The regular busy bees in the many and varied organizations within the LGBT community are finalizing their preparations for the Pride weekend. We will certainly never forget last year. It was fantastic. As the deluge continued throughout the parade and afternoon, we kept on with full participation and enthusiasm. The spirit and emotion were a thrill and joy to witness.
This year with your cooperation and the more usual wonderful San Diego weather, we can do even better. All the groups need the support of their members and fans to march and carry out the big festival plans that have been put in place. I mean, of course, the ticket takers, table and booth staff, the great gals and guys who put up and take down, who set up and clean up, those who can handle the public and make sales, give information, hand out flyers, explain the group’s activities and sign up new members.
The big weekend is fast approaching and all the sponsors and groups need as much in place as possible in advance and that includes the time schedules for the volunteers. Now is the season when the emails go out to all and sundry asking for help? If you can’t support your group financially, you can with your time. This will not only help your club, team or group, but you will be personally rewarded with free admission to the festival for both days even though you only work one for a few hours.
Of course, you are welcome to volunteer for more. To get the day and times you want, respond at once, so you can be accommodated. And there’s more, some groups may thank you with a T-shirt, bumper sticker, fridge magnet, coupons, dinner for four at Mr. A’s, etc. So sign up!
Mother’s Day reflections
On Mother’s Day I couldn’t help comparing my mother to some of today’s TV mothers especially the rich, bitchy “housewives” with their tight, flawless faces, colossal cleavages and ever-changing hair. Their attempts at sophistication and refinement vanish when they open their mouths. I can’t imagine they talk that way when they are with their husbands or, as we say now, partners and children.
Things were different in my Father Knows Best family (ask a senior). Four letter words did not exist. Serious disagreements were never held where the children might overhear. Tabloid scandals, Reefer Madness, white slavery and the generally gross were not ignored just the unseemly details.
For example, on receiving a huge load from a seagull flying overhead, mother took off her hat, looked at it briefly and then casually tossed it away declaring, “Thank goodness cows can’t fly.”
Dinner topics (We ate and talked together!) were open-ended, but never steamy nor too graphic. The basics were acknowledged, but the nitty-gritty was not to be discussed en famille. All of that could be (and was) saved and enjoyed later when the children were in bed.
Mother was not innocent about the gay world and when a “friend” revealed her grandson was gay and expected denial, shock and tears, the reply was a calm, “I’m not so dumb, you know.”
Visual shocks to our young systems were also avoided. On a trip to the zoo I recall mother abruptly dragging us off onto another path as we neared the elephant area. This mysterious, sudden, directional shift definitely kindled my curiosity. I could have sworn in the distance I had seen an elephant with five legs.
