The Naturist Action Committee has issued an Action Alert for the closure of Mazo nude beach in Wisconsin. Click to read more & learn how you can help now!
Buff bikers will be baring their butts once again here in the ‘Athens of the Midwest’ for Madison‘s third World Naked Bike Ride. Having weathered taunts and arrests the first year, last year’s event went much more smoothly, as hopefully will this year’s.
The arrests were somewhat surprising considering Madison’s well-known liberal atmosphere. Planned by its founders from its inception in 1836 to be a Mecca for culture and learning, the city is often referred to as ’78 square miles surrounded by reality’ due to its politically liberal nature compared to the rest of the state of Wisconsin. You know, cows and cheese!
The University of Wisconsin-Madison was a hotbed of anti-war activity during the 60’s and early 70’s as students and police clashed violently during protests against U.S. involvement in Vietnam and the presence of war profiteers working and recruiting on campus. Protests died to a whimper following the bombing of a building housing the Army Math Research Center, resulting in the accidental death of a researcher and signalling, some say, both the death rattle of the anti-war movement and the beginning of the end of the war.
Since then the city, the capital of Wisconsin, has been growing steadily more conservative in the intervening years as the baby-boomers grow older and the 40,000+ student population focuses more on success and less on social justice. Sadly, we haven’t heard the epithet ‘Berkeley of the Midwest’ applied to our fair city for decades.
However, Madison is still very liberal politically and hosted mass demonstrations last year when our new governor initiated efforts to destroy the state’s labor unions and disenfranchise poor voters, while at the same time deconstructing social services statewide. A recall election has been called despite the efforts of the Republican majority in the Legislature to prevent it in any way possible.
Our city long ago decriminalized marijuana, legalized top-freedom for women (now they’re arrested for disturbing the peace), and remains a bastion of left-wing activists. That’s why it was surprising that there was any fuss at all at the first WNBR here. Topless lesbians have paraded without incident in the past, students sunbathe and skinny-dip on the lake shore behind the frat houses and yours truly has joined merrymakers in taking a dip, sans-suits, off the pier at the student union.
This year’s event promises to go off without a hitch (stitch?) unless the governor decides to impose his will and declare a state of emergency to deal with this ‘insurrection’, but considering his tenuous hold on his office, that probably won’t happen! Plus, as last year, we have good old Paul Soglin back in the mayor’s chair and though he isn’t the radical he was in the ’60’s when he was first elected (and still a UW student protester), he’s a decent man who loves his city and seems to know the difference between skin and sin.
As is apparent in the Cap Times article (affectionately known locally as the Crap Times, a defunct newspaper refusing to die by becoming a once-a week supplement to its rival paper), not everyone here is mature enough to handle the idea of nudity without snickers. Well-justified wariness of the press and concerns about the privacy and safety of the participants prevents the local group from promoting the event and its route as much as might be desirable. Unfortunately this leads to snide remarks such as “Sounds more like a flash mob to me”.
We’ll be hoping for good weather and a better reception this year, though a recent local newspaper article made a big splash over pervs at nearby Mazo Beach. WNBR has nothing to do with naturism and in fact has shown little interest, at least locally, to be associated with nudists in any way other than as participants in the Ride. But that doesn’t mean that the public separates them in their mind, any more than they distinguish between beach perverts and the nudists they bother.
So mark your calendar for 11 a.m. on June 16 and let’s hope that this year’s Ride goes well and helps educate the masses as to the dangers of fossil fuels and the naked venerability of bicycle riders everywhere!
Well, we said it was sunny, not warm! We received a few inches of snow in a late Winter arrival yesterday. It’s been an easy Winter up until now, not terribly cold or snowy. If it was a couple of years ago we might be tempted to go to Mazo Beach to catch some rays and get a chance to feel the sun on our skin. Not so much anymore, age is catching up with us!
But no matter, Winter’s back is broken and though we may still get a whopper storm, Spring is near and we can handle just about anything with that thought in mind!
