Hello to all my Family and Friends. I hope everyone is in good health and spirits.
We ended the month of May with our annual Memorial Day Cookout Potluck. Thanks to everyone who brought food, ate and enjoyed themselves. I was blessed this year to have CHEF-BOY-AL-DEE grilling hamburgers and hotdogs. And of course, they were delicious! Thanks, Al!
We will be cooking out this Saturday after we get back from the Gay Pride Parade.
HAPPY PRIDE TO EVERYONE!
We will be getting our truck on Friday and the gang puts her together for the big parade. I’m still in awe when we’re at the parade. I’m still like a kid inside and can’t believe how many people are in the crowds. It’s always a fun day! So many family and friends gather every year to be proud of who they are. I hope everyone has a safe and fun weekend.
So many parties, shows, entertainment and let’s not forget BATON ROUGE on Sunday.
At the Southbend we not only have our evening shows celebrating pride, but we also have Al’s Comedy Show, Friday at 6:30 pm, he has contacted Stonewall and they were more than happy to allow Al to connect with Pride Power and the show starts our pride weekend of enjoyment.
On Sunday, join Val as he mixes your favorite poison. And of course the wonderful talents of Debé at 6 pm.
I want to thank all of our softball teams, dart leagues, and bowlers for their sportsmanship and fun of the game. Good luck to your new season.
My next trip down memory lane was the first gay bar I went to in the summer of 1972. I use to love to go downtown and walk around to different shops and mostly window shopped. I can still smell those fresh roasted cashews and peanuts.
One day I ended up further north on High than usual. I saw this bar so I walked in and ordered a Seven-n-Seven. The bartender’s name was Jeff Allen and the bar was the Aquarius which also housed the Grotto II and Val’s on High and The Attic in later years. There were two people in there and we remained friends. They were Jack Stokes and Nancy Lee. The Aquarius closed the following week.
Jack, Nancy, and Jeff took me to the Kismet on Third. I remember walking in and seeing the fountain and crystal chandelier hanging above it and thought wow this is a pretty swanky place here. The bar had nice comfortable seats that were on rollers. The globe lights around the bar were surrounded by beads. Of course, there were times we would grab the base of the globe and give it a twirl to watch the beads swing back and forth. Though the first time someone added soap to the fountain, and bubbles were everywhere, I thought well, you can’t have anything nice.
The Kismet was the most popular bar at that time. Talk about a diverse crowd you had gay men and women, bisexuals, married couples, hookers, pimps, hustlers, and drag queens. If you couldn’t find it at the Kismet, something was wrong with you.
I ended up working at the Kismet twice. The annual Kismet picnics Doris put together was out of this world for Columbus and the gay community at that time. Thousands of people would join together from California, Florida, Chicago, New York, and many other states for the weekend. What a lot of fun we had back then.
Sometimes I wonder when Marvin, Val, Rick, BAK, Al and some of our older friends reminisce and say, “Those times were much different.” But were they as different as today’s ways? Are we older and that affects our way of thinking OR today’s generation goes through their own struggles and fighting for gay rights further than we ever thought of? Today’s generation is picking up where we left off and are going forward with it. BRAVO TO YOU! And no, we didn’t have BRAVO either.
Now on a humorous note, this past Saturday was our baked bean cookoff. We only had 1 entry. It was Bill who brought in his famous deviled eggs. I didn’t even bring baked beans. I know vacations, cookouts, sports, gardening, etc. are keeping people busier. Next month’s theme is Summer Side Dishes, Saturday, July 13th. So Let’s get Cooking with Connie.
I will close, for now, leaving you with this one last thought: If we always live in the past, we won’t have time to grow in the future.
Take Care of yourselves and each other.
Love,
Connie