Attending the Gay Pride Parade with dear old dad

As this title implies, I did attend a gay pride parade with my dad this weekend. I invited other people to go but my dad was the only one interested and available. This was actually my second time at the gay pride parade, though the first time with my dad.

I went once with friends after our Sunday night church service before my parents moved to this side of town. If memory serves me right, I was accompanied by Jocelyn, Neha, David Ray and a shy guy from our church named Matt Whitfill. The parade is pretty amusing. That year, Matt Whitfill just stood behind us and giggled. I think he was a bit nervous. David Ray, on the other hand, was very confident of his heterosexuality. He cheered and waved quite a bit in order to obtain some of the goodies being thrown from the floats. Inexplicably he had his eye on a larger than average strand of rainbow mardi gras beads and was determined to get them. He cheered and danced around. But the bearer of the beads told him he would have to do a lot more than that to get those beads. Eek!

A group of old lesbians came by and apparently one took a liking to Jocelyn. Jocelyn's arms were open wide as she was clapping. A grey haired lesbian mistook the open arms for a hug invitation and went in for the kill. Jocelyn was confused by the hug at first but then shrugged and went with it. It was good times and we came away with an assortment of free rainbow colored trinkets including a rainbow gallery furniture shirt, which my grandpa later wore.

This year's parade was good although there was sometimes too much down time between floats. I expected to see some people I know. A large number of my store's patrons are gay as well as current and former employees. Also I have learned from myspace that a disconcerting amount of girls I played with or against in basketball through the years are now playing for that team. Unfortunately I did not see anyone I knew. There were just too many people to be able to really see. My dad's favorite float- Lesbians over 70 was not in the parade this year. They did have lesbians over 50 but that wasn't good enough for my dad. There were some guys dressed like take-out Chinese food. They looked pretty cool.

I managed to snag a decent amount of free condoms. I don't have any use for them other than as water balloons. They do make some amazing water balloons. You should definitely give it a try. I also got something called a dental dam, which I had learned about in sex ed in high school. My dad didn't know what it was and wanted me to explain it to him. Eek! I refused. If you are wondering what it is, look it up on the internet, cuz I am not typing it.

My dad was almost flirting with the ladies next to us. I think not having my mom by his side meade my dad feel a little vulnerable. It didn't help when a guy in the parade who was around my dad's age instead of throwing a beaded necklace, handed it to my dad with a knowing look. My dad immediately gave the beads to the girls standing next to him.

Overall it was a lovely parade and you all missed out. I will be posting pics soon.