KISS - DOUBLE PLATINUM

When I was in the first grade the crew in my neighborhood consisted of my two closest friends Shawn and Brian, the neighbor girl from behind my house, Robyn and her two neighbors, Cricket and Tiffany. At first it was a little strange for my small clique to take to this addition of female companionship. However, we soon learned it wasn’t all that bad. They could just as easily help build a fort in the woods, take part in a sand castle battle of green plastic army men, and be up for the occasional round of ‘make believe’ DUKES OF HAZZARD. Besides, Robin’s backyard was home to the biggest oak tree in the neighborhood fully loaded with climbable branches and a killer swing.
The summer of 1981 we blended well together; Robyn had a girl to pal around with and Cricket, who was a few years older than us became the guy who would protect us from the bullies who lived on the ‘bad street’ and occasionally made it into our neighborhood. Tiffany and Cricket were both free wheeling kids whose parent’s worked very odd hours. Much of the time they were left in the care of their older sister. This did little to throw a wrench into anyone else’s works but mine. For in the Howard home things were not so foot loose and fancy free.
At the time my mom was working as a secretary at our church part time and was gone for a major part of the day. My ol’ man was working nights at a trucking company so for the most part my sister was in charge and the rule of the house was ‘never go into anyone’s home whose parent’s are not at home’. Man…my mom was a killjoy even when she was miles away at work.
That meant that on those carefree days of 1981 I was pretty much allowed into anyone’s house, except for the home of Cricket and Tiffany. For my sister and myself, there home became the great unknown.
Soon the inevitable happened and I found myself alone in my house, my sister at the helm and the entire gang at Cricket’s while my mom was off sipping coffee at a Wednesday night Church social supper. Not to be left out of the fun I begged and pleaded and before I knew it my sister and I were jumping our backyard fence and heading straight for Cricket and Tiffany’s home. My mom would have shit.
"First she would have shit, then she would have killed us."
For the life of me I do not remember why…but in order to join our friends in some mid summer’s night mischief, my sister and I had to climb through a window to get inside of the house. This only made breaking the rules feel that much more fun and dangerous. As we propped ourselves up and slid inside the window we landed in Cricket’s older sister’s room and I found myself in a haven of unforgettable memories.
Unbeknownst to myself, Cricket’s sister was a KISS fan. I wasn’t a fan at the time and knew nothing of their music but I recalled liking them from the lunchbox at school earlier that year and was still just as fascinated. I must have wandered around the room two or three times before anyone noticed I wasn’t joining in on the fun because soon Cricket came back into the room to check on me.
As I walked around her room checking out her walls decked to the ceiling in KISS posters my mind was a frenzy of activity. She had everything. "The Spirit of 76’" poster, Solo Posters, Jigsaw Puzzles, Iron-ON’s, and a gigantic record collection. She was a true collector as well as a huge Peter Criss and Ace Frehley fan. Not only did she have a ton of Ace and Peter pictures cut out from random magazines, she had also hung up some artwork of her own; pencil drawings of Ace and Peter…gigantic charcoal drawings of their faces in makeup…most, quite good for a teenage girl. As I stared at the drawings Cricket nudged me,
"This is how she does it," he said slowly pulling a gigantic silver album from the record shelf. He carefully slid a flimsy piece of typing paper out of a notebook on her desk and opened the album. Placing the paper on top of the inner gatefold he carefully rubbed a piece of charcoal pencil over and over creating a silhouette of one of the four KISS faces. Pleased the he had debunked his sister’s artistic talents he smiled at me and threw away the paper.
Looking back at her renditions it was easy to see she had done more than just trace the embossed faces of Ace Frehley and Peter Criss. This girl had real talent. Her drawing had taken time and effort. None the less I truly believed, on that day that Peter Criss was the coolest thing I had ever seen in my short life. Something about the Catman’s makeup up captivated me. Staring longer at the silver gatefold photos I found myself lost in that world of fantasy I would discover eight years later.
The shining silver, the embossed photos, the chained links hanging from Gene’s neck, the bullets around Peters chest, the arrogance of Ace Frehley’s stare…it was (and still is) so ‘other worldly’.
The DOUBLE PLATINUM gatefold is by far my favorite KISS album design (as a package)…simply breathtaking.
DOUBLE PLATINUM was the last ‘album’ to ever find its way into my hot little hands years later when the collecting bug bit. On the chance that I would run across it in an antique store it was either in such poor condition or missing the order form and Platinum Certificate that it was never worth purchasing. After 17 years of never owning this little gem I finally broke down and purchased it from an online auction. The last piece of the ‘album goodie’ puzzle solved…paid for at a slightly hefty price.
Oh well…the price we pay for our childhood memories.