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Wellington was quite wonderful in in those early days because we used to get a lot of overseas liners coming in and a lot of the crew on them were gay. And, um, they would do drag, too. But they were always rather fascinated with Wellington because they said they felt that it was the drag capital of the world because they'd never seen so many, um, drag queens walking around. And I can quite relate to that, too, because years later in the seventies, when I was in London, I never saw one in the street only in the hotels doing shows, but never, [00:00:30] um uh, openly sort of walking down the streets of London like we did have in Wellington. And I thought this was all rather bizarre because I, I thought there was a huge city such as London. You would have seen that, most definitely. But no, no, I remember years ago when the Dorian Club first opened. We were having, um, fancy dress balls and one of them was held up at the, um, Brooklyn Community Hall and [00:01:00] everybody was there having a wonderful time and photographs were being flashed. And we realised that the truth photographers had gotten and there was a hell of a kerfuffle then, um, drag queens running, chasing them outside, jumping on top of their cars. And I remember seeing one, um, who shall remain unnamed on top of, uh, the photographer's car clinging for dear life as it wheeled down, um, down the hill, bashing on the roof of this car [00:01:30] with a beer bottle and flying everywhere behind it was quite the most amazing sight to see. Yeah, well, I, I remember one. I don't really think it was funny, Although when I do tell it, people do seem to shriek with laughter. Uh, I think I probably mentioned that I was window dressing and being a bit of a daydreamer. I was dressing a model down on one of the shops in Lampton Quay and looking out the window, and I must [00:02:00] have been standing still for a few minutes, just gazing. And there was a bus stop just outside this window, and all of a sudden I moved. Well, there was a man, an elderly man looking in the window, and he got such a fright. I don't know if it was because of what I had done. He maybe he thought I was a model, Uh, moved. He had a heart attack, fell into the window and dropped dead. I have never in my life moved so quickly. See, I'm starting to laugh now. But this did happen. [00:02:30] I just I. I didn't really quite know. I mean, I didn't know that he had actually died until later, but he had he'd gone purple and died Another thing, which was rather I mean, I think this was quite funny. My partner and I were This is quite some years ago. We were walking down, um, Wakefield Street and on a Saturday afternoon and [00:03:00] there was quite a lot of cars, and they they they stopped at the lights and one of them pulled the window down and yelled out, Oh, look at the queers, you know? Well, II, I just thought I always thought this time type of thing was quite funny when it happened. So we just walked on and everybody in that car, including the driver, had turned around and the ones behind, too. And all of a sudden, there was this un mighty God Almighty crash and they smashed into each other because they were looking and I have never moved [00:03:30] so quickly. I thought, I don't want to have been a witness to this bit. I love show music. I think this is a thing with gay people I think they always have done. Um, they always used to be people jumping up, doing numbers, not in drag, but just doing them and prompt you at parties. Uh, I think that's when when shows were had more tunes, which people could sort of whistle and hum. But, [00:04:00] um, I still love those old shows. This is what I I use when I'm going out in drag II. I put them on to sort of give me inspiration to get ready. Um, singers. I love Julie London. I love one singer who I always used to use for drag. Not many people here have heard of her. She's an Australian. Lana Cantrell. Um, she's wonderful. She's [00:04:30] living in New York now. She gave up singing. She's a lawyer, um, for theatre people over there, she's doing very well. She came back to Sydney a couple of years ago to sing for the Mardi Gras, but she's a really wonderful, wonderful singer and I always used to use her for drag. Yeah, Peter and I met. Probably would have been in the late fifties when I was 16. I was working [00:05:00] at the D IC at the time window dressing, and he used to walk by going to the post office. What a wonderful looking man. I'm going to live with him, and I did, and I have done for the last 41 years. Uh, this is what happened. Um, we didn't go and live together until I was 21 because I refused to pay rent to anybody, so I just would save up my money, and he would save up his. So we got a deposit on a house, which we bought. [00:05:30] Um, and we've lived in the same house since, um uh, that time, which is quite interesting, really, Because we were the only gay people in the area. I think it probably raised quite a few eyebrows at the time. But now a lot of people, a lot of gay people are living around there, which is quite fun. It's It's quite a gay ghetto now. Yeah, in Newtown. Yeah. Yes. And we we've We've been living there all that time with our animals. [00:06:00] Yeah, well, my pets. Yes, I I'm rather crazy. They're They're not really my pets. They're my Children. Um, they They're Maltese Maltese dogs. Absolutely divine. I would take them on the floats when I was doing the devotion parades in Wellington. Um, they always look glamorous. They always sat in well with a white fox fur because they look the same as but they were alive, you see, [00:06:30] Yes, they they're rather wonderful, but, um very, very gay looking dogs. They are? Yeah. Yeah. It seems as though as they pass on to their reward in heaven, I seem to be blessed or whatever you like to call it with more that arrive. I think word has got around that people who can't cope with them anymore, they know that there is somebody who can, and I seem to collect them. Yeah, [00:07:00] we had a family reunion probably about five years ago, Uh, which was really quite fun. I met quite a few people who I didn't even know I was related to. But my cousin, who is a very strict Salvation Army, she said to me Well, she said, you know, she said You'll have to bring Peter because she said he is part of the family And, um, you've been [00:07:30] together now for more years and we here to remember so you'll have to bring him along. And I thought, Well, this coming from somebody from the Salvation Army is rather interesting. So he went along to and had a wonderful time. Yes, yes, we had a great time there meeting cousins and second cousins and third cousins. And I had a woman came up to me in the supermarket a couple of years ago and she said to me, She said, Do you know? She said, We're related and I said How? She said, We have got the same great [00:08:00] grandparents. Well, we started chatting away and, uh, turned out She was right, and I invited her home and she saw, um, in my hallway. I've got a lot of family photographs and I've got my grandparents, um, wedding photo, and she saw this and she was totally amazed. She said, Oh, she said, there's my mother. And here was her mother, who was about four or five at the time, and she was their bridesmaid. And she said, I always wondered where she was when she had that little dress on, because she's [00:08:30] got a photo of it, too. So this is This is where it came from, which is rather nice. I mean, we have a great time together now. She's in her nearly in her seventies, and we go out every week and, um, hoot around town and she's quite a wonderful woman. She's quite outrageous, too. Yeah, I like that. I remember somebody, a very old lady saying to me once that she used to get quite upset because she was losing her [00:09:00] friends. Well, somebody had said to her, Well, what do you expect? You know, they're in their eighties or so, but she said yes. She said, When? When you're about the only one left, you're wondering when your time is. But I think with a lot of gay people they're getting this early because so many people are dying at an early age, and I think it just makes you wonder who will be left to be 80. What I seem to do, probably because [00:09:30] I've been in Wellington for such a long time, and I know so many people I've been able to help people who have got AIDS and who really haven't got all that long to live. Um, I go and and sort of be with them for, you know, a few few days a week and, um, help them with whatever they want doing. Um, we we sit down and have cups of tea, and I think generally we once again, it's funny. We have lots and lots of laughs about [00:10:00] I. I think. I think when people at that stage they don't really care what they say, you get to hear a lot of their very personal parts of life. And I think we can make a joke of most things and and they seem to have a lot of laughs about it, which I think is so good.
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