Son no 1 who is also the web host of my blog……has said its OK for me to share my thoughts on the first Gay Pride in London that I joined in and walked with him<\/p>\n
He had come out to his family a few years before and had asked me if I would walk it with him one year. I said I would but it would have to wait until I was ready.<\/p>\n
So when the time came when I told him I was ready…..plans were made. I said I wanted a sign to carry and we made a good sign”I’m with my Son”.<\/p>\n
the day dawned bright and sunny. We were travelling up to Waterloo with some of his friends so we were a lively bunch. The trains were very busy so we found a cosy corner at the end of a carriage. There was me, son no 1 friend “Little J” and friend “D” a character from Doctor Who<\/p>\n
A jolly journey up to Waterloo stories and laughs….as we drew near to Waterloo……” D” asked me if I would do him a favour…..he had donned a bright orange curly wig and he wanted me to do his make up. I have a memory as we pulled into waterloo<\/p>\n
applying bright red lipstick with a shaky hand……I did manage a decent enough job.<\/p>\n
Waterloo station was packed ….lots of people heading in the same direction as us. At the time son, no1 wore a leather jacket, jeans and numerous chains. He told me to hang on tightly to his chains and not let go and that is what I did<\/p>\n
Down to a packed underground…I had no idea where we were heading so those chains were my lifeline….losing son no 1 would have been the worst thing I could think of…..as long as I held that chain I felt safe.<\/p>\n
On getting off the train we just followed the crowd until we found the end of the walk that was just about to start.<\/p>\n
What happened next was an abiding never to be forgotten part of my life…I proudly carried my banner and many tears……and lots of laughter was shared. I would make eye contact with couples watching the parade and be very moved by the silent “thank you” s that were mouthed at me. Loved all the sights and sounds……shared champagne with complete strangers and was carried away by all the love I could feel. I have never been hugged and kissed by so many men and women in my life as ever has been in an unforgettable afternoon. We walked the whole walk ended up I think was in Hyde Park (my web host will correct that if I am in the wrong place)<\/p>\n
It was the time when the picnic and concert were free….these days you have to book and pay to see the concert.<\/p>\n
I have a feeling that the concert star attraction that year was Kylie and son no 3 had come up to London with family friend “P” to see Kylie. So I was going to join them for the trip back to Guildford…which is what I did. I expect when I left Son no 1 properly relaxed after mum was on her way home and he was able to let his hair down and you did 20 odd years ago. He looked after me, I had fantastic memories of a brilliant day and got home safely with achy feet. I had a blister that took two weeks to clear up but it was well worth it. I have a more detailed report of it upstairs in my box of journals. Thanks for reading xxx<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Son no 1 who is also the web host of my blog……has said its OK for me to share my thoughts on the first Gay Pride in London that I joined in and walked with him He had come out to his family a few years before and had asked me if I would walk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","category-memories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolwake.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolwake.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolwake.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolwake.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolwake.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carolwake.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":394,"href":"https:\/\/carolwake.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions\/394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolwake.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolwake.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolwake.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolwake.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}