4 8 ju s t out « September 6. 2002
Safe Schools for All!
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I C EZ K |
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O regon
www.glsenOregon.org
Gay, Lesbian
and Straight
P
H u rs tin n
Education
Network
5 0 3 525-1177
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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
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-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
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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
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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.