The Flamingo Queens History

The Flamingo Queens, like most things, started by accident or should I say we didn’t plan it. We are Parrot Heads! And for those of you that don’t know what that means – it means we are fans of Jimmy Buffett music and the lifestyle he sings about. That’s how we met through the Arizona Parrot Head club. Things were going along pretty smoothly-- nothing out of the regular tropical shirt, flip flops and straw hats -- then Jimmy released Beach House on the Moon in 1999; that’s when the madness began. There is a song on this CD; “I’ll Play For Gumbo”; we noticed our fellow friend and club member “Wastnawa” (need I say more) had hand movements for the Chorus. We thought they were great and embellished them with dance movements. During a pre-concert party in Las Vegas, our favorite CA dude, Jerry Gontang, sang the song. WELL we had had a few ‘adult beverages’ and decided we would debut our dance. As Jer sang the line “It’s a little like religion and a lot like sex” he wasn’t expecting our response. Bless his heart he had to stop and laugh at us. After he finished he decided we were the “Gumbo Sluts”. With that kind of attention we starting dressing alike; shoes, glasses, hats; the whole works and became known as those crazy girls from AZ. The Flamingo seemed a natural transition; Florida; pink; plastic, gawdy, tacky, feel the theme; and we think it still sorta goes along the Parrot Head theme –Tropical!

As time went by we read “The Sweet Potato Queens-Book of Love” by Jill Conner Browne. We loved the idea about ‘Queens’ and we thought that sounded much better than “sluts” - thus we became the Flamingo Queens even though we still run into people that remember The Gumbo Sluts! Oh well at least they remember us.

When people see us in our matching pink feather straw hats with a Flamingo sitting proudly on the front; our pink glitter glasses, capes, matching Flamingo tropical shirts or whatever we happen to choose that day; we get the comment “oh you must be a part of the Red Hat gals” we always say “HECK NO” we’re the FLAMINGO QUEENS. If we’re pushed to explain we say we’re a mixture of the Sweet Potato Queens and the Red Hat Society (more SPQ) we love tiaras, food, drink, good music, dancing; just having fun. We have had much more fun AFTER 50 and beyond. At our age we realize that the most important things in life are family, close friends, giving back to the community and living life to the fullest. When we’re asked how we feel about what other people think about us; our dress and crazy shenanigans we just smile because we know those people will never understand the Red Hat Society, Sweet Potato Queens or the Flamingo Queens.