One day a young group of 20ish South Tampa girls came to the balcony at Mary’s. Of course no one knew what to drink and were being a hand full. The last girl asked for a Corona beer.  We were out and this is something that we really should have had. I told her that I would run and get it for her. Now as many of you know the balcony was over the side walk on 7^th Ave. To get more beer I had to climb 8 steps, walk across the dining room, then thru the kitchen, thru the elevator shaft. The across the kitchen next door to the very north end on 8^th Ave. 1 full block away. Turn around and do it all around again, back to 7^th Ave.  This is a 2 block run with stairs!!!!  I gave her the beer and she took one sip tossed her hair and said “It’s not cold enough, what else can you make?”  I pulled a napkin and handed it to her and said “here there is something in your hair.” She ran out with a fake scream.  LOL

The whole community LOVES Nancy & John Desmon. They are the founders of PFLAG Tampa and for the past several years are the counter protesters to the religious hate in Ybor City. YES….  They are the nice couple that hold up the signs “I Love My Gay Son.” We have meet their son and his husband who are just as nice as the Desmonds. In an internet sensation on Reddit.com there are 50,000+ likes for a photo of them. The Desmonds being so good nature think it’s funny too.  

One day I was waiting on a straight couple with 2 teenage sons. The Mom was a total handful. In the biz we call these people “Mondays.” Why Mondays? Because everybody hates Mondays. She was ordering for everyone and thought she was a better cook than us. Add this, remove this, cook this way etc. LOL. After I place the complex order she canceled it all and the ordered something else, just as complicated. Out came the order and her appetizer. In a lough voice, which she probably thinks makes her important, announces that she did not order that she ordered something else. Her husband finally spoke up and told her that she did order that. The two started to argue when she actually said to her husband….”Shut the F*ck up! How dare you argue with me in front of the help!” I just smiled and offered to exchange it. She said “No you have ruined my night.”  I don’t know where this came from but I then told her we have Chocolate Pie for Desert (line from the movie THE HEP) He burst out laughing and she gave me the WTF look. After leaving the husband gave me a $40 tip on a $60 bill. LMAO

We all have a Favorite Crazy Great Aunt! One day we were talking with our Great Aunt and said that Jesus and the Disciples probably did not know how to read and write. They communicated thru stories in that time.  Auntie said “YES he did! He learned how to read and write in Sunday School!!! They wanted him to be Lutheran too but he stayed Catholic.”  She was serious…. LMAO LMAO  Then this week we were at the  convenience store. Our friend John was behind the counter. He was telling the guy in front of us that in England today is Boxing Day. It starts the day after Christmas and everyone exchanges gifts. The holiday goes on for 12 day. The guy behind us said No that sounds like a Jewish Holiday. John said no but you know Jesus was a Jew. The guy then said “NO HE WAS A BAPTIST!!!” LOL LOL The Holidays WOW

In high school Carrie had a 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner. It was Orange and he called her “The Orange Bomber.” When Carrie went into the Airforce the car was stored at his parents’ home in Wisconsin. 6 years later in 1980 we were moving to Florida. Carrie’s Dad told him to try starting the old car up and he drove her to Tampa. 3 years later it was time for a new car. Carrie traded her in and got $2,000 in the trade in value. It was a sad day when he sold her. A couple months later I asked the dealer what had happened to the car. He told me it was sold at auction and who purchased her. I went to the new owner and bought the car back for $500. This was Carrie’s Christmas gift that year.  Tears of happiness. YAAAA Then 6 months later our apartment complex told us the car had to go. We tried to store her at a friend’s home, but didn’t work out. (That’s a whole new story) Carrie put a add in the newspaper. A car collector was so excited to find her and paid us $3,000. WOW  

