Just goes to show my old man, dear old Pops Rush, was right, lo? those many years ago when he said, ‘Son, you’ll learn something new every day.? (Or something like that — he died in 1996, so I can change his quotes to fit whatever context I need without fear of him correcting me.)
Last week, whilst perusing social internet based media, I noticed everybody’s buddy, Lake Orion Police Chief Jerry Narsh posted this bit o? information:
‘Saturday, May 2 is World Naked Gardening Day … Seriously ? Would that apply to mowing the lawn??
I wonder if in Jer’s fair town he and the folks in blue had many calls of public nudity?
Here’s a question that was posed to me, ‘If I were to garden in the nude, on World Naked Gardening Day (WNGD), would that supercede public nudity laws for that one day??
Good question. Jerry, you brought this subject out to the light, what do you say?
Reflecting on WNGD 2015
I echo Jerry’s apparent surprise.
World Naked Gardening Day . . . Seriously? (Of course, I commented on Jerry’s post that I was ‘all in. ? I hope the joke in my comment was as obvious to the world as it was to me when I wrote it.)
World Naked Gardening Day — this past Saturday — was an awesome day for getting out in the yard to weed, turn over the compost pile and just get dirt under your finger nails.
Blue sky, white fluffy clouds. Saturday was warm, sunny and breezy. The bumble bees were bumbling; the gnats where gnatting and there were not too many mosquitos.
I don’t normally describe anything this way, but it was damned near perfect. I love this time of year for all those reasons I mentioned and you better believe I was out and rooting around in the dirt. (If you were to look at my finger nails now, you see some of the garden soil is still with me, even as I type.)
Upon further reflection . . .
I don’t think gardening in the nude is a good idea. Aside from the aesthetics of a pasty white dude glowing in the sunlight, gardening requires the use of a lot of sharp tools like shovels, saws, shears, clippers, nippers, cloppers and other things that just thinking about shivers me timbers.
And, besides with all that bending over the chances of me getting a sun burn were the sun ain’t ‘spose to shine is about 100 percent. (Some where in the distance of my mind I hear Creedence Clear Water Revival’s John Fogerty singing, ‘There’s a bad moon on the rise . . .?)
So what the heck is a WNGD?
Here’s a quick rundown on WNGD I found on-line: ‘World Naked Gardening Day is an annual international event celebrated on the first Saturday of May by gardeners and non-gardeners alike. . . .. (It) has become an annual tradition that celebrates weeding, planting flowers and trimming hedges in the buff.
While it’s linked to a movement of nudists who promote wholesome and unashamed acceptance of the human body, the day is meant to be funny, lighthearted and non-political, founders say.”
Recalling my day at the nudist resort
I am surprised I didn’t know about World Naked Gardening Day before stumbling over Jerry’s Facebook posting, because I know the area’s Grand Pooh Bah of nudist resorts.
Gary, owner of Whispering Oaks, just north of Oxford, and I met almost 30 years ago.
I’m kinda? sad he didn’t send me a press release or something to let me know of this decades old celebration. I didn’t have his phone number, so a few minutes ago (as I write this), I went to Facebook and ‘joined? the resort’s group in an effort to contact him.
It was probably June, 1985 when, as a cub reporter and low man on the totem pole that I was instructed to write a feature story about Whispering Oaks.
I went to the phone book, found the phone number, called and set up the interview.
Gary was very gracious and accommodating; soon he and I were tooling around the resort grounds — complete with camp ground, swimming pool, fishing pond, tennis courts and resort center. I had never seen naked people playing tennis before. I can still bring up the video in my head if I try.
Thinking back, I seem to recall asking him, and feeling a little queasy about fishing, with fish hooks, in the buff (see related paragraph above about gardening with sharp tools). He laughed.
It was a good day.
Back to the present
If there are any inquiring minds out there and by the way this is directed to you Jerry, I did mow my lawn this weekend, and much to the relief of my neighbors, fully clothed.
Your thoughts, concerns or comments? E-mail, Don@ShermanPublications.org.