Bill and Sheila Face the "New Normal"

Yesterday was "Tulsa Pride Day."  I have never understood why parading your sexual preference around the streets is a cause for pride especially when the behavior is shameful.  I had no reason to know that it was Tulsa's "Pride" day until I left the house. But then it hit us like a ton of bricks.

We stopped in a neighborhood eatery to split a sandwich for lunch.  In the corner was a slightly built, sixty-ish black man wearing perfectly ironed jeans and a rainbow hued tee shirt.  He was eating alone. The polished delicacy of his hand movements as he oh so diffidently pushed away the remainder of his meal spoke volumes about his opinion of the establishment, their food and the people around him.  He was quiet and dignified and the exquisite disdain he showed for the food and his humble surroundings harked back to a different era of more genteel, less in your face "gayness."

The next table up from him was another matter. A very well dressed and dignified little blue haired lady was apparently having lunch with her son.  The meeting was obviously strained.  The man was in his forties.  His shorts were a little too short and his manner was nervous.  He had brought a touch screen laptop with him to use as a crutch in the long silences over their food.

At a table near the front door there was a tallish young man with beautifully groomed auburn hair arranged in a perfect chignon on the upper rear of his head.  He completed the look with two large, different colored, ring shaped, plastic ear inserts that distended his ear lobes and multiple nose, lip and face piercings.

The grocery store was a circus.  In the dairy section, a twentyish young man lounged on the shoulder of his taller and heavier built twentyish "partner."  The smaller man was dressed in perfectly rolled up cut offs and a pair of high top basketball shoes.  The tilt of his hips was worthy of a  high school cheerleader.

Several "butched up"couples roamed the aisles but those have become so common in midtown Tulsa that they are part of the landscape.  But, the queen of aisles had to be the gal (or at least it looked like a gal) in the sarong.  She was a big gal but the weight was well distributed and the ample curves were all in the right places.  She wore a bright, red, orange, yellow and green colored, tropical print sarong crossed in the front and tied behind her neck halter fashion and a pair of matching sandals.  From what I could tell, that was all she wore.

Even QuikTrip proved interesting.  As Sheila went in to get our afternoon coke, a fascinating couple entered behind her.  Though they were both good sized people, he was shorter than her.  He wore jeans, a sun hat and comfortable shoes, the usual uniform of a middle aged festival goer.  He had a subdued manner about him.  He followed a step or so behind her.  She stood a head taller than him and wore a pair of overalls and flat, lace up sneakers. Her face would have been perfectly at home on a Marine Corps DI and her carefully gelled silver crew cut would have passed a military inspection anywhere. I stopped myself before letting my mind wonder about the sexual dynamics of that duo.

As we drove home, I thought about how much society is trying to tell us that this is the "new normal." As I pondered it all, I came to a conclusion.  The "new normal" isn't and there is nothing there to be proud of.