Author Topic: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings  (Read 2530378 times)

Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #590 on: March 31, 2007, 10:09:07 pm »

   Yep im on there, as bad as i hate to say so, and two of the worst pictures I have ever taken as well...but that is how it is later in life...im not 19 anymore...          But my grandaughter is, at least for another week..
   We went there, and had a wonderful 6 days, and met up with some wonderful people.  We saw some beautiful places, and faces.  And contrary to the early notices, the people were absolutely warm, and friendly..  Just wish you could have been there too....         good luck this weekend, and have a wonderful time with your dear brokie fellows...                                 janice



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karen1129

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #591 on: March 31, 2007, 10:12:28 pm »
I want to see a picture of Trument !! :)

Karen

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #592 on: April 01, 2007, 05:55:23 pm »
Hey, Linda! Watch where you're slinging those coffee filters!!
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #593 on: April 02, 2007, 02:40:30 pm »


   Hey there fella, yoo hoo,,,where are them pitures....anxiously waiting.

                                                                                    janice



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Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #594 on: April 02, 2007, 04:36:16 pm »
OMG, that is better, never thought I would have to have an exorcism, but my gawd, that Linda Higgins demon was too much!
"It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you, Jack, I swear."

Offline Wayne

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #595 on: April 02, 2007, 04:44:29 pm »
 :)   Hey buddy! Y'all back from DC or what? Hope you had / are having a great trip!!       :D
 
Tell us more about the museum?
When you put people in charge of the government who are committed to proving that it doesn't work, you can be sure that they will cause it to not work.

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Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #596 on: April 02, 2007, 05:16:37 pm »

    So share Truman.  Waiting to hear all the dishy bits about your visit to DC.  How was the museum, and how were all the compatriots..??



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Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #597 on: April 02, 2007, 10:08:37 pm »
I am working on it, man it was a whirl wind of a day. I headed out in the wrong direction on the beltway and ended up driving down 95 to Richmond, which was okay, it leads to Rt 360 to South Boston, which is without a doubt THE BORINGIST DAMN ROAD IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA.  I;ll have to recover and post  my thoughts and pix tomorrow. I had a wonderful time with Rico and Laura. We saw the ruby slippers! I wonder if Adrain would ever donate the horse to the Smithsonian. ;)
"It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you, Jack, I swear."

Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #598 on: April 03, 2007, 10:15:13 pm »
I think it is a wonderful thing to be able to get in a car and drive to the capitol of the country in which you live. It is a luxury I have not taken full advantage of. When Wulfar (aka Rico Suave) mention back in January he and his friend Laura were going to go to Washington, D.C. at the end of March, I told him I would meet them there.

Now Lynne was going too, but her ankle came unscrewed. She will have to tell you about that, if we ever hear from her again because methinks, maybe, she might be in love, or at least serious lust. But that is another story.

Rick and Laura had already been there two days when I arrived on Saturday and were old hands at the Metro system, not to mention the traffic. Laura, who was not quite 4 months old when I turned 20, drove her Toyota Echo like a bat out of hell to the New Carrollton, Maryland, Metro Station where we boarded the capsule that took us into and under the city, depositing us at the Smithsonian Station. I felt almost giddy with excitement as we ascended the escalator onto the national mall. An overcast Saturday afternoon, the sidewalks clogged with people, the air and trees littered with kites and the trash cans over flowing with trash. it was like a great circus, in which the audience was also the performers.

I had forgotten how the ground on the mall undulates, in my mind it is always flat. We climbed the hill to the Washington Monument, the last tix of the day having already been sold, dodging the kite flyers we made our way to the World War 2 Memorial, a broad space of granite and brass and flowing water that cannot be used for wading or  as a repository for pocket change, going against hundreds of years of common practice. "If I had to be homeless" I told them, "I would want to be homeless in Washington" there are plenty of steam grates, plenty of tourists with disposable pocket change, and the neighborhood!

We meandered over to the Vietnam Memorial, pausing to gage the merits of some of the more mobile local scenery. Pausing at the memorial statue of the Vietman Nurses I told them all about the one on the back side who was looking, eternally, for a lost contact while the other two comforted the dying and looked for incoming choppers. They did not know this, so I happily shared more of my knowledge of D.C. folklore with them, for instance: The Lincoln Memorial was built like a cage in case the giant statue of Abraham Lincoln inside ever came to life he would be unable to escape and terrorize the city. Same with the Jefferson Memorial. With the FDR memorial they did not have to worry about an animated statue coming to life as much because he would still be in a wheel chair and they made all the exit ramps too small for him to escape.

The cherry trees on the Tidal Basin, as well as everywhere else in the area, where in full bloom, which had brung on the tourists. One of those wonderful times when you hear every language being spoken and you feel compelled to walk up to strangers and communicate Thur a motion of your hand you are willing to take their group photo so they don't have to photo shop the photographer in once they get home. I also saw the highest numbered school bus of my lifetime so far: #2300.

There was no late night partying for us, we were exhausted and in bed by 10:30. The folowing day we took the Metro back into town to the L'Enfant Plaza station in order to visit the Air and Space Museum. The plaza was named after the Frenchman who laid out the grid pattern of streets in the District, and of whom them only exitsting image of is a single silhouette. Personally I am not sure if the man was a genius of totally insane.

