Quote:
Originally Posted by crazyflamingos
By the way, have you ever heard the term, "gay blades."
It dates to long before either of us was born; it was certainly part of the main stream and part of its meaning was prissy or effeminate.
|
I have heard it, but it's been awhile. I don't think I knew what it meant at the time. One of my cousins worked in a club that was frequented by homosexuals and "artsy" types. Authors, painters and the like. It had wonderful music. Live bands or solos and sometimes poets and comedians. I don't remember her ever using the word gay. She said "queer" for men and "lesbian" for women. She made some good friends there among the staff and patrons. She had traveled quite a bit and I think she was a little ahead of popular culture.
But my own introduction to gay couples came at the age of about four or five. And I just called them Gert and Ollie cause that was their names. They were two women and I thought one was a man, until I called Ollie Oliver and Gert corrected me. They owned a little shop where they sold souvenirs and garden statues and "Florida Oranges". They gave me a wonderful book, "Paintings by the Masters". And once invited me for kool-aid and brownies with their niece.
The reason I even found out they were "different" was because of a very busy body who ended up seeing them run out of town. My mother stopped by his fence one day and got out of the car and gave him the best tongue thrashing I have ever heard in my life. She used words like "insipid little creature" and "slug". To this day it makes me smile.