User:Christopher Ludlow

My name is Christopher Shane Ludlow. I was born January 31, 1971 at Galveston County Hospital to Sharon Annette and James Anthony Ludlow. This concludes what I will share with you of my life. The tapestry of people I have met and places I have lived have allowed me to live a life only a very small percent could ever be blessed to experience. To know me, you must know their stories, too. If we have crossed paths on our life journeys, please join the tapestry.

[PERKIN'S RESTAURANT: Nashville, Tennessee]

In the 1990's there was an all night gathering place in Nashville Tennessee that hosted numerous and diverse urban groups.

Students from Nashville's five major colleges and universities camped out and studied throughout the night. Dancers, bartenders and servers from Nashville's various clubs and restaurants unwound after working all evening. Lonely hearts were soothed. Skinheads, Goths and Vampires shared meals. Policemen, Fort Campbell soldiers and late night entrepreneurs dined with beauty "queens" and cross dressers. Well known actors, athletes and musicians were spotted there. Scholars, songwriters, poets and comediennes found inspiration. Romances blossomed and faded, theology and politics were explored, and closet doors were opened wide in the dark uneasy hours before dawn.

If you worked with us at Nashville's Perkins Restaurant in the nineties or were a frequent patron please join our group, and help answer the question that has burned in my mind for almost fifteen years.............where did all the Perkinites go after the restaurant's untimely closing?

Betsy Thorpe Former server, Perkins Restaurant, Nashville Tennessee

Christopher Ludlow was one of my favorite "Perkinites," actually he was a double "Perkinite." By day he waited tables in the restaurant and by night he frequented Nashville's local rave clubs and gay bars. He often arrived at the restaurant hours before his shift began to get sober before his work day started. Christopher came to Nashville from the D.C. area where he was raised by a single mother. He partied hard and was very popular with both his co-workers and the restaurant patrons. However he wasn't very lucky in love and following the demise of a particularly stormy relationship he became the first of many "Perkinites" to live with my family at our infamous "Villa Place House". We loved him dearly. My husband Peter wasn't always the most open minded person in the household but he tried hard to understand Christopher and his life style. I remember one Sunday family dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant. Christopher brought "Miss Venus" to dinner. "Miss Venus" was a pageant winning "beauty queen." When they entered the restaurant we were all nervous, worried what Peter's reaction would be. He seemed fine, but after dinner he told Christopher not to surprise him like that again. Christopher liked to sleep late and one of my favorite memories is of Christopher gliding down the back stairs one afternoon dressed in a Chinese silk bathrobe. That is when we gave him the nick-name "Madam Butterfly".

Christopher left us in 1995 and we never heard from again. We all missed him very much and often wonder where he is. This fall I found him on Facebook. [Christopher] now lives in Ohio where he works for the [[United Way]] and for almost fifteen years he has shared his life with his partner Jeffery Thomas.

- [Betsy Thorpe]