Sunday, August 16, 2015

Thoughts on Pride


Charlotte Pride is the weekend.   I went yesterday to the street festival.  Later on today I am going back to see the Parade.  

To be perfectly honest I don't like parades and I really don't understand why other people seem to like them so much.  I am not talking about just Pride parades, but parades generally.  My small town has an annual Thanksgiving parade that literally the whole town comes out for.  I sit through it every year.  I somehow feel like I have to, but I really don't like it.

Back the Pride parade today, I am going.  I want to see what it's all about and what happens.   Back in June I went to my very first Pride parade in London.  It was fun, and not quite what I expected.  We will see what happens today.  



Yesterday (and today) there was a street festival.  A few stages with bands, lots of local businesses with booths, and lots of people.

I went with the Chef.  It was nice to not be there alone, but it was also nice being there with someone I liked.  (T says I love him, but I am not to that point yet.)  Pride and other "gay" events are not really Chef's thing, but he went for me, which I was pretty happy about.

It was a lot of fun.  I like people watching and there were a lot of people to watch.  There were a lot of young hot homos there, but there were a lot more regular looking people.  There was a lot of people my age or older.  There were a lot of pretty, muscular guys and there were a lot of... er ... not so pretty guys.   There seemed to be a lot of straight people there.  There were not that many gay couples holding hands, but when I saw straight couples, the man was almost always holding the hand of the woman he was with.  (tee hee)



Chef and I were at this booth waiting to talk to the people running it.  I can't remember what it was, but it's not important.  There was a young couple in front of us.  They were about 25, and it seemed to me that they had been together a while.  When they talked, there were very in sync with each other.  In a lot of ways K and I were like that (and still are).   I was thinking about how sometimes wish I had that when i was that age.  That I would not be at Pride now with a guy I was thinking about getting serious with, but instead being there with my partner of 20+ years.  

I don't spend a lot of time thinking about, "what if I had been able to come out in my 20's". but I did have a flash of it today.  

I'll let you know how the parade comes out.  

2 comments:

RB said...

Probably a good idea to try everything at least once!

Biki Honko said...

Your life was what it was, and really if you stop to think about it, would you give up your kids? Or the happy life you had with K? I find that trying to play the what-if game leads to depression.

I'm very glad you have someone to go to Pride with. And parades bore me to tears, so you're not alone in that.