Our Australian and other southern hemisphere friends must be feeling the approach of their Winter looming in the not-so-far distance; what an awful feeling! It seems so long util warm weather again when months of cold lie ahead. Fear not, Aussies, Spring will come again, just about when you think Winter will never end!
But alas, no beach for us today. The road is closed and we’re not up to a mile hike through the woods even to enjoy that beautiful feeling of sun on skin and sand snow between our toes! We didn’t manage to make a trip to Haulover as hoped this year, so we’re fish-belly white again and practically glow in the dark!
This year, by God, we’re going to get ourselves out more and use the Summer months to best advantage. Still in recovery from my many repairs, last year was kind of a bust for nuding around. Feeling much better now so expect to be able to take advantage of the good weather while we can!
Ok, busy day today. Grandkids coming for the weekend, need to go shop for some kid food. Refrigerator is dying; cold side is warm and freezer is only cool; have to go buy a replacement we can’t afford. Poo. Have to empty out the old one and cut it in half; it was brought in years ago before different doors were installed in the house and it won’t fit through anymore!
Son Nathan’s scooter isn’t starting, we’ll be taking it apart in an effort to get it working while helping son Jim replace his old car’s starter and alternator. Lucky Jim; starter, alternator, and battery all went kablooey at the same time! And just when the company he works for cut wages to avoid closing! Still, these days he’s lucky to even have a job…ya know?
Son Jess is finishing his second week as a Medical Assistant at a local hospital and loving it! Has taken two years to find employment since he got his degree! He also lives with us (along with the other two while they all get their finances in order, if ever, plus grandkids every other week). We’re babysitting the kids this weekend while Jess is at his second and third jobs!
Grandkids helping Angie read a book!
We’ve got three articles to write for a client (we write short articles on any subject for whoever will pay us); hugely boring topics sometimes but every dollar helps! If you think you can get rich writing articles for the internet, you are sadly mistaken! Too much time and effort for too little return, but when you can’t work, it’s something. We just figured out yesterday (duh!) that we don’t even earn enough to pay for our internet service! But still, it’s kinda fun, every little bit helps, and it’s amazing, the things people want articles about!
The good news is sometime this weekend we plan to get to Mazo Beach and soak up some of the
summer’s last sun. It’s that time of the year when we can no longer pretend that winter won’t return! We’d like to take the grandkids, they’d love it, but with a divorce situation… can’t be exposing the children to THAT sort of ‘perversion’!
Rare pic of Skippy the Dog...awake!
If there’s any spare time, we’ll use it to paint and fix up the house, which we’re going to sell next summer even if we have to take a loss. We simply cannot afford to keep it any longer. Costs and taxes keep rising while income diminishes. Yeah, you know what I mean. It’s hitting all of us.
But hey, life is good!
Um, let’s see… anything else you good folks would be interested in? Probably not, I’ve bored you enough already! But you see, by posting this I can say I’ve done my job and posted something anyway! Have a good weekend and remember, stay naked!
Well, we made it to the Nude Car Show! Missed it for a couple of years but it was just as good and fun as we remembered. We saw some folks we knew from before and got along swimmingly, met some new ones and enjoyed hearing their stories. And no, that’s not us in the pic. That’s Doug and Amanda of The Academic Naturist who won the motorcycle category one year.
There were some nice cars, though not as many as usual due to threatening weather. Nonetheless, a good time was had by all. One car and driver in particular stood out – a ’36 (?) Packard (?) sedan with a lovely driver tricked out in roaring twenties-style flapper beads and hat, and little more. Cute as a button and full of bounce! Um, the driver, not the car. It just kinda sat there looking like the aristocrat it is.
Now, we hadn’t been camping for years, not since we sold our camper while I (Steve) was busy dying. Guess we should have kept it considering that, as it turned out, I didn’t! We had stayed at Valley View in a cabin before, and tented once or twice when we were first new, but not since. The weather promised to be iffy with rain expected but we hoped for the best. Mostly it was sunny and warm with some showers and rain one night, which our tent survived just. fine.
