Jenks, this made me remember the summer of 1990 when the first S Carolina Pride March was held in Columbia. I was with a small group of women from Clemson/Anderson/Pendleton. We we scared but determined to march. The bible beaters and KKK were threatening to be there and be an ugly presence. But we marched and marched proudly. All of the ~3000 marchers. Only a couple of pathetic bible beaters were there along the route and they were definitely pathetic. It was such a thrilling feeling to march up to the statehouse on that beautiful summer morning.
hi—sorry for long post in your comments section--and for this slightly weird out-of-the-blue message, but i found you and your substack last week doing a google search on Jerry Sedenko--im not a gardner, but i grew up on Bainbridge Island in the 70s and 80s and i knew Jerry because he sometimes acted in the community theater that i hung around. Jerry was, for a while, the only gay man i had any access to as a young person and i admired and was fascinated by him. I didn’t really comprehend what it was that Jerry did outside of the musicals he was in, but he owned a house a short mile from where i lived, and i used to kind of walk, or later drive, slowly by his farmhouse sometimes in the hopes of glimpsing some sort of..future? i guess? he seemed smart and funny and i wanted to know what a life of being a smart funny gay man looked like at home. He left the island sometime in the later 80s i think, around the time i left to go to college, and im not sure i knew exactly when he died, only that—in the way that that era just felt thick, and sad, and overwhelming—he had, like so many others of my heroes, disappeared too young and too fast. So sometimes i search for Jerry and a handful of the other fabulous men who were unwittingly tutoring me in how to grow up with a sense of fabulousness and a way to look at the world as an artist does--beautifully new and different.
So i was really happy to read his name in your post about Purple Rain.
AND, fully coincidentally and weirdly, just this weekend i was in Minneapolis for business and was at a performance of the entire Purple Rain album by the remaining members of the Revolution to celebrate that albums 40th anniversary (which was, PS, amazing) and Wendy (!!) introduced the song Purple Rain as their closer and talked about her performing that song for the first time at the same club we were all standing in when she was only 19 and then she sang and played the f*ck out of it, and it was amazing and among all the things that came flooding thru me during that song, i thought about your purple rain post, and the overwhelming collapse of time that made 40 years ago seem both immediate and impossibly far away, and all the people that aren’t here to dance with us still.
And so i just wanted to say thanks for adding even more depth and grace to a moment that was, already, beautiful and deep for me, just being in the room with that song. And thanks for also remembering something and someone that was important to me, which feels maybe like an echo returning back to you after you call someone’s name in the woods and aren’t sure if anyone hears it? And thanks for articulating something that our generation knows so well but is hard, at least for me, to describe with any real clarity for someone who didn't live through it.
And for filling in the picture of a man i knew a little bit, and introducing me to the names of other men i didnt.
im sorry if this all sounds bonkers, your post just really struck a chord with me, and im glad to have found it.
Wow. Not bonkers but beautiful and something so many of can relate too. Thanks david for connecting. living with jerry was such an important time for me -- so much fun and so many tender, sad moments. i guess i didn't know he did musicals but the minute you said it, i saw him doing sort of drag pantomime to my mother's messages she'd leave on the answering machine -- he loved her accent.
I was a community theater fanatic all thru high school and college and especially as a young adult in Greenville in the 80s. When I think of all the beautiful men who didn’t live out the decade, my heart breaks, too. Thanks for saying their names.
This essay is Tony Tiger grrrrreeeattt. Dolly's version of Purple Rain is worth a listen . It shows off the soaring gospel chords of Prince's composition. From a fan in Tennessee.
Jenks, how I would like to be there Saturday to celebrate and support you. Your words are so insightful and full of wisdom and lead me from sheer pathos to merriment. Ginny
Sunday 4/28 at 1 pm, Queer Haven Books, Columbia, SC. That will be a great place to be.
Jenks, this made me remember the summer of 1990 when the first S Carolina Pride March was held in Columbia. I was with a small group of women from Clemson/Anderson/Pendleton. We we scared but determined to march. The bible beaters and KKK were threatening to be there and be an ugly presence. But we marched and marched proudly. All of the ~3000 marchers. Only a couple of pathetic bible beaters were there along the route and they were definitely pathetic. It was such a thrilling feeling to march up to the statehouse on that beautiful summer morning.
