Jane: My first semi-erotic experience happened in our sand box, around age ten, when Jane and I were trying to save an injured chipmunk from the neighbor’s cat named Jill. She was always caring for some animal or another and when she bent over the shoebox holding the rodent I looked down her shirt and noticed the nubs of her starter boobs.
Lissa invited me to go skinny-dipping in a little pond near her house behind Lindenwood College under the TV towers at the edge of town. She had that long frizzy hair, a big smile, and cute teenage tits. We floated out in the water holding onto opposite sides of an old tire for awhile as we talked and gazed at each other. (I was so innocent I didn't know what else to do with her.)
Larry Bowers, the production manager, hired my best friend Tim Mills and me to dress up as Revolutionary War soldiers and stand at the door of his house welcoming guests to a cast party for the college production of “1776!” Somehow I found myself on the edge of the large sloping lawn with my face briefly pressed against the bare breasts of a happy drunk college coed. It was a very exciting experience for a high school virgin and for weeks after that I clumsily tried to find her.
Shawn: I guess I could say I was reared in a normal repressed family but that all changed after I met Shawn at a San Rafael onramp also hitching north. He had just gotten out of San Quentin and was heading to Humboldt County.
“I'm heading to Nooning Creek,” he said. “People are living naked on the creek.” He wore an amulet and had two huge army duffle bags. “The trees talk to me,” he said.
There were clumps of campers along the creek, all shameless naked hippies lounging along the beach, sometimes rising and going over to drink from the mossy spring flowing down the nearby mountainside.
Doug: We all went out to the Fourth of July party at Whiskey hill. I had golden seal and cayenne on my face for poison oak. We walked down the trail into a little clearing on the side of the hill and I looked around at these very cool California hippies and just tossed my frisbee into the air where it disappeared into the woods. Doug Green was sitting naked on the hillside with a big smile on his face.
“C'mon you phony hippies!” he said. “Take off your clothes!” I saw Milton high-stepping toward Erica's cabin behind a tall blond woman.
Pam: We hitchhiked to the country retreat in Phoenicia, NY where a sign out front said 'The Center For The Living Force.' A naked volleyball game was happening in the front yard and we joined right in.
Suzy: A couple years later back in Indiana Suzy wanted me to streak the radio station where her boyfriend worked as the DJ. When we got there we stripped down, ventured into the broadcast room, and I announced loudly, “This is a streak to impeach Nixon!” (It was the summer of '74 after all.) The station manager suddenly appeared and it was Larry Bowers again.
Swimming Hole: Living in Whale Gulch in the seventies and eighties was experiencing a culture of extreme openness and honesty. We were all naked at the swimming hole all summer long, the hippies had taken over and there was not a swim suit in sight.
Hitchhiked naked: Everyday all summer in the '70's I'd hitchhike to town, skinny-dip in the river then go to downtown Whitethorn and drink a beer, smoke a joint and jam on the street or listen to the musicians who would show up in the afternoon. One day I hitchhiked to the swimming hole naked and skipped the middleman so to speak. This couple and his brother picked me up, and the brother became psychotic after that.
Massage class: Whenever I'm driving to a big Gulch gathering memories of scenes out there over the years come flooding into my head in a pleasant wave of nostalgia. When heading to Beginnings for Nancy's big 70th birthday party I remembered a massage class that Joan Shirle had lead back around 1975.
Upon arriving at the Tower House, I was surprised to come upon a room of about ten naked people. I recovered quickly and took off my clothes as well.
First I was massaging Star, who was lying on her back, although I was having trouble focussing on her neck, necks can throw me.
Next I was massaging Don Edwards and after a while he said, “Will you stop dripping sweat on me?!”
Ah the old hippies daze, and what a fun party for Nancy's 70th.
Tom Pi: We were all nudists during the skinny dipping hippie era though I never heard those words either, just how it was. We'd go into Whitethorn and splash around the Dump Hole, rows of naked hippies on the rocks and tiny beach.
Once I was undressing and Tom Pi said, “You're wearing jockey shorts!” Indeed I was but didn't realize how uncool that was. After that I didn't wear underwear again, just pulled on my jeans like a real California hippie, boy, was I learning!
Pop: Gotta hand it to my old man. When he came west to visit his skinny-dipping hippie children he joined right in, like “when in Rome.”
Mom: I was taping an oral history with my 84-year-old mother a few years ago and it came up that her family were nudists when she was a kid. They didn't call themselves that, they just didn't see much use in wearing clothes around the house.
Ali: Years later I was talking at the Trade Faire with the daughter of our community photographer, the mother had died recently and the young woman had a box of her photos.
“If you ever run across a picture of me at about twenty dancing naked and playing the flute at a party at Bear Harbor with a naked red-haired girl playing her violin I would really like to see that,” I said. I remember we were dancing around each other by the fire pit. “Well, that was before we became more uptight about our bodies.”
“I'm not uptight about my body,” she said.
“Great,” I said. “Then take your clothes off now.”
(Snarl…)
Be First to Comment