Mentioned a few times elsewhere on this forum, my own grandmother instilled upon me what one should consider a source of … pride. My love of the Village People. She bought me two albums when I was very young to play on my, “record player.” My grandmother was the least hip person I’ve ever met, a God-fearing farm girl from the middle of nowhere in North Carolina. She never completed 8th grade but made a living for 40 years working in a factory, cleaning other peoples homes for extra money on the side and attending every church event ever.
I have no doubt she didn’t know who the Village People were. She may have known who Donna Summer was, as she bought me that album as well. But as a kid with a record player and nothing else to listen to except for, “turn the page,” kids album/books, those were my jam, so to speak. Now, truthfully, any album would have worked, but those are what she gave me, and besides the, “old,” albums my parents had that took me way too long to find, I sang along with those and did performances for my parents along with my sisters. A year or so before, I also got a Jackson Five album and The Osmonds. This was the fuel that started the Skipper fire. Any question now how I ended up in the Navy?
But why … why did I see the movie? Once you’re in, Navaronegun, once you are a part of the experience, you’re there. Truthfully I saw it long after it was out when I worked in a video store. Someone had checked it out and I thought, hey, the Village People! Yeah. Checked that one off my bucket list pretty early, let me tell ya.
I love and miss my old Mawmaw, and I thank her for a Pride inspired disco intro those many years ago. Maybe she just asked for a recommendation from the clerk at the store. Or maybe, just maybe, she knew I would have this time of trivia now, so many years later.
“Every man ought to be a macho, macho man
To live a life of freedom, machos make a stand”
A new 20 soon.
