Candy Darling by Candy Darling

Author:Candy Darling
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781480407756
Publisher: Open Road Media

Candy Remembered

LIKE CANDY, I, TOO, came from out on the Island. Like many other children of the ’40s and ’50s whose parents were from the city, we were taken from the place of our birth to a presumably safer and more child-friendly atmosphere. And like many of the teenagers of the ’50s and ’60s, we felt confined and restricted by such a place and could not wait to return to the city that our parents had struggled so hard to leave.

In the early ’70s I would travel around the country until my money ran out and then return to New York to earn more so that I could leave again. I met Candy during one of those work periods. I had met Jeremiah first; he was a friend of a one-time hitchhiking companion. Jeremiah and I were both living in less-than favorable conditions in different sections of Brooklyn, so we decided to pool our resources and get an apartment together in Manhattan. We found a one-bedroom apartment that we could afford on the Upper West Side. We flipped a coin for the bedroom, and Jeremiah got it. I got the convertible couch in the living room. This arrangement worked out fine while it was only the two of us. But before long Jeremiah started telling me about his friend Candy who was in Europe making films. She’d return to America soon, he said, and would need a place to stay. Would I object to her coming to live with us? He said she’d live in his room with him, so I agreed.

Candy arrived. She was stunningly beautiful with an ethereal quality. She had suitcases full of gowns and cosmetics. My only interest in how I looked was what I had to wear in order to keep a good-paying job. I called it putting on the disguise, feeling that anything other than natural was a lie. When I was off work, I’d wear what my other friends wore—jeans and t-shirts, and no makeup. But when I went out with Candy, even just to the market, she’d insist that I dress up, often in one of her gowns. She’d do my makeup and hair; and I indulged her. It was yet another disguise to add to the mix. But no matter what type gown she dressed me in or how she did my makeup or hair, I still felt dowdy and butch next to her. She was the tall and glamorous one; I felt short and dumpy.

This arrangement worked well for a short while, but before long, two more people were living in our small apartment. It became clear that we’d have to move, and there was no way we could afford to stay in Manhattan. We found a house in Brooklyn, in Flatbush, near Park Slope, on a block that was partly renovated. We were renting two floors of the house, the rest was still undergoing construction. There were five of us now—Jeremiah and his lover, Joseph Ratinski, Candy, me, and a new friend, Kathy.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.