Drama Queen by Ricky

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,

“To talk of many things:

Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—

Of cabbages—and kings—

And why the sea is boiling hot—

And whether pigs have wings.”

— Lewis Carroll, The Walrus and the Carpenter

Last week I had to ask our group leader what exactly is a “drama queen”.  His answer was okay but due to the passage of time I forgot the answer.  Thus, I was on my own pondering this topic and how it relates to my life experiences.  I thought so hard that I gave myself a dramatic headache to substitute for smoke pouring out my ears.

My ponderous labors were not in vain however, as I did give birth to a personal point of reference; and it did not even take nine months.

I witnessed my first episode of “dramatical” behavior in 1953.  My mother made me wear sandals to Kindergarten where other boys began to call me a “sissy” for wearing them.  When I got home that afternoon, I begged my mother to get me “real” shoes like the other boys, but she said, “No.”  When my father came home, I turned on the tears, panic, and near tantrum behavior and he took me out to get new footwear; he truly understood the situation.  To some that may qualify for juvenile (or infantile) drama queen behavior, but to me it was self-preservation-behavior.

The next time I noticed dramatical behavior in others and I, was in the Fall of 1965 and Spring of 1966.  This time it was group behavior as many of us performed in the two high school plays, Pioneer Go Home and Tom Jones.  Combined with a few skits in Boy Scouts, these were my only youthful experiences with drama.  As it turns out though, I really enjoyed it.

Cast of Tom Jones--I'm Tom

I enjoyed drama.

In 1969, three young adult males and I performed, at a church social, a skit in barbershop quartet style; not the harmony parts just the dramatical part.  We sang a “moving” rendition of When It’s Hog Calling Time in Nebraska.  It was well received.  At least no one threw tomatoes at us.

Many years later, while in the Air Force, I was the supervisor of a flight of 30-missile security personnel one of whom, the flight sergeant, was always getting lost or stuck on unauthorized roads.  I was joking with one of my staff sergeants about giving the flight sergeant an award for all his efforts in finding new places to get stuck and areas in which to play lost and found.  The next week, the staff sergeant brought me a homemade medal of French design to award the flight sergeant.

The award was a little compass (the type with a small suction cup so it could be attached to a windshield) which was suspended from a red, white, and blue striped ribbon to fit around the recipient’s neck.  I invited the squadron commander and operations officer to attend my flight's guard mount that day to witness the award ceremony.

After attending to the normal activities of guard mount, I called the flight sergeant to come Front and Center.  When he was in place, I gave an "over the top" flowery spiel about his ability and skill in blazing new trails and documenting response time to hazardous locations ending with, “Sergeant R., I present you with the coveted Pathfinder of the Year Award.”  The highlight of the presentation was after I placed the ribbon around his neck I grasped his shoulders and kissed him French style on both cheeks.  Everyone “cracked up laughing,” the sergeant turned bright red, and even the commander enjoyed the “performance.”  This is not drama queen behavior; it is morale boosting behavior to lighten the load of being in a boring and thankless job.

After all that pondering on the topic, I do recognize stereotypical drama queen behavior, when I see others engage in it repeatedly.  However, I am not a stereotypical person.  Like each of you, I am unique in my personality, traits, speech patterns, sense of humor, and so on.  I believe that we all do things sometimes that could make others refer to us as drama queens.  For myself, I may actually do these things quite often but rather subtlety.  No one has ever said I was effeminate or had effeminate traits or habits and I am not flamboyant or flaming.  No, my drama queeniness is very low key.

For example, I like to tell jokes, mostly puns, at odd intervals to lighten the mood; or perhaps to turn the attention to me.  I like to wear bright solid color shirts and t-shirts with logos or sayings or other messages on them; perhaps again to make people notice me.  While I do not deliberately arrive late to our Telling Your Story group, it does draw attention to me.  So maybe I really do qualify as a drama queen; except for one thing.  I am not female so “queen” does not fit.

"The time has come," this author said,

"To talk of many things: 

Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax-- 

Of cabbages--and drama kings-- 

And why the sea is boiling hot-- 

And whether pigs have wings."

If you must, just call me a Drama King.

© 16 April 2012

About the Author

Emerald Bay - Lake Tahoe

Ricky was born in June of 1948 in downtown Los Angeles, California. He lived first in Lawndale and then in Redondo Beach both suburbs of LA. Just prior to turning 8 years old, he went to live with his grandparents on their farm in Isanti County, Minnesota for two years while (unknown to him) his parents obtained a divorce.

When united with his mother and new stepfather, he lived at Emerald Bay and then at South Lake Tahoe, CA, graduating from South Tahoe High School in 1966. After three tours of duty with the Air Force, he moved to Denver, Colorado where he lived with his wife of 27 years and their four children. His wife passed away from complications of breast cancer four days after 9-11.

He came out as a gay man in the summer of 2010.  "I find that writing these memories is very therapeutic."

Ricky's blog is "TheTahoeBoy.blogspot.com".