Exposing the Naked Truth
I’m sure that many of you have gone skinny dipping at least once in your lives, especially when you get to be as old as me. I just wanted to share a few times that I can recall I’ve been swimming. It is a natural thing to be unclad. “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither:” is found in Job 1:21. There weren’t any guilty feelings about the times I went into the water without a swimming suit. Several times I had no choice. Gym class in junior high school males were expected to attend swimming classes without a stitch of clothing. The girls were allowed to wear one-piece swim suits, but not the boys. I’m not sure the reasons, but it was the school policy.
The neighbor boys and I would occasionally swim beneath the bridge of Route 711 in the cold waters of Poplar Run. The stream flowed in the shade most of the way from its sources of melting ice, snow, and the water from several underground springs. The water was downright frigid, especially when we would dive-in before the middle of May. We always built a bonfire before entering the water. It was necessary to avoid hypothermia, chase away blue lips, and chattering teeth. Why? I believe it was a manhood thing.
Another place and another time that I’ve gone skinny dipping was in Indian Creek near Indian Head, Pennsylvania. Several of us kids would play softball in an empty field near the stream. We ‘d play ball until we were panting and sweating beneath a hot summer sun. When we’d had enough, we would hurry into the shade of a wooded belt of trees, shedding our clothes on the bank, before diving into the refreshing and revitalizing waters of the boy-made dam.
On the far side bank was a railroad track. Frequently as we enjoyed the cooling effects of the flow, a train would pass by. We would hear the rumble of the locomotive and tail of cars long before it would roll by. We would hurry to the center and deepest part of the creek. We would wave with only our heads above the surface. I’m sure the engineer knew what we were doing and would blow the whistle as the train would roll by us as we swam. I was never sure whether he could actually see our nakedness from his lofty perch in the locomotive or whether it was a good guess.
Other than the awkward feeling of being completely exposed to my peers while in swimming classes in high school, skinny dipping had an exhilarating feeling of freedom.