The Lures

When I was 15, it was 1980...in Atlanta, the night scene was hopping with all night gay bars, intimate concert venues like the Agora Ballroom, and we even had the Limelight Disco...commonly referred to as The Slimelight (located next door to "Disco Kroger", I might add, first grocery store to have a sushi bar, at least in the south). Like many of my friends, I had a fake ID, and we all frequented these places as much as we could. Drinking age was 18, so from the time most of us were 15, give or take a couple of years, it was fairly easy to get into any club we wanted.

I don't remember where I got them , but my favorite, and possibly only piece of jewelry from the time I was in my early to mid teens, was a pair of long brown feather earrings that tickled the tops of my shoulders. I had a big brown over sized knitted sweater with a big tiger on the front, which I would wear with my feather earrings and jeans. While that was my favorite outfit, I actually probably wore those earrings nearly every day, regardless of what else I was wearing. By early 1981, I was at a high school called Open Campus West, which was filled with hippies (well, wannabes, but no one told us we were actually born too late to be REAL hippies), rebels, and single teen moms. I was a combo of the first two. My feather earrings fit in quite nicely, and I felt too cool with my tall suede moccasin boots with the fringe around the top, my too-tight jeans, and my tiger sweater, smoking cigarettes in the parking lot and skipping class to eat the $1.99 breakfast special at Cocos.

By summer of 81, a few months before I was to turn 16, my friends and I had found a little dive called Hedgens. They were known for having great live music ever night, so a new haunt was found for my feather earrings and me. The first night I went their, I saw a band called The Numbers, and I was enamored with them. My group quickly befriended the guys and began going to their gigs around town. I had a special interest in Hays, the drummer. He was in his early 20s...yes, too old for an almost 16 year old...but that's another story! I remember the first night we ever spent alone with one another, we stayed up all night just talking until the sun came up...and it was actually fairly innocent...I was fully dressed...and in case you are wondering, yes, I was wearing my long feather earrings.

Hays and I fell quickly and madly in love. I graduated school soon after at age 16, got a full time job and an academic college scholarship, and about a year after meeting we got an an apartment together. We stayed together for about 4 and a half years, til I was 20, but Hays always told me that while he was always attracted to me for many reasons, it was my feather "lures" that sealed the deal. I'm 43 now and Hays is almost 52...it's been about 23 years since we split, though we have remained friends all these years. I am actually invited to his wedding this summer, and he lives only about 2 or 3 miles away. And yes, he still wants to be a rock star. And yes, I still have my earrings, though they have lost a little bit of their fluff over the years. I really should start wearing these again! Who knows, maybe the next catch will be a keeper.