I know you will have a great time on Saturday!!
looking forward to seeing you soon. i can only stay Thursday night though!
hi—sorry for long post in your comments section--and for this slightly weird out-of-the-blue message, but i found you and your substack last week doing a google search on Jerry Sedenko--im not a gardner, but i grew up on Bainbridge Island in the 70s and 80s and i knew Jerry because he sometimes acted in the community theater that i hung around. Jerry was, for a while, the only gay man i had any access to as a young person and i admired and was fascinated by him. I didn’t really comprehend what it was that Jerry did outside of the musicals he was in, but he owned a house a short mile from where i lived, and i used to kind of walk, or later drive, slowly by his farmhouse sometimes in the hopes of glimpsing some sort of..future? i guess? he seemed smart and funny and i wanted to know what a life of being a smart funny gay man looked like at home. He left the island sometime in the later 80s i think, around the time i left to go to college, and im not sure i knew exactly when he died, only that—in the way that that era just felt thick, and sad, and overwhelming—he had, like so many others of my heroes, disappeared too young and too fast. So sometimes i search for Jerry and a handful of the other fabulous men who were unwittingly tutoring me in how to grow up with a sense of fabulousness and a way to look at the world as an artist does--beautifully new and different.
So i was really happy to read his name in your post about Purple Rain.
AND, fully coincidentally and weirdly, just this weekend i was in Minneapolis for business and was at a performance of the entire Purple Rain album by the remaining members of the Revolution to celebrate that albums 40th anniversary (which was, PS, amazing) and Wendy (!!) introduced the song Purple Rain as their closer and talked about her performing that song for the first time at the same club we were all standing in when she was only 19 and then she sang and played the f*ck out of it, and it was amazing and among all the things that came flooding thru me during that song, i thought about your purple rain post, and the overwhelming collapse of time that made 40 years ago seem both immediate and impossibly far away, and all the people that aren’t here to dance with us still.
And so i just wanted to say thanks for adding even more depth and grace to a moment that was, already, beautiful and deep for me, just being in the room with that song. And thanks for also remembering something and someone that was important to me, which feels maybe like an echo returning back to you after you call someone’s name in the woods and aren’t sure if anyone hears it? And thanks for articulating something that our generation knows so well but is hard, at least for me, to describe with any real clarity for someone who didn't live through it.
And for filling in the picture of a man i knew a little bit, and introducing me to the names of other men i didnt.
im sorry if this all sounds bonkers, your post just really struck a chord with me, and im glad to have found it.
thanks x dz
Wow. Not bonkers but beautiful and something so many of can relate too. Thanks david for connecting. living with jerry was such an important time for me -- so much fun and so many tender, sad moments. i guess i didn't know he did musicals but the minute you said it, i saw him doing sort of drag pantomime to my mother's messages she'd leave on the answering machine -- he loved her accent.
oh gosh i love that, and miss (well, kind of miss) the inherent theater of the answering machine!
very happy to make this connection. Thank you and best to you x dz
This was so touching; thank you.
Even if it is just for a day, it will be great to see you!!!
I was a community theater fanatic all thru high school and college and especially as a young adult in Greenville in the 80s. When I think of all the beautiful men who didn’t live out the decade, my heart breaks, too. Thanks for saying their names.
So many wonderful gardeners in both Carolinas live on in my memories.
Beautiful, Jenks. Every word. And ... I sure do love that there's a bookstore called Queerhaven in our li'l state!
This essay is Tony Tiger grrrrreeeattt. Dolly's version of Purple Rain is worth a listen . It shows off the soaring gospel chords of Prince's composition. From a fan in Tennessee.
I like it!
This is another great one. I wish I could attend your reading in Columbia. I’ll wish you luck, but you won’t need it; you’re a great speaker.
Jenks, how I would like to be there Saturday to celebrate and support you. Your words are so insightful and full of wisdom and lead me from sheer pathos to merriment. Ginny