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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 6, 2002)
4 8 ju s t out « September 6. 2002 Safe Schools for All! HUMOR ............... ▼................ Do you want to make a difference in schools? We’re looking for volunteers. Call & find out how you can promote change. I C EZ K | ■ ■ ■ ^ O regon www.glsenOregon.org Gay, Lesbian and Straight P H u rs tin n Education Network 5 0 3 525-1177 - fetters id M y So mm How Aboirr G hanqe of H eart ? a From broke ness to wholeness in relationship, loss o f a loved one, animalo, empty neot syndrome and more —a 5 week session o f "Grief Release ” Wednesdays 9/11, 9/18/9/25, 10/2 and 10/9 Tim e: 7-9pm • Cost: $ 3 3 fo r the 5 weeks P o t t er ' s H o u se M ¡ n I str S es 5850 SE 62f\d A v e . , P o r t I anc J , OR Q u e s t i o n s : C a II CyNihiA Buns (505) 775^5024 M/orvien? B x * r a v Nas fc e d y cy w î( "More soulful than St. Jonl (Mitchell), more seductive than Tracy Chapman driving a fast car, able to leap jazzy, funky, Rikki Lee Jones vibes in a single bound../' "Zullo's voice, at once gritty and sweet, lingers somewhere in the Melissa Etheridge and Michelle Shocked range, and her writing is truthful and simple." -P e r f o r m in g S o n g w r it e r M a g a zin e - T he T ennessean "This girl kicks ass live." - T odd S nider A B E N E F I T F O R LCP sponsored by Belinki & DuPrey Art Gallery and the Lesbian Community Project W ednesday , S ept . 18 H ollywood T heatre . 6 pm * 8 IN ADVANCE AT I n O ther W ords B ookstore ( arrive on time , space is limited ) F or M ore I n f o : 503-957-1854 j h o AT THE DOOR I i- ■ Life is but a dream No Grown-Up Time for this A untie f you ever want to have a really great summer vacation— by great I mean coming home with a pint of sand in every pocket— take m some kids to the beach. (We dykes who aren’t parents miss out on so much, like the sensation of jammy fingers probing our facial orifices.) Lucky for us, our lesbian-parent friends wel come childless dykes as their kids’ Benevolent Aunties. O n our weeklong summer vacation we had a good ratio with seven adults to four kids. More than half the adults were Aunties. Naturally, being lesbians, it was more com plex than that. Two of the moms have been a couple for a long time and adopted their two daughters from different orphanages in China. T he single mom, who recently started dating one of the Aunties, shares custixly of her two girls with the kids’ other mom, her ex. (They each conceived by the same donor sperm and adopted the other partner’s baby so the sisters are biologically related.) These things are hard to explain to straight people who always want to know who the father is, hut the kids figured it out right away. “Ltxik! They have two moms just like we do!” If you’re going to spend a week in a beach cabin with a herd of girls between 3 and 9, it’s good to have as many Benevolent Aunties along as possible. That way when the Aunties take the kids to play on the beach, the moms are freed up to enjoy some— wink, wink— “Grown-Up Time.” One day we Aunties accompanied the kids on a long expedition— collecting feathers and shells and inspecting seagull ptxrp— to give their moms Grown-Up Time. I noticed a certain something in the air when we got hack to the cabin, hut it was hard to tell for sure because at the beach everything smells like the ocean. O ne of the benefits of not having children is that with other people’s kids you can play as hard as you want and quit at any time. Unlike real parents, you are always free to take some space when you’ve had enough. Space is what parents call that brief sliver of time between bedtime and sunrise carttxrns. Little kids sure are fun, though. By some fluke of nature, they never have to go potty before you leave the house. Can there he anything as satis fying as lifting a kid up into the seated position so she can lean over and watch herself pee on the sand? All Aunties quickly learn to carry extra Kleenex around for just such occasions. And who has really lived until they’ve put four exhausted kids to bed? Children are great at creative stalling tactics— just one more story, an extra goodnight kiss, another trip to the » bathrtx>m, one last glass o f water and, inevitably, a performance of “the butt dance.” he best entertainm ent on our vacation were the kids’ evening theatrical prixJuc- tions. These shows involved elaborate intnxluctions, death-defying balancing acts, surprisingly realistic portrayals o f circus animals and a whole hunch o f cartwheels. T h e first show was performed on the cabin deck, with resin chairs set in rows on the lumpy beach grass. Adults were given tickets and had to find the seat with the matching number on it, just like at a real show. T h e 8-year-old master of ceremonies intro duced the acts and doubled as dog trainer and lion tamer. T h e youngest abandoned her role for a seat in her mama’s lap, so there was no trained seal, as previously announced. Before bedtime, it was fun to all snuggle up close to each other around the campfire. We sat on the smooth, sun-bleached driftwood logs and dug our hare feet into the cool sand while roast ing marshmallows and singing children’s songs. I am already considering hypnosis for getting the chorus of “Baby Beluga” out of my head. But how l loved watching the kids— the girls who see us big, strong, confident dyke friends and lovers as their role models— singing and laughing together. These girls will know a lot more about what women can be than any of us did growing up. And they’ll know how a x il it is to have lesbians in their lives, despite the inevitable teasing from other kids. O n our last night, we sang around the campfire for hours, long past the kids’ bedtime. No one wanted it to end. We took turns saying what our favorite memory was going to be and promised to make a week in August at the beach together our annual tradition. A roasted marshmallow high kept us going until we launched into the final song of cxir vacation. Could there he anything sweeter than little girls’ and women’s voices together belting out a six-part round o f “Row, Row, Row Ytxir Boat”? Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily. J H T SALLY S heklow is note accepting tips for getting sand out o f Levi hems at wwui.wymprov.com.
