Pat and Lynn (Happy Birthday) for a gracious and very tasty get-together that Saturday afternoon… we thought we really rated and were on the ‘A’ list until we were told there are two ‘A’ lists and they will be having another get-together. Pleasurable, humorous and enlightening conversation was also on the menu with my identical twin Ruth, Cathy, Lynne, Ceejay and Peg, Joyce and Lisa, Denise, Annie and Ricki, Jan without Edrie (more about that later) as well as a welcome home to Julie and Gay, along with Gay’s mom, Betty. I hope someone else writes about the second ‘A’ list party, as I will not be invited.

I stayed home to rest that evening but Ruth eagerly attended the APCG produced Songs for Solo Dance and Voice at the Community House, and upon her return home she was glowing in her enthusiastic appraisal of all of the performances and especially a dance appearance by Edrie. So that was the reason she was not at our neighbor’s soiree? Edrie is our inimitable local yoga instructor, at the Community House Tuesday and Saturday at 9 a.m.

Sunday afternoon, Ruth and I went to the Imperial Court of New York’s Drag Tag Sale at the Ice Palace; along with some of my women friends of a certain sexual orientation. Can you believe it? RG’s (Real Girls) buying drag? Well it has become a necessity. We often require costumes for our performances. Speaking for myself, Keely Smith will definitely have a new outfit to wear when she next performs… perhaps next year? Many of the most talented and dynamic members of our community are actively involved with the ICNY and this has become a well-attended and very successful fun, fundraiser.

The silver-tongued and beautiful Philomena enchanted Ruth and me, along with a very appreciative audience, at the performance of OceanAires this past Saturday evening. It was the seventh by now traditional rendering of classical music presented by the APCG in the CH with a decidedly casual and welcoming atmosphere. A personal heartfelt thank you to Isaac Steven Vaughan who not only provided the erudite, witty, slightly cockeyed commentary and program notes but also procured the exceptionally talented performers. A high point of the evening, for me, was in the second act when Philomena began to read the introduction of a performer who was previously announced as not being able to be present. She discovered that the program notes for the actual next performer had been erroneously discarded and although Isaac hurriedly tried to retrieve them he was unable to do so. Isaac then gave an off the top of his head introduction that was virtually as amusing as those he had written. The interplay with the audience was another only in The Grove moment. You had to be there! It was a thoroughly entertaining evening.

My VSO Cathy, went to Sparks, Nev. for a 10 day visit to two of her sisters and their families and I really appreciate our cell phone family plan as the next thing I knew she was calling me from a car heading to California. Her sister Karen, husband and two teenage sons had planned an excursion and had taken Cathy with them to spend a few days at a house on the beach in Rio del Mar near Santa Cruz. By the time you read this she will have returned to NYC but will spend some reentry time at home in Brooklyn before returning to the Grove.

Ruth and I have already purchased our tickets and are eagerly anticipating the APCG produced A Date with Liberace at the air-conditioned CH, starring Jacqueline Jonee (John Nieman) with two performances on Saturday, June 25. Is that a man impersonating a woman impersonating a man? By special arrangement the gay pride fireworks won’t start until after the conclusion of the second performance.
When you read this tickets will also be on sale for another APCG produced show at the CH, Legends in Their Own Minds, two performances on Saturday, July 2. I can hardly contain myself. What a concept! Some of our favorite Homecoming Queens. Will that be individually or en masse?
Tickets for APCG produced events in the CH are on sale at the kiosk from Noon – 2 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday and then again 1/2 hour before each performance thanks to the capable and agreeable David Bullock and Tim Webster.
With the weather becoming hot, hazy, and humid before it was even officially summer I am reminded how grateful I am to spend time on the Island. I have done the math: Seasonal rental, seasonal parking, ferry commutation ticket, etc. and although I confess arithmetic was not my strong subject I am convinced that I save money by not being home in the city running two or three A/C’s along with assorted fans all weekend long.
After you read this ask me about my week. Tuesday, June 21, a group of eleven of us, friends and friends of friends, will be attending the home opener in Coney Island of the Brooklyn Cyclones, a Mets minor league baseball team, playing the Staten Island Yankees. On Wednesday, close to midnight, I pick Cathy up at LaGuardia and on Thurs., Cathy and I will be attending the Brooklyn Academy of Music to see Vanessa Redgrave starring in the Greek tragedy Hecuba, by Euripides. It promises to be an interesting and eclectic week.

GBCG (God Bless Cherry Grove)