Photo by Pat Padua.

Just a few weeks ago I found a photo I’d taken in 1992 of the RC Cola Woman, and wondered what ever happened to her? In some kind of crazy kismet, I found out Friday night.

I was getting out of a movie at Gallery Place, standing on 7th Street with the fellas and debating the merits of Step Up 3-D when I noticed a woman campaigning for Leo Alexander. She was balancing a box on her head and lightly boogie-ing. I wondered, who else does that remind me of? I stared a little longer and started to recognize that face from almost twenty years ago. I tried to get her attention – she seemed lost in campaign thought – to ask if she was the RC Cola woman, and indeed she was! She had given up soda shilling and now runs her own hauling business. The new balancing act makes perfect sense: if Fenty were Coke and Gray were Pepsi, then, sure, Alexander can be RC Cola.

I never found out if she was a paid frontman or if she just really liked RC Cola; she disappeared into the night before I could get her name, but watch this space as the story develops and the mystery unravels.