first PRIDE

Madison was my mecca at the moment. I didn't even know about the Twin Cities yet.

I was working at the grocery store in my hometown until at least 10 pm Friday night. The festival was Saturday. I called Jenny from work and said, "How would you like to go on a road trip?"

The drive would take us 4 hours and we would encounter severe thunderstorms along the way. We left home at midnight, listened to TOP 40 pop music, drank convenience store coffee and smoked Marlboro lights the entire trip. Picture it: America' Dairyland. June, 1994. We stayed at my friend Kristina’s place. We crashed on the floor because young people can sleep on the floor then wake up fresh and ready for the day ahead. I probably used a balled up sweatshirt for a pillow. I remember waking sweaty.

I don't think I even knew that there were gay pride celebrations until I went to Madison hellbent on going to one. The sun was shining. I think I saw my first ever guy/guy couple holding hands that day. I definitely saw my first ever drag queens. In my little town I did not know until the age of 16 that gay pride month was even a thing. My friend told me on the phone Thursday night, “You should come down! You will have so much fun!” I may have thought that gay pride only happened in Madison. If I had grown up in Minneapolis I would have known about the parade at least, or any major city as it turns out.

Sneaking into bars with a fake ID was not my style. I was always too chicken but I was definitely one to drink underage at house parties and if I was 16 that summer, then the others who actually lived there were 20 so some of them were not old enough to drink legally either. That or their friends weren’t old enough so that is why we partied at the apartment puffin' on the cheeba. I swear I never inhaled. I drove a few of us across town to Denny’s for a Grand Slam in the middle of the night and it wasn't until after we had arrived at our destination that I realized I did not turn on my headlights. I remember the grinning, over-the-hill debutante turned night hostess who greeted us from behind a chipped formica podium was wearing a truly bizarre frilly, puffy off-the-shoulder light blue dress that looked like something from the costume department at HeeHaw, the likes of which I had never seen before. Then Sunday afternoon the long drive back to the dark cloak of a town with 4 stoplights, 35 churches, 0 people of color, 82 taverns, and nothing much to do. I shook the glitter from my hair and went back to the ordinary but at least I knew it was out there. My eyes had been opened. It was only a year later that I left for college. It would be my deliverance to someplace else.