Official Scream Queen Sharon Needles

Location: Salem, Massachusetts
Date:  11-1-13
Written by: Joey

TAKE NOTE: This post was written while DJ & Joey were on their RV roadtrip across America. Sadly, their trip ended before it really got started. No worries, Shelly & Lucia are taking the Connextions Out n About Roadtrip to new heights, exploring one RV park at a time!

DJ and I were all set to leave Salem after Halloween.  We needed to be in New York to visit family.  That and the parking permit expired that afternoon…We walked to the local Dunkin Donuts, ordered our coffee and slowly strolled one last time through the quiet and empty streets.  You would never know that just less than 12 hours ago there was about 30-40,000 people filling the streets.

We had one more event to attend before departing.  The local organization Go Out Loud was presenting Sharon Needles with an award entitled The Official Scream Queen of Salem.  You see, the night before on Halloween, Sharon Needles was the Entertainer of Go Out Loud’s Halloween Party at the Hawthorne Hotel.  If you’re not familiar with Sharon, well, then you must have been living under a rock for a while.  Just kidding.  She was the winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2012.

The room was filling up fast while we all waited for Sharon to show up…isn’t it like a Queen to make you wait?  I had my camera in hand and I was taking photos of everyone when I turned the same time Sharon was wheeled in on the luggage cart.  I was so startled by her entrance that I had the shakes and I couldn’t stop laughing at myself.  Like I said, Sharon was wheeled in on a luggage cart.  She was wearing a fabulous red wine shear dress, and a glass of wine.  My kinda gal for sure!  I’m sad to say that I didn’t get the chance to get a photo of her on the luggage cart.

Basically there was a lot of hoopla over her and the award.  Mayor Kim Driscoll was there along with a few other city officials.  Sharon ended up walking out with an award from Go Out Loud and another from the City.  Sharon is also just a wee bit of a shock jock(ette).  She was talking about her red wine and someone commented on it being the color of her dress and I told her that a girl MUST accessorize after all, to that Sharon lifted her glass to me and took a drink.

Since she was the Official Scream Queen, an award presentation wouldn’t be proper without actually screaming, so Sharon proceeded to scream.  All I could think of was the B Movies of yesteryear where they hired scream actresses.  It was at this point and 100 photos later that we decided we’d duck out with our friend Steve from Come Out Travel, his friend Terry to grab a drink...While in the bar ordering our Bloody Mary’s and Mimosas we could hear Sharon in the ballroom still screaming…Priceless.  We apparently took too long because when we returned to the ballroom most everyone was gone.  Well, we at least got some great photos and met the boys from Go Out Loud, Chris and Kevin.

Off to our next location…New York and family, here we come.  Or so we thought…

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