Re: [wc] Re: Does anyone find this as hysterical as I do...

Thu, 22 Jun 2006 07:27:30 -0700

Same bar, different day, early spring, different person on nearby bar stool.
 
Guy, single, no kids, maybe around 40 y/o, talking wistfully about how he would love to take a cruise soon.  Use his days off, and spend a week just lying in the sun with no worries.  Reflected on how nice that would be.  (Seemed to have been a long time since he had paid time off).  But then, he just shook his head sadly at the thought that he could never do it.  *Sigh*.  Why?  He makes good money, cruises didn't seem to be prohibitively expensive.  Are you sure?  You should do it!   But no, he couldn't, he was resigned to his no-cruise fate.  Why?   "Because I don't want to end up on a Gay Cruise."
 
Blank stare.
 
I said, you know, you don't HAVE to take a gay cruise.  Just take a non-gay cruise.  Those are much more frequent anyways.
 
But no.  I could see it in his eyes.  He was petrified signing up for a cruise, taking all the necessary precautions (like not signing up for a GAY CRUISE), flying to Miami, getting on the boat, the boat leaving, and then realizing he was inadvertently on a gay cruise.  Trapped.  He was serious.  And sad.
 
That time I was speechless.  I stared at my drink, let a little time pass, and started talking to someone else.  It still boggles.  I laugh silently at him everytime I see him.

 
On 6/22/06, Ray Bradley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

I lived in Des Moines for 2 1/2 years, and my job required me to drive
around to the myriad of small towns and communities throughout the
state. While I met many really nice people, I would say that most of
them fall into this stereotype of a technologically-confused, friendly,
yet reserved people often baffled by what the rest of the world
considers "fact."

For instance - Iowa is overwhelmingly a white state - 98% of the 3
million+ people in the state are considered Caucasian, according to the
Census figures. That means the remaining 2% is divided up between
Hispanics, Asians, Native American Indians and African-Americans. Now,
knowing that inner city Census reports and counts of recent immigrants
are usually underestimated by a bit anyway, that still leaves somewhere
between 30,000 and 40,000 minorities in a state bigger than
Pennsylvania.

In Manson, Iowa, in 2000, I met a local citizen who took an interest in
my then-relatively-new Palm V organizer. He asked me several questions
like "What is it? What does it do? Why do you have it? Does it need
`lectricity?" and I answered them dutifully. He then asked where I
lived. I said, "Des Moines." He says, and I wish I was kidding with
this "I don't go there. Too many ni**ers down there." I was shocked
when I heard him say that so matter-of-factly.

There are about 650,000 people in the Des Moines' metro area, and it's
the whitest city I've ever lived in, considering I'm from Baltimore,
live in Arlington, and have lived in Norfolk, Boston and L.A. I'm quite
used to being white and in a localized minority.

As I talked to this fellow, I realized that this guy's town is
completely white, and the neighboring towns are all white, and the guy
only has to travel to Ft. Dodge a couple of times a year, the only town
nearby with any measurable minority population. He can reasonably go
for months without seeing anybody he doesn't already know!

He asked me some more questions about where I was from originally, and
I said "Maryland." He got excited, and said "I'm taking a trip to
Washington with the school group this fall."

I told him, knowing what I know about him, that he'll "simply love it
in Washington. Make sure you hit U Street."

I wonder if the Iowan survived.

- Ray Bradley



--- In [email protected], "fgalleto" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>
> Do you guys remember the story I told about the old couple from Iowa
> who didn't want their gay OR straight friends having sex in their
> living room??
>
> They once told me, casually, as part of a larger conversation, that
> they were boycotting Target. I couldn't for the life of me figure
> out why, so I asked. "We don't buy French products" was the answer
> I got. I decided it was easier to let that one go, and focus on the
> elections at hand.
>




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