Aretha Franklin, or Donna’s glimpse of fame.

Chaz’s viewpoint - It was a lovely night in Detroit. We had gone to the Gem Theater to see a play with family and friends. For more details about the background see the post from July 11th, 2005 “Shaun – The Whitest Caucasian”.

As we are sitting on the patio, we recognize one of the actors and buy him a beer. During the conversation, he mentions that Aretha Franklin is here for the benefit. This information causes Donna to act as if she just sat on a tack. She straightens up in the chair; her head begins swiveling around like a set of windshield wipers- left/right, left/right, left/right, left/right. “Really” she says and after the actor confirms it, she says “I must see her”. Thus our goal for the night was changed from drinking to “find Aretha”.

This seemed like an easy enough goal. After all Aretha is rather large woman who dresses extravagantly and would be hard to miss. After looking around the patio and not seeing her, we move our way into the Gem. Due to the benefit, the place was packed and movement in any direction made you feel like a salmon heading up stream. We made it to the first inside bar. Yes, first inside bar. A main attraction of the Gem is that they have a bar on the patio, a bar in the entrance, a bar in the Century Theater, a bar in the gem theater, a bar in the Century Grille, and a bar in the lower level. We like a place with a lot of bars.

We purchased a drink and moved to an out of the way corner that we could survey the room. A few false ID’s later, we realized that there were a lot of rather large woman who dressed extravagantly at this event. We decided to move into the Century Grille. There was a nice jazz trio playing and the place was even more packed. We were looking for a table, but it was apparent that it was not going to happen.

We had wander to the back of the bar and were standing listening to the music for a few moments. As we turned to go back out, someone said, “Excuse me.” Looking to our left was a circular table for 8, which had two older ladies sitting at it. These were African-American dressed to the hilt. Actually they were more conservative than a lot of people there, but they definitely were showing their finest. A stand out in my mind was one was wearing all purple with at purple hat. Anyways, one of the said, “If we were looking for a seat, we could share their table.” Of course we agreed, sat down, and introduced ourselves.

I wish I could remember the conversation exactly, but this was many beers ago. The overall jest was they were there for the benefit, their son was part of management, and they like jazz. We talked for 10-15 minutes with these charming ladies. Well, the jazz trio stopped and people began to leave. One of the ladies said the benefit was beginning and we should be going. The other replied, “Yes, since Aretha is going, we should too.”

Donna’s face light up like a kid’s on Christmas morning - “Aretha, Aretha Franklin, was in here!” One of ladies said “Yes, she was sitting at that table” and pointed to a table that was three tables away. Donna gave a small cry of despair devastated and began her windshield impersonation again, trying to see Aretha in the throng of people. She was to be disappointed. Aretha was three tables away and Donna missed her. The best she could see was a rather large, extravagantly dressed, back of someone that could have been Aretha. Alas, that "back" to be her only glimpse of fame.

Even though this was many years ago, if you ever want to see Donna pout, just mention the Gem Theater and Aretha together, and your wish will come true!