Letters

KISS unites strangers at my local mini mart. As I headed out to The KISS show last week, I stopped by my freeway entrance, mini mart. I knew I'd need that extra bottle of water, after a night of being, "Hot, Hot, Hotter than Hell" ala KISS. As I popped into the store, the owner incredulously asked, "Is that you?" He doesn't know my name, nor do I know his, but he is "the guy at the mini mart" and I am one of his many anonymous customers. He sells me that rare lotto ticket, quart of milk, headline newspaper, pack of gum or bottle of water, when quickly needed. I usually wear a sporty pony tail and casual clothes, when I pop in. Not this time, as I was en route to the sacrificial altar of rock. I was dressed in full KISS regalia...lots-o-lipstick and hairspray, fishnets and stilettos, draped in cleavage and spray-on tanner! I was a bit embarrassed, as I wasn't for public consumption or the glaring lights of 7-11, wear. I told him, where I was going and although he grew up in Taiwan, he said, "Oh, I really love KISS!" (It was cute the way he said it, with his accent, it was more like, "I leally ruv KISS.") We then discovered we were exactly the same age and had both grown up under KISS Kulture in different lands, as an Asian boy and an American girl. We bonded with a KISS. Yesterday, I popped in with my standard suburbia pony tail and he said, "How was KISS?" I ran out to my car to get my camera and showed him my photos. (Note God of Rock / God of Thunder, attached. Gene deserves the cover of Rolling Stone!) As he was scrolling through my shots, a guy came in to buy beer and impatiently asked what we were doing. (We were holding up the line, that is what we were doing.) We said, we were looking at KISS concert photos and then, he asked to see, and we handed him the camera. Two girls coming into the line, looked over his shoulder and joined in. We had a Mini KISS Koncert at the roadside, Mini Mart. They excitedly asked questions about the show, I eagerly gave the exclamatory, rave reviews. Suddenly, nobody cared about the time or the line. We were all sharing a KISS concert in our minds! The girls gave me their email address so I could send them the shots, as "their boyfriends are also huge KISS fans." What a sample of society, walking through a Mini mart door.Taiwan to Seattle, construction worker to 20-something girly girls...AND their boyfriends. What a testimony to the fan base of KISS. All KISS Krazy and having fun at an impromptu mini mart, meet and greet, with KISS! The anonymity of that quick stop mini mart, turned into a fan'fest friendship with KISS creating the connection. My camera showed more than the pictures of a concert, but the power and pervasiveness of omnipresent KISS, across the world and through the age groups. KISS was the connection! Oddly enough, nobody was buying any Dr. Pepper, at that particular moment...It was all pure Dr. Love and our KISS Love'fest!