Is it beginning to feel a bit like cabin fever?……………..I am still cooking, the closets and drawers are all cleaned (including the kitchen drawers which seem to accumulate all sorts of matter) and I finally cleared the dining room table of stacks of papers and old mail. So I am beginning to contemplate my next move. And as I am planning my next move, my mind begins to wander and meander. And I find myself in a place in the 1970’s. As I thought of different incidents, I realize one in particular, was not in my book. Therefore, Choose Life. I probably wanted to protect my image at the time. But I realize that at age 87, there is nothing to protect anymore. only truth telling. As I remembered the incident more clearly, I started to smile and then laughed out loud.
Paul had moved across the country to Washington, D.C. where his sister, Melinda, lived. I was alone for the very first time in my life. I felt as though I was a single woman. A feeling that I had never experienced
I moved to what seemed like a “single person’s paradise”. And soon I was dating a very nice, sedate, retired man. We went out to dinner, the theater, museums and lectures. Then one day, out of the blue, he asked me if I had ever been to a nudist colony? A nudist colony, I squeaked? You mean one of those depraved establishments? I grew up in the 1950’s in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania which, at the time, was very provincial. I married at the age of 19 and was a virgin, both physically and in life experiences and nudity was a forbidden subject in my home.
I’ll call my friend “Dan”. So Dan decided to drop the subject and we went out to a lecture on the Intimacy of Worms. But the next weekend, he brought it up again and this time explained enough about it that I was intrigued. He said this was more like a clothes optional camp, a family camp with people of all ages. My interest was piqued so finally, after more discussion, he decided to take me there the following Saturday for the day. When the day arrived, I chose to wear my most lady like one piece bathing suit with the coverup to match.
We arrived at the camp, and, to my surprise, I saw that almost everyone was naked! Dan helped me out of the car as I almost slid onto the road. I had never seen anything like this in my entire life. There were older men with pot bellies playing basketball with only gold chains moving up and down on their chests with each jump shot. I better mention they also had on athletic shoes and socks. (Bet you thought I was going to say something else athletic). The women were all around the camp. too; some with children of all ages who were also naked. The women were of all shapes with their breasts all different sizes, some also bobbing up and down.
I had a good time that Saturday and when we returned the following week, I felt brave enough to remove my bathing suit but kept my see through coverup on my body. I wonder why they call it a cover up…………….?
The next Saturday was to be a sleepover. I finally realized I wanted the experience. So we packed a sleeping bag, some food and we weren’t burdened with a suitcase full of clothes. It was a clear night. You could count every star and as we zipped up our sleeping bag, we saw the moon was huge in size and shining over us like a bright overhead bedroom light. We had just settled in when all of a sudden, we heard Whoosh. We looked around and started to see that we were in an area where the sprinklers had just been turned on. We quickly moved to higher ground. We were just about to fall asleep when we heard Whoosh again but this time, it was much louder and we quickly packed up again and found even higher ground where the moon looked as though it was sitting on the ridge of this highest land. By this time, it was one in the morning and we were quite tired.
We fell asleep one more time, and, you guessed it. WHOOSH. The sprinklers were pouring water on us and then I saw a sight that I shall never forget. Men and women and children were all running to get out of the way of the water and you could see the naked images of their bodies shown in the full moon. It was like the movie, ET, Extra Terrestrial, when the boy, Elliott, was framed in the full moon on his bike.
We decided to pack up and drive back to L.A. It had been chaos and exhilarating but my time with Dan was complete. And my next liaison was with a man I shall call Morris……..but that is for another blog.
