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September 08, 2004
Cinnamon spice
Cinnamon had this magical way of making me into her helpless love slave.
I really haven't danced since I had all those knee surgeries a few years ago, but back in Lubbock, I would 8-shot dance at the local gay bar. I call it 8-shot dancing because it took at least four double shot rum drinks to give me any sense of rhythm. After the 8th shot, I still danced like a Baptist boy with a spinal problem, but I just didn't care.
Because the bar in Lubbock is the ONLY gay bar in town, the music mix was always pop, disco, then country. Lather, rinse, repeat. This worked well, as the country song would give me a chance to move off the traumatized dance floor. I would be seriously overheated and my head was supershiny from sweat.
That is where Cinnamon would use her drag queen powers to enslave me. She would see me dancing and immediately get an iced drink. She would proceed to freeze out her hands for the duration of the song. As soon as I left the dance floor, she would gently place them on my head, producing a response similar to lifting a kitten by the scruff of the neck.
I could barely lift a muscle as I descended into a torpor. She would massage my head, her hands warming, my head cooling. I loved it, goosebumps forming all over my sweaty body. Once her nails left my sensitive skin, I would jump off to another disastrous dancing seizure.
I also knew her as Albert, the HIV positive man who worked at the local resource center. He would go to high risk areas like the 'fruit loop' or the local bookstore and pass out condoms, sometimes as Albert, sometimes as Cinnamon. He was the first drag queen to march in a public parade in Lubbock, and was a great example to me of living proudly and boldly. He was far from perfect, but I always respected him.
My friend David was visiting from Texas and casually mentioned that Albert had died in a freak car accident months ago. I was stunned, as I had always thought of Cinnamon as one of those elements of nature. A rather large and bitchy force of nature, but a force nonetheless.
Here's to large drag queens who inspire the rest of us.
Posted by G at September 8, 2004 07:14 PM
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Comments
Amen, sistah.
Thirty-five years ago, those same inspirational drag queens fought back at Stonewall and made a difference for all us queer folk today.
God love them and their hair.
Posted by: palochi at September 9, 2004 12:05 PM
Wow, I didn't realize Cinnamon had passed away. She jumped to my defense a couple of times during a nasty break up and was always around when I wasn't in the best of moods - making me laugh and smile and realize that things weren't as bad as I thought...
I had much respect for her...a drag queen that could be a bitch when needed, but had a huge heart.
Posted by: James at September 9, 2004 12:47 PM