Those of us who weren't an official part of the parade met up at Hogarths where one overworked barmaid was doing her best to serve everyone in spit of two of the most popular draught beers coming to the end of their barrels and the recently changed keg of lager producing as much froth as liquid. Utter failure on the part of the management.
The Old Speckled Hen was empty by the time I got to the head of the queue so i had a half of Pedigree and went out to sit at a table on the street. A few minutes later a statuesque woman, a grandmother, asked if she and her party could sit at the same table. I was fiddling with my heels at the time because I had worn flats to walk from my car but wanted to wear heels in the parade, she asked if I was having problems with them. I said "Always". In this case one of the buckles had got somehow jammed in the loop at the heel and I was struggling to free it thinking that if I pulled too hard it might break the elastic. She said she couldn't wear heels, this seems to be a common refrain. After a while I finished my beer and strolled out among the others waiting for the parade to arrive. Took few selfies, I'll post those in a separate comment.
At last the parade came round the corner.
Once the official part had passed we all set off. I though the placard the woman in the purple top was carrying was rather apposite
Along the way I had a conversation with one of the volunteers in the parade. She complimented me on my lipstick, a bright red from Rimmel (510 Mayfair Red Lady). She was wearing pink and said it was the best pink she could find. She had it in her hand and it was the cheapest one that Superdrug sell, I have one in red but didn't know the pink was any good, perhaps I'll go and get some, all the pink lipstick I've tried so far just didn't seem any good but hers was bright and covered well. She reminded me to run my tongue over my teeth as I had lipstick on them, mortifying. I said that was terribly embarrassing and he smiled and said it happens to all of us.
It took us about twenty five minutes to walk to Victoria Park. About five minutes before we got there i found that I was walking a bit faster than average and ended up in amongst the Samaritans group. A neatly dressed woman with no obvious indication of any LGBTQ+ identity spoke to me and pointed out that I was in the Samaritans group and asked if that meant anything. A very discrete way of asking if someone needs help I though. I said that no, it was completely random where I ended up. I can't remember exactly how we got to it but I remarked that I was getting more practice wearing heels as i had attended several such events over the last couple of months. She said she had given up wearing heels and felt that she was getting too old for it. I remarked that I was sixty nine thinking that I must surely be older than her, she laughed and said that she was several years older. I said, quite truthfully, that she certainly didn't look it! We fell to talking about changes in society and I remarked that I came late to this and said that had I wanted to express this side of me fifty years ago it would have been a very different experience than today's. She concurred saying that she had been a demure church going girl, and shook her head, saying how remarkable, and remarkably silly, that seemed seen from now.
Then we arrived at the entrance to Victoria park and we parted ways.
Here's part of one of the queues to get in:
I walked through the open part of Victoria Park past the bowling green, glasshouses, and aviaries and as i was passing one of the glasshouses saw a pretty young drag queen:
After Pride I wandered back along the route to my car looking for a cafe or tea shop but didn't find anything that appealed. When I got back in sight of my car I was a little surprised to see that the mirrors weren't folded. The door handles also didn't present when I got there and I realized that when I switched handbags I had forgotten to take my keys with me. So for several hours my car keys, credit cards, car, and Chromebook were rather easy to make off with. Must be more careful
So I decided to take a the country route back to Crewe and see if there were any tea shops on the way. My car satnav can show such things on the screen but for some reason it now includes pubs when you ask for cafes. I'm almost certain it didn't used to do that but I can't pinpoint when it changed.
Anyway I found the village of Audem had a cafe, The Tearoom at No 11, that wasn't a pub and was open until 16:00. There I had a pleasant mocha and a very light slice of gluten free Victoria sponge. The sponge was very good for gluten free, not up to the best of such sponges using ordinary flour though.
After my coffee I still had plenty of time on my parking ticket so i wandered around the village a little and headed for a charity shop that i had spotted on the way to the cafe.
The church is a fairly typical one for the area I think
There is a millstone outside it for no reason that I could see
Did you think I had forgotten to post some selfies?
After my beer and before the parade arrived I had time to take some so I propped up my mobile set to take video and posed in front of it. The weather started just a little cool so I was wearing my favourite crocheted cardigan
But it was starting to warm up, so I took it off
Of course I then had to fold it up and stuff it in my handbag. I know that some of you will find this difficult to believe but I had completely forgotten how short my skirt was and didn't deliberately bend over revealing my stocking tops and bum. I'm normally very careful to not do that anywhere where there are other people about. In this case the camera wasn't even down at the usual ground level, it was propped on a window ledge about half a metre from the ground.
@turbineman40 Oh goodness me. It's not courage really. I and the woman from Samaritans discussed exactly this point as we walked in the parade, it's so much easier for us now than it was a generation or two ago. I would not have dared to walk the streets in a miniskirt, heels, and crop top in the 1970s, it would have been at the very least uncomfortable and quite possibly dangerous. Of course there are places even in Europe where it is still dangerous to be visibly gay or trans, etc.
But now for me it has been easy, all the barriers have been inside my own head; every door I have pushed at so far has just swung open.
I've just spent an irritating time uploading my ID and a selfie to the verification portal for the student digs in Nottingham that I booked through Hotels.com. It's a really annoying procedure that was designed, if designed is the right word, by someone who has only a passing acquaintance with computers and user interface design.
@22Michelle There are Pride events much closer to you. You could go with your wife. You don't have to dress, there were plenty of people at Stafford who were quite indistinguishable from the general public.
You don't even necessarily have to walk in the parade or attend the event itself, you could just sit outside a pub with a drink and watch the parade go by. There were all sorts of people there from drag queens done up to the nines wearing higher heels than mine to heterosexual parents with small children and no obvious LGBTQ+ connection. People just picked what they wanted out of the event; I walked in the parade but there were plenty of people with pride flags who just watched us go by.
