@Jennifer1984 Said
You may all find this a little difficult to believe, but I was once a mod on a site. Yes, it's true.
Back in the old days of AOL (does anybody remember that...?) they used to have "groups" usually known as "boards" rather than "forums" and the lesbian site on there was called "Utopia Women". Of course, back then I was much more inhibited in my behaviours. Very proper. I'd only just come out and I was still at uni and doing everything much more "properly".
It was great. The girls were brilliant... we had our own chatroom (the password was "Cornflake Girls" after the Tori Amos song), we would spend hours in chat. There were "board Weddings" If a couple of girls were getting flirty in the chat we'd stage a mock wedding for them. It could get a bit.... you know.... kinda nawty.... but it was fun.
I had to dish out one or two rebukes for excessively inappropriate behaviour and yeah, there were a few spats here and there... but mostly we all got on really well and I was even married off to other girls a few times myself. One was a big ol' butchie who had a thing for blondes. She was luffly. Bless.
Every year, those of us who were going to Brighton Pride would make sure we stayed at the same camp site and of course, that led to parties that would go on until stupid-o-clock in the morning. It was usually after sun up before we stopped drinking (well, it was August.!!). I took my guitar one year and we had rude dykie songs that kept a lot of people awake so they came and joined the party. Everybody around knew all about the misdemeanours of "Nellie Higginbottom" by morning..!!
Wonderful days. Lovely people. Great friends.
I'm still in touch with a number of them. We've all kept our Utopia names that we still use when we keep in touch. Carol Boswell (after a tv character she had the hots for)... Tw**ky... Shirley Bru..... Coco le Frog... Swotty.... Hotlips Houlihan.... and loads more. Oh, I so love those girls. Shirley and Coco (they were an item by that time), Swotty, and Carol Boswell came to mine and Amanda's wedding.
The only major problem we ever had on the board was from men who wanted to infiltrate it. AOL had made it a female only space but some would try to con their way in. They might get through as far as the board (but never the chatroom), but it didn't take long before they gave themselves away and then the other members would be saying "Oi Jen... Man alert..!! Man alert..!! get rid of him will ya..?"
I could do that. As a mod I had the magic "eject" button that zapped them. It was deliciously empowering.
I miss the old Utopia Group. Happy days... quite innocent times for me. I was young and it was all new. Amanda and I haven't been to Pride since before Meg was born. We were going to go this year but it was cancelled. We hope to go next year.... and we'll stay at the old camp site.
My guitar will be stringed and tuned, for the first week in August. Heh, heh, heh......
(singing)... "Young Nellie Higginbottom was a gay go-getter
From a farmyard down in Bucks........."
Jennifer - that's interesting you were a mod. That explains where chaski got his blue dress, who gave it to him.