I decided to attend the Gay Pride Parade this past month in my local town to show support for my gay friends with whom I work. There are about five of them. At sixty, I am much older. I'm also 6', and about 185 pounds. I've been married to my wife for 30 years, we had four children, and now have eight grandchildren. I guess I'm about as straight they come, but have always thought there was absolutely nothing wrong with being gay. It just wasn't for me and I had never even thought about doing anything with another guy.
It was going to be a hot day, so I decided to dress for the heat and wear what I usually wore to my track meets: a jock strap, shorts, a tee shirt, sport socks and sneakers. One of my friends rode with me there and he was dressed fairly similarly. We found a place to park fairly close to the start, which surprised me, but then I thought, oh hell, when the parade is over I will be about 2-3 miles from here. Oh, well, can't have everything. We got out and walked over to the starting area and found the other guys. I was kind of rubber necking somewhat as I had never seen such an array of, well, somewhat crazy looking people before. There were all kinds of attire from just plain like I and my friends to wild costumes and back down to what looked to be a few guys with little or nothing on at all.
It was a kaleidoscope of colors everywhere and I was like a kid in a candy store wanting to just see what all was going on. It was very festive scene and then there were the floats which were magnificent to look at. I started walking around to look at everything I could and soon lost track of where my friends were at. I looked for a bit but there were just too many people around to really look good. I soon decided the heck with it, I would see them later for a couple of drinks before going home tonight.
I went looking for something to drink then. Soon found a nice little stand that sold my drink of choice, an ice cold CocaCola. I bought one and then wondered around some more but still did not see my buddies and the parade was lining up to start. I found myself by a float I liked the looks of, so decided to just walk along with it. Soon we were starting up and I found several guys walking around that float and on it all dressed alike, so figured they were all friends or at least had al worked on the float together.
A few blocks later, one of the guys from the float turned and said hi to me. I returned his greeting and soon we were talking while we walked along. About a mile and a half into the parade I was starting to feel the heat and the long walk. The guy I was walking with told me I could take a break and ride on the float for a bit if I wanted, but he said I would probably have to take off the shorts and shirt as all on the float only had on jockstraps. I looked and was surprised as I had not noticed them stripping most of their clothes off on there till then. Only the guys walking were still in their shorts and shirts. I was kind of in a turmoil about that when I stepped on a rock in the road and twisted the heck out of my ankle. My new friend grabbed me or I would have went down. That pretty much settled it for a bit as he basically tossed me up onto the float. I decided, what the hell and soon had my shirt, shorts and shoes and socks off and was only in my jockstrap.
My new friend then told me I looked to be in pretty decent shape for my age as I had told him that earlier. I thanked him and returned the compliment. I had not really paid much attention to his looks until he tossed me like a sack of sugar onto the float. Now, I noticed, he was definitely in good shape and although not a build of a weightlifter did have quite the muscles showing.
I then rode the float for the rest of the parade. Looking around I noticed the other guys on the float all seemed to be in pretty good shape. Must all work out a lot I thought. I also noticed that they all, that I could see from where I was at, seemed to have the same tattoos. One, a tramp stamp on their backs and another on their stomach when they would turn and I could see it, of a figure that looked familiar, but I couldn't place it at first. Then as we passed a hospital on the way I noticed the design on one of the dumpsters I could see off to the side and it dawned on me they all, for some reason, had a biohazard symbol. I asked my new buddy about it and he said they had all decided to get one when they joined the club.
I thought that sounded nice for them to do.