Nude Swimming at Summer Camp

[NickTwisp]

The summer when I was 13, I attended Boy Scout camp for two weeks. Aside from some minor mishaps it was mostly an interesting and enjoyable experience.

One day we were told that there was going to be a campfire that evening. Instead of the standard song singing and skits that were usually performed at campfires we were going to listen to a distinguished guest speaker. He was Dr. James Hackleberry, a wealthy philanthropist who had been instrumental in the camp's founding in 1954. Basically, we would be getting a history lesson presented next to a blazing fire. Even our Scoutmaster seemed less than enthusiastic. "Boys," he said, "Dr. Hackleberry is an elderly man in his late 70s who gave a good deal of money so generations of Scouts could benefit from the camping experience on this property by a scenic lake. Please try to pay respectful attention to him as he speaks."

That night we marched over to the campfire compound near the edge of the lake. My best friend and bunkmate, David Perkins, said to me, "Nick, this is going to be a fucking snoozer." I replied, "Yeah, I hope I can stay awake, and we aren't expected to take notes or remember any of it."

We all got seated on the logs and the fire was roaring as it began to get dark. Soon the Camp Director appeared, followed by an elderly man whom I presumed to be Dr. Hackleberry. "Gowd," I said to David, "the fucker looks like he's pushing 80 at least."

As we more or less expected, after he was introduced, Dr. Hackleberry launched into an arcane explanation of property values and acquisition procedures. He had a fairly strong voice for an older man; however, the speech was delivered in a kind of slumber inducing monotone. I noticed that David had shut his eyes, and I was just barely fighting off the urge to do the same.

All of a sudden Dr. Hackleberry raised his voice, and said, "I won't bore you boys with anymore financial details regarding how we established this camp. Now we get to the fun stuff!"

David opened his eyes, and it seemed some of the other semi-somnolent boys became noticeably more attentive. Dr. Hackleberry, with an obvious smile on his face, declared, "I know you boys probably won't believe this, but for the first twelve years of this camp's existence, until 1967, all campers swam naked right here in this lake that's a just few feet away from us now!" He continued, "That's right, you heard me, naked during the week. Swimsuits were only worn on Saturdays and Sundays when families would be present visiting or dropping off their sons. During the week camp management saw no need for the campers to wear anything in the lake since only Scouts and adult male leaders would presumably be present. That was the thinking at the time. That group nudity among guys was no big deal and nothing a kid should worry about."

We all sat there unbelievingly. To our generation, the idea of all male nude swimming in a camp lake was preposterous. Bad enough that our Scoutmaster herded us down to the camp shower room in our bathing suits and then made us strip off to shower once per week. That was uncomfortable and somewhat embarrassing, but at least that was generally in groups of only 5 or 6 guys who were in our own troop's campsite.

Dr. Hackleberry continued, "Now the problem was that during the week there was nothing to prevent some Scout's mother from driving up to camp to check on her son. We had more than a few instances over the years of Moms entering the campsites looking for their son, who might have then been on his swimming hour. Some of them would just brazenly walk down to the lake and see the boys swimming naked. Worse still, at that time we had an open shower block right by the dock. We required the boys to shower off after their swimming time was completed. I can recall situations where a mother accompanied by her daughters and perhaps a female friend, just walked right up to the shower block to find her 13- or 14-year-old-son stark naked under the shower. You boys can surely imagine how mortified that unfortunate naked teenage boy would be. He would suddenly find himself fully exposed to his Mom, sister(s) and possibly the sister's female best friend who just tagged along for the day. Not to mention the shame of perhaps some of his buddies who were also standing there naked or even just emerging from the water just completely bare."

As Dr, Hackleberry went on to detail various guys seen stark naked at the lake by an unexpected maternal weekday visit, we all listened in amazed attention. The more he described the nude embarrassments in front of various visiting female family members, the more animated he became. Certainly, this was no longer the boring historical lecture we had been expecting to sit through.

Our speaker continued, "Sometimes one of the adult leaders would intercept a Mom at the campsite before she reached the lake. We'd explain that the boys were swimming naked down there. Could she just wait here in the campsite until her son returned from is swimming hour?" This request was usually met by the predominate double standard of the time. That widespread conception was it didn't matter if boys were seen naked by females, they had no real need for such misguided modesty. Back then it was a common belief that females of any age were simply uninterested and/or unconcerned nor affected by any male nudity. This attitude was even more prevalent if it was a female family member or even friend seeing a naked guy under the age of well, say 20."

"As the years went by these really unauthorized weekday visits seemed to become a more frequent problem. Especially some of our older Scouts, say 15–17-year-olds began to loudly complain about these naked embarrassments they and their buddies had endured, " the Doctor explained. "Even some JASMs [Junior Assistant Scoutmaster] who were often 18-20-years-old had sometimes been seen naked by perhaps one or two of one of the younger boy's Mom or sister. Imagine how awful that must have been for a young man that age. I began to be concerned that recruitment for our camp might suffer as word got around the various troops about this situation. That he risked being seen naked by female family members and friends was potentially a deal-breaker for many teen guys smack in the middle of puberty."

Dr. Hackleberry concluded his address by stating, "In early 1967 we hired a new Camp Director to replace our previous man who had resigned. We had a meeting and decided that beginning in the 1967 camp summer season, all boys would now be required to wear swimsuits 7 days per week while at the waterfront. And it's been that way ever since. I do hope you Scouts have enjoyed my lecture on the history of this renowned Boy Scout Camp which you are enjoying this week. I wish you all well and God Bless."

The campfire was then concluded by a song and some unrelated agenda announcements. As we walked back to our campsite holding our Scout flashlights, David turned to me and said, "I wonder what it would be like to swim naked in that lake? Hey Nick, maybe we should sneak down there some night after dark and try it..." And David would have done it, no doubt.

[TeenFan]

I was in scouting during my teen years, and stayed in to reach the Eagle Scout Rank.
I did a year as the Junior Assistant Scoutmaster my senior year of high school.
After three years in the army, I went back to scouting as an Assistant Scoutmaster. My younger brother was then in the troop.

After my brother stopped doing scouting, one of the things that got me to discontinue with the program is...moms.

With fewer and fewer boys having dads at home, scouting was having a dad shortage. Not enough dads to drive the kids to camping trips.
Moms began to be part of the weekend camping experience. This was in the early 90s.

It changed things so much, the boys having to always be on their best and modest behavior. It was harder for kids to have fun, to be
free with how they acted with each other. The dads kept order of course, but now there is a mom hanging around. Not an improvement
in my opinion.

Now this does set up some nice ENM embarrassment situations similar to what was just described in Nick Twisp's story.
I might write something up someday.

[NickTwisp]

Wow...you were an Eagle Scout; that's a very honored status. I stayed in until just before my 15th birthday and my rank was Life Scout. We had the same situation and if a Mom stayed over on a camping weekend it did change things a bit. Keep the tent flaps closed while changing and couldn't just pee anywhere.