When GaYbor was founded in 2007, several of us had always been calling Ybor City, GaYbor. (Read the historical marker on 7^th & 15^th in front of the new hotel. Ybor has always been Gay since the 1800’s.) So it was just natural to call our group GaYbor. We even had the name registered so no one else could use it. The then some community leaders thru a “HUGE HISSY FIT” over the name. How dare you try to change our name!!!! We said NO we did not and had always called it “The GaYbor District Collation in Historic Ybor City.” We never tried to change the name, but embraced the diversity of Ybor City. Now fast forward to 2018. The straight community came up with the so very original name of “RaYbor City.”  There was no mention of Historic Ybor City. Hummmm….. Many in the LGBTA community notice the similar name.  Some laughed, some questioned where was Ybor City going? Maybe, Just Maybe if they had included “in Historic Ybor City” the outcome would have been different. They could have been a group inside Historic Ybor City. Instead of trying to change our community’s name. Just Say N

Every holiday season we think about this. Our next-door neighbor, in Hyde Park, Tampa was a retired Gay guy. He was taking care of a 40+ year old Gay guy name Charlie, who had mental health issues. This was kind a like a foster child situation for adults.  Charlie was very nice and would mow our yard and bring our trash cans in. Would stop and ask how us our day was.  One day he was sitting on our porch. I asked him what he was doing. Charlie said the view from our porch was much nicer than his. (LMAO we booth looked at the same townhomes across the street.)  We told him he could sit there all he liked. Over the years he would have more issues but was always polite & nice. One time he said that he couldn’t mow our yards because of the big snakes. His medication was changed and then was back mowing. LOL Then he started to wander too much. Sometimes was gone over night. The whole neighborhood would look for him. Then Charlie though the government was spying on us thru the TV Cable. So Charlie went and cut all the cable lines in the neighborhood. The social workers said it was time for Charlie to be closer supervised and was moved to a group home in downtown St. Pete.  Then 2 years went by. One day there on our front porch sitting was Charlie. He looked very bad and was very dirty. Charlie smiled and asked “how are you guy doing?”. Then said he was thinking that our yard needed to be mowed and decided to walk over.  We asked where he was living now. Charlie said the same place in Downtown St. Pete. Who gave you a ride? Nobody I walked. We called the police and they came out. There was a missing person report filed on him 3 days ago. In 3 days Charlie had walked 40+ miles…. When we see a homeless person now we think “Maybe that’s a Charlie”

In the 1^st old home we purchased 35+ years ago, there was and old refrigerator. You know the single door with a tiny icebox in side. We saved it and put it in the back room of our store. There it worked for 15+ years. It finally stopped working. We saved the door and made a magnet display out of it. In our new home the refrigerator is stainless steel. Carrie said “NO MAGNETS!!!”  Fine I put the old door up in our family room. After all the refrigerator door is a vital information station in the home! LOL …. PS…. In the photo the rainbow neon above came from the Wedge Wood Lounge at the SunCoast Resort. That’s a whole new story….

You Just Can Not make This Up

Carrie was at the Tampa Zoo doing some business. When he returned to the van Carrie realized that he had locked the keys inside.  He called AAA and was a 1-2 hour wait.  Just then Former Tampa Polce Chief gave him a call about upcoming Pride Zoo La event and told her he accidentally locked himself out of van at the zoo and was waiting for AAA. Surprised in 3 minutes Jane appeared at the parking lot. No problem and door was opened.

Sometimes is think we should change this to “Straight Friends Say the Craziest Things!”  We have a good lady friend, Mary, who shared this story with us. In today’s business world there are large conference calls.  Our friend was on one of these calls with about 50 people. The American group was meeting a new office group in Prague, Czech Republic.  A guy introduced himself as Pavel. The American team leader said “Hello Paul”. He replied back “no my name is Pavel.”  After several times going back and forth our friend Mary interrupted and said… His name is NOT Paul it is Pavel. Just like the Big Gay Porn Star Pavel Novotny!!!”  The call went silent. Mary started to receive messages from Prague… OMG Right on Girl, You speak Czech… etc. Then the American group leader said “Mary, How do you know Gay Porn Stars?” Because my Gay friends named their cats after him. One is Pavel and the other Novotny. The conference call broke into laughter.  You Just Can Not make This Up    We bet your all Goggling him right now LMAO