Wednesday, February 3, 2021
I first met Andrea Bernstien in 1975. I had been enrolled in a high school in the big city. Robert Louis Stevenson ...a school that advertised itself as the perfect place for the gifted underachiever.... another word for nuts. With trepidation I tried valiantly to fit in and assimilate into a Manhattan crowd. I attempted Huckapoo shirts and platform shoes…. Got made fun of. Then I went to overalls and earth shoes.... that fared better. But still, no new friend. I first saw Andrea in drama class and noticed she was GOOD. After a few months one day she approached and said you’re good. A friendship had begun. Literally the next day she searched me out because she had a gift for me. It was a painstakingly cutting of many news paper words to create a collage/rave review of a Broadway debut with my name painted on a marquee. Never had anyone bestowed upon me such a beautiful invitation to friendship. In no time we fell in love and were joined at the hip.
Eggs over easy with rye toast and 8 cups of coffee all for a buck and a dime at Argos diner on 72nd and Columbus.... the waiters there were the “cheese burger cheese burger” that SNL adopted. Back then Andrea had a part time job on McDougall St at the Olive Tree. She referred to it as the Olive Pit. Often my friend Ricky would accompany me down town to visit with Andrea, drink free coffee, laugh and be joyful. Andrea made everyone laugh and she made all people feel important. Weekends we would go to a dive gay bar on West 23rd St. that had 6 levels. For $15 bucks you could drink and dance on one level have food on another level watch gay porn on another floor, see Juanita Hudson singing her heart out for the very tipsy, another floor for cruising and another room to collapse. We’d leave at 5am dancing and singing in the streets, such beautiful memories. We lived on the same street in the village and Andrea stayed and lived in my place in South Beach. There was Fire Island where Andrea wore a huge Sombrero and late at night went to bed in the WRONG house, all the while laughing and living it up. Then there was the time spent under the boardwalk in Coney Island while it rained and we spoke about life and hopes and dreams of our futures. Magical times!
Once at her house in Brooklyn on Argyle Rd she said to me….”Want to see 20 girls turn around at the same time.” Sure I said. She drove a few streets up, rolled down the window and shouted in a Brooklyn twang “Hey Mary Ann got a Marlboro”. Sure enough every girl turned toward us with a pack in hand.
Andrea was convinced that that Rose Marie’s bow could only be removed through surgery. We adopted pet names for each other based on true characters, Andrea was Prudy and I was Camilla. We would go in and out of these characters and argue wether aquamarine or Della Robia blue was the better shade. Everything I did with Andrea was an adventure from thrift shops to getting lost in neighborhoods we’d never been in where always people gravitated towards her. Andrea loved working with her hands, especially wood. She would find free form root in the desert and enhance it with dedication to carving and embellishing its original beauty. I held on to the hope that we would grow old together. You were always the comeback kid. Already my world is a lonelier place yet filled with enough marvelous memories to last at the least another lifetime. Your heart, your wit and brilliant sense of timing will be matched by no one. I’m so very glad for our several visits these past few years because with you the years we’re stripped away and we were just Andrea and Bret…Camilla and Prudy. It is believed by many that there is no death ..proof positive that Andrea Bernstien will live on in the hearts of many. I adored you Andrea and still do.
“My candle burns at both ends; it will not last the night; but ah, my foes, and oh, my friends - it gives a lovely light!” Edna St. Vincet Millay