The Air and Space Museum holds two of my most favorite objects in the entire world: Charles Lindberg's Spirit of Saint Louis and the Wright Brother's Flayer, the first heaver than air craft to fly. I can remember seeing them the first time I ever went to Washington, as a brat of 9. They were suspended from the ceiling of a different building then.

One of the other Smithsonian museums was closed for renovation at the time so part of its exhibits were moved to a section of the second floor of Air and Space, and it was a treat in itself. Standing in line we solemnly filed past the Ruby Slippers, the shoes Dorothy claimed from the wicked witch o' the east when her house landed on her. (hence the connection to Air and Space) There was R2D2 and C3PO, a Stradivarius, The remains of an Oak tree, shot to death in the American Civil War, Patsy Cline's Blouse, George Washington's coat, The quilt panel of Roger Gail Lyon, who testified on 2 August 1982: "I CAME HERE TODAY TO ASK THAT THIS NATION WITH ALL ITS RESOURCES AND COMPASSION NOT LET MY EPITHAPH READ HE DIED OF RED TAPE". I was so glad to see that there, many people who would otherwise not ever see a panel of the AIDS Quilt got to see that one, a profound statement.

And just the bazaar arrangement of stuff, in the last cabinet before we exited the room was  1. Jerry Seinfeld's Puffy Shirt; 2. Mr. Roger's red sweater; 3. Archie Bunker's chair; and, 4. The manacles worn by LaVar Burton in the TV Miniseries Roots. All of those artifacts meant so much to me for so many different reasons and here they all were, lumped together like the national treasure.

We briefly went into the Museum of the American Indian, where the gift shop had bracelets that were mystically connected with the previous days' yellow school bus ($2,300.00) and I highly recommend visiting there, but plan to stay all day. They do not have the ruby slippers, but they do have the ruby sneakers.

Continuing on up the Mall toward the capitol building I noticed there was an on going protest against circumcision, which I enthusiastically related to my companions as soon as I could get it out of my mouth. It was to say the least, the photo op of the entire trip. It was also a wonderful balance betwixt the serious nature of their message and total juvenile guffawing. The photo of the baby being circumcised was a powerful thing, something that should be on a billboard everywhere. It really strengthened my resolve to oppose the practice, and I successfully ignored the devil on my shoulder that sought to make me a victim. I have spent too long over coming the burdens of living to take on another one at this point in my life. What is done is done and I am not going to grieve over what I never missed. Still, seeing that screaming baby and thinking that was me one made me shudder.

And why on earth they didn't have the protest at the Washington Monument I cannot understand, it would have been much more effective.

As we meandered up to the capitol itself I pointed to the now blocked off steps where on the evening of 11 November 1985, I sat with my college friends Marty, and Cherokee now living in Hawaii and Masa, a Japanese national whose whereabouts are unknown, and enjoyed a joint while the sun when down. No one bothered us, there is the center of things. I thought of Flight 93, and how different it would be had those passanger es and crew not stopped that plane. Bless their souls.

We followed the trail over to Union Station, where we saw a Duck Boat tour, I didn't know they had those in DC, I bet that would be fun. There we got back on the Metro and went to DuPont Circle, the gay center of D.C. (in fact in sted of being AC/DC, DuPont Circle is D.C., D.C.).

While there I received a call from another Brockie from the Cullen Board that Lynne was hopeful we would meet up with, but he was unable to do so having just returned from France. I also had to call the office to help locate a key, said call being made difficult by a passing fire engine with it's siren blaring. I finally had to put the office on hold and scream at the passing vehicle "EXCUSE ME, I AM ON THE PHONE !!!" Oh it is so wonderful being in the midst of people who don't know you and whom you will never see again, the only thing making it better is having a few buds along to appreciate it. I felt so in love with life at that moment. I even engaged the timid Scientologists to answer their three questions I never bothered to find out why they were asking. (I thought of Annie Proulx at that moment, we were robbed!). 

Lambda Rising Books I drug them into, one of the oldest gay bookstores in the country. We got us some trinkets and I found me a new book to read: "Dear Boy" 2,000 years of gay love letters, it looks interesting. Problem with books is they don't read themselves.

Rick and Laura were patient with me, the old hipster trying to remember how to be cool. I may be getting too old to take off on a lark like that, but I know one thing, next year I will be older. I am so glad they decided to go there, and let me come along, to walk in the footsteps of Jeb and Dash, and all those before and since.

And this is what comes next, this is what grows from the legacy of Jack and Ennis, people, real people, coming together and having adventures. The time of sadness and grief have ended, the time of joy and spring has returned and with it the smiling faces of two friends with pierec ed ears, in a little car going too fast on the interstate, or maybe Laura, not fast enough?
 
   
« Last Edit: April 04, 2007, 08:34:08 am by Shakestheground »
"It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you, Jack, I swear."

Offline Meryl

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Re: Shakesthegrounds Rumblings
« Reply #599 on: April 03, 2007, 10:58:45 pm »
Thanks, Truman.  I love reading your stream-of-consciousness.  :-*

Quote
I even engaged the timid Scientologists to answer their three questions I never bothered to find out why they were asking. (I thought of Annie Proulx at that moment, we were robbed!)

And I love that I got that without even having to think hard.  ;D
Ich bin ein Brokie...