Norwegian Independence Day, May 17th
Hello Blog Friends!
Two more things happened yesterday, that I must tell you. I got to have lunch with Noelle, the woman from Holland. I gave you her photo yesterday. She just turned 60 also and also is here to rest and recover. She had cancer a while back and Holland helps those with illness with a more extensive health coverage than what we have. Noelle’s monthly cost for her health insurance is something like 125 Euro and we Americans pay more like from 700-100 dollars per month to get coverage that is not nearly as good as what Noelle has. Anyway, I should stop talking about this since I am No Expert at all.
So, great lunch with Noelle who is traveling with the Women Travelers from Holland. Noelle gave me the schedule of events, so I can see if perhaps I might get to join them tomorrow when they have a walk to a church somewhere... We talked about all sorts of things. Then she is on the Women Traveler email list and got a text telling her group to come over to the Pink Flamingo bar/restaurant to celebrate Norwegian Independence Day! These owners are two women, one is Norwegian. So Noelle and i walk to The Pink Flamingo. How funny... the free food to celebrate Norwegian Independence Day was..... I am not kidding you... boiled skinny and long wieners, to be put into a round whole wheat tortilla and there was catsup and mustard you could add. This was the free celebratory food. Really? I thought, who am i to question their choice of food. Where was the lefse? The lutefisk? So, i had just eaten a delicious lunch of grilled vegetables and shrimp risotto, so it was not that hard to not eat the wieners. But, when I told the owner that i was half Norwegian, she thought I should at least have a shot of Aquavite. I do not know how to spell this, but it is a strong liquor. I said, OK, but just a small bit.
Well, I could go on and on, but must get to my next point. Remember the woman, Kate, from South Africa? I met her on Wednesday night. She is so lovely. Well, Kate leads writing classes. When Kate and I were together, Kate pointed out a woman who walked by. Kate said, “See that woman over there? She is writing a book about her experiences when she was in the English military... you should get to know her.”
So who was at The Pink Flamingo? Babs! I tapped Babs on the shoulder and introduced myself and we started to talk. Kate had seen Babs that morning, so Babs already knew about me. Babs was having a Norwegian wiener, and drinking water, while i was finishing up my liquor with a beer. A beer? Really? Well, the wieners and Aquavite were free to celebrate the Norwegian holiday, and I thought about my manners. I should buy something if I am going to hang out at this bar/restaurant and could not think of any food I wanted since I just ate lunch so I ordered a beer.
OK, back to Babs. (P.S. I am writing this blog at 9:54 a.m. I have had nothing to drink this morning. You could think that i am making all of this up. No kidding... this is true...)
Babs is totally friendly. She was in the English military and told me that she has so many stories to tell that these stories really need to be in at least three books. Ideally, the stories need to be a television series. Wow. So, I asked if she had any stories to share with me. And pointedly, I asked her, “By any chance do any of your stories have anything to do with being gay and how religion and the church has been hurtful?” To this question she answered quickly, and without any need to reflect. She said and I wish I could remember for sure her exact words, but to the best of my memory she said, “Well, I am hurt by the church every day.”
Really? Wow... can you tell me how... Then we decided that we should move to another table because so far, we were talking by the big pot of boiled water that held the wieners in it. We did not want to prevent anyone from getting their free Norwegian Independence Day wiener.
So, Babs and I moved to a back couch against the wall at the open air Pink Flamingo bar/restaurant. It is about 3:00 pm or so on Thursday, May 17, Norwegian Independence Day. Then, I got several stories. She told me about Gayla. She told me that it is grounds for getting kicked out of the English military if you are caught being gay. You can get caught as a gay person, if a military official finds a love letter and can tell by words in the letter, that it is same gender love.
Babs told a story of a man in the military with the last name Smith, a common name. A love letter that was meant to go to him, went to someone else by mistake. It was found out that he was a gay man and a most horrific thing was done to him before he was kicked out of the military.
She said, it was odd, tho, that when military men and women had time off and went to London, I think I have the right city. That there is one place in London where gay women can gather. It is a secret place and women are extremely secretive when trying to find this place. Women are secretive, but that street leading to the women’s safe hang out would often have gay men walking on the same street, being hand in hand. She said that it has often felt sexist even in this world. That women can’t be as free as men even in their gayness... that was sort of a side bar... As you can see Babs simply has decades of stories and ready to write and tell people. I felt honored.
The she told me a bit about Margaret Thatcher. Most all I know of Thatcher is from that movie about her which made her look like quite the good leader. Those of you who followed her know much more than I know about her. The detail that was new to me, probably not new to you, is something called Section 28, legislation that was up for a vote in England in 1986 or 1987. This legislation did not pass, but Margaret Thatcher was totally for it. It was some kind of anti-gay thing. And Margaret Thatcher’s daughter, Carol Thatcher, is gay. Huh. Of course, there is much more to this story, but I did not know that.
Maybe enough about Babs. However, Babs is outgoing as you can tell. I asked her that when my two girlfriends come, Jodi and Lynn, could we interview and film you? She said yes! So, that is exciting. I have to come up with some questions or we could surely go all over the map. All for now.
Yesterday was a day, that actually did not feel that full, but when I reflect, I met a lot of people in that one day. And, by the evening, after Liza and her partner left my hotel room, I ended up not doing anything else. I was possibly going to get some supper, but maybe I was filled up with events. I ended my night alone in the hotel room. And did something very funny and American. I curled up in bed with the beautiful I-pad and looked at one YouTube of Steven Colbert. I wanted to see what he did with the latest news items... Then I fell asleep.