Saturday, September 22, 2007

Soggy Night Dreams


WARNING: The following entry may be TMI

There are fewer things that confirm a young boy's sexual identity and feelings than the dream images that accompany his first nocturnal emission, in my own experience, at least.

Sha Na Na.

The cast of Sha Na Na--that all male group that performed 1950's rock and roll hits and short sketches in a half hour family variety show in the late 70's--they were the guys in my first wet dream. Especially prominent in the dream were Johnny, the hot Latino, and Bowzer.

Bowzer? Yes, Bowzer, the one known for flexing a bicep in his trademark macho pose, mouth wide open, and the one that sang the opening bass vocals of Sha Na Na's closing theme song, "Goodnight Sweetheart."

"Do-do-doo, do-do-doo, do-do-doo, do-DOH"

Was is it just my naive 12-year-old perspective, or was there something homoerotic about this family friendly bunch of guys? First of all, there were those glittering gold blazers, often worn without shirts by Johnny and Denny (who was the one Black guy in the group). Mix those among the denim vests, the sleeveless muscle shirts, a black leather jacket or two, and you basically had a watered down version of the Village People.

There were two women in the cast, Jane Dulo, the elderly, curlers-in-hair matron who would hang out of her apartment window to deliver lines, and Pamela Myers, the perky blonde who had a giant parrot on her poodle-skirt.

In an interview, Pamela Myers mentioned an episode involving a kissing contest or a kissing booth, I can't remember exactly what. What I do remember is Miss Myers saying that Johnny had been the best kisser, shirtless-hottie Johnny, the one who had sang "Those Magic Changes" when Sha Na Na was featured in the movie "Grease."

It's been almost three whole decades since that first dream in the early stages of puberty. And here's a deep, dark, long-kept secret: Bowzer has always seemed to bear too close of a resemblance to my own father.

Ewww! That's beyond TMI, even for myself!

5 comments:

golfwidow said...

My favorite was Chico. He died a few years ago.

I recently had a dream, influenced partly by my having seen Bowzer on a classic Password episode and partly by those wretched eHarmony ads where they imply that you can't have a solid relationship with anyone who doesn't look EXACTLY LIKE YOU ...

... in which eHarmony had matched Bowzer up with himself in drag (said drag being Pamela Myers' poodle skirt and saddle shoes).

Meep.

Peter Varvel said...

Ha ha!
Does that mean my hetero friends should be out looking for "drag versions" of themselves, in the search for love?

I had almost forgotten about Chico, didn't know he passed, may he rest in peace.

quin browne said...

the meep part for me is the looking like your fath...

no, never mind.


bowzer?


actually, i kind thought him hot.

Peter Varvel said...

Yeah, 30 years ago, anyway . . . my dad, too *evil snicker!*

the last noel said...

I LOVED these guys. They were cuuuuute. There was one tenor that made me swoon.