This was Angie’s first rain-camping experience and it was everything she had feared, which really wasn’t much. Luckily she had no idea what a real rain camping experience is like! Actually, it was a piece of cake, other than not being able to run around in the sun naked now and then. The good thing about nude camping is that there are no wet, cold clothes to deal with! And it’s fun to run around in the rain nude!
During the day we spent plenty of time in the pool or watching the more activity-inclined people enjoying games of sand volleyball or testicle-toss, wandering around the grounds or eating, looking at cars and generally schmoozing with anyone who would talk to us. That’s pretty easy to do; folks are friendly and laid-back and come in a variety of ages and interests. Boredom wasn’t a problem!
There were bands and dances both nights and booths selling neat stuff during the day, with breakfast, lunch and dinner available for those who wanted them. The food was great and reasonably priced and I had only one complaint: the hamburgers were so good that I wanted to eat more than I could fit in! And, fresh corn on the cob, yum.
Campfire chat finished off the evenings and more than took care of the slight chill in the air. There’s nothing quite like a nice big fire with a bunch of friendly naked people sitting around. If only every night could end that way!
The next event coming up is the Nude Olympics in a couple of weeks, Sep. 4th. We don’t want to miss that and will be back there again before if we can make it. Angie’s even thinking about trying camping again… if there’s no rain forecast!
So no surprise, we had a swell time and surely will be back next year, and many more times in between. If only Winter didn’t have to come first! Be sure to visit Valley View if you possibly can, you won’t be disappointed.
Pardon us for being a bit excited but this will be our big event for the summer. Haven’t been out a lot and we’re really looking forward to it! Away from the house and all the kids, grandkids, dog, cats…ahhhh. and naked the whole time!
Keep an eye out for us if you make it there, we’ll hang a sign (pictured) near our tent to make it easy!
Whatever you do this weekend, have fun and stay naked!
By all accounts the Ride went well this second year. There were a number of tickets issued last year and TA DA! all have been dismissed! There was one complaint this year and in cooperation with police, one volunteer accepted the citation (which was also dismissed!).
It appears that, in Madison at least, the bluenoses either stayed home this year or discovered that the sky hadn’t fallen after all! That the charges were dismissed is a great start towards body acceptance. It remains to be seen what will happen next year if Madison’s proposed draconian ordinance revision passes. It outlaws any exposure of anything, including any portion of the ‘buttocks’ as a means of, get this, combating public masturbation!
Here’s a vid of preparations for last year’s WNBR in Madison:
Things have come up at the last-minute in the past to cause us to cancel but it looks like a go for this year. We’re looking forward to seeing old friends, cars, lots of sunshine and…getting away from our wonderful crowded household!
We’ll be going Friday the 12th and staying through Sunday morning, at least. We haven’t tented for a couple of years or so and aren’t really looking forward to that part of it, but we’re going to tough it out. If we had planned early we could have had a trailer or cottage, darn! Had a nice camper but sold it a few years ago, wish we had it now.
Try to make it if you can, it’s a good time and fun for all. We’ll be in the tenting area near the clubhouse, right by the pass-through to the showers (handy!). Look for us!
It’s just about upon us, are you ready? This coming week is the time to get out and find yourself a place to get naked! If you’re lucky enough to live near a nude beach, terrific!
How about trying one of those nudist camps or resorts near you? If you’ve had the urge but never tried it, now’s the time! Celebrate our country’s Independence by celebrating your own: by being non-dependent on clothes!
Here’s some links we dredged up, see what you can find. If you know of any more just add them in a comment below! Oddly, nobody’s making much fuss over it this year. TNS barely mentions it, AANR is only pushing their Nakations, Friends of Mazo Beach is a year out of date! Oh well, no matter! Have a great week! Look for us at Mazo!
All Nudist 