13 Jul

London Pride & Brighton Pride: “Where are those who were before us?”

Posted by Dr Boodle

A few days ago a dear friend – who shall be nameless but who inhabits a property very close to Preston Park (where she becomes very popular at Pride time because her front garden can accommodate 4 cars) was telling me about her trip to London Pride. And about the topless bus – upon which lofty though carpet less upper deck had gathered, in reunion, no few long ago members of the GLF.** Now older, possibly wiser, certainly greyer, and without doubt fewer in number.

Not only was she still reliving and remembering the day with delight, upon closer inspection she was also suffering from a considerable watering of nostalgic eyes. “I hadn’t seen so many of them for years” she murmured happily “it was so so wonderful”

What was wonderful was that the GLF veterans on the bus had been cheered by the crowd;  there was a great shout of “Thank You” from bystanders; whistles cleaved the air in celebration. Tears indeed. The past in the present. The Bus Pass Liberation Front. BPLF.

Then it was over.

This story of a small but emotional incident taking place at London Pride, might cause any thoughtful person to consider carefully. Whether or not it is praiseworthy for Brighton Pride to have it in mind to grub for the bubble reputation in the pot at the end of the rainbow by summoning up  a Glastonbury-by-Sea in Preston Park, has become, as we all know, a matter upon which no more than a handful of consumers can agree.

With the  flood of 3rd class noise about to judder the teeth like bitten tin foil, crunch the ears like speared nutcrackers and scale the skin like a thorny strigil, where is the opportunity for an unrehearsed contemplative  appreciation?

Will there be a – not necessarily sober – corner pavilion here in Preston Park where the first, not the last post, might be equally loudly heard? So many courageous dead, fled or hidden. Winnowed by time, in or out of their graves, let those who have gone before not be forgotten as their lives are cropped a second time by a golden sickle and denied again by a gauntlet of ambition

…… Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt.

*Gay Liberation Front for any reader who does not know.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 13th, 2011 at 8:56 pm and is filed under Community, Events, Pride. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.