(This was the original Foreword to my memoir Running Around Naked. It didn’t make it to the final edit and now, with Cindy, Bill and Ruth gone, it is just a lovely memory of our time together.)
2018
“I don’t think it’s gonna work.”
My husband, Tom, is fiddling with a dusty old VCR that he’s pulled out of somewhere. He has the video in, but the screen remains dark.
“Wait a minute…” I say, holding up a hand “I think I hear the music.”
Yes, I do!
I jump up from the couch and skip in slow motion, arms rising up and down to the dramatic music from the blank screen. My Dirty Martini is having its desired effect. My sister, Cindy, sings along with me, with exaggerated emotion from the couch.
“When you feel the wind
Against your skin
It’s all barely proper
bare-ly proper…
bare-ly proper…”
What should be displayed during this song is my sister’s sixteen-year-old nude form running in slow motion through the woods, her lovely breasts and wavy blonde hair bouncing up and down. Instead, you see me at fifty six, making fun and laughing. Cindy laughs too, but stays on the couch. We haven’t heard this song in over forty years.
Her husband Bill sits beside her smiling. He saw this movie, at an actual theatre, years before meeting her, with his friends and previous wife. It had to be fate. Barely Proper was not a big hit.
I am in the movie also, and although the four year difference is hardly noticed today, it is most evident in the movie. I am very much a child.
Mom had given me this video, made from the original reel to reel, about a decade ago. None of us had the time or desire to watch it — until now.
It all started with visiting our moms and my step-dad for lunch. They all reside in the same assisted living community. Mom and Dave married ten years ago, not too long after the camp was sold and Dad passed away. She has, like the rest of us, attempted to conform but says she can’t stand wearing a swimsuit in the pool (so tight and clammy against her skin) and absolutely refuses to wear a bra. At eighty-five, she should be able to wear (or not wear) whatever she pleases.
This afternoon’s lunch talk turned to our earlier years, mainly because I am writing my memoir.
“Are you sure Ruth knows about the camp?” Mom asked me.
Tom’s mother, Ruth, is a conservative and fashionable ninety-one year old. Mom is still not sure who knows our family skeletons. I’ve only answered this particular question a dozen times. Now, I’m not so sure myself.
“I think so.”
Mom immediately leans over to Ruth and whispers. “I have some pictures you’ll enjoy. I’ll bring them over later”.
Mom!
Yep, that’s Mom for you. Still promoting the cause. We cross the line of Ruth definitely knowing. The conversation becomes more lively after that. When our film Barely Proper comes up, I mention that I still have a VHS copy in my memory box. Tom is surprised I never brought this up. Of course, he knows my history, but I have always tried to keep it low profile. But with my memoir coming out, my life will literally become an open book. I better get used to it.
Later that evening we decide to have a movie night — without the moms — which brings us back to the non-functioning VCR.
Being nearly obsolete, the only other VCR we own is in the master stateroom of our Sports Yacht, docked right behind our Ft Lauderdale condo. We happen to have friends visiting (and believe it or not, they’re very interested in seeing this movie). We invite Cindy and Bill to join us.
So now, the six of us sprawl out on the stateroom queen, ready for the show, drinks in hand. The movie starts off, dark and grainy, so B grade. Even though the plot revolves around my young character, I never liked it. Too much drama...but about halfway into it, the original play Barely Proper is shown and that, on the other hand, is funny and smart. We know the play well as it was performed every weekend at our camp for four years. When the play begins, Cindy and I yell out every line, complete with English and German accents. Watching with us is like attending the Rocky Horror Picture Show, where the audience yell and throw popcorn at the screen.
Our lives have changed so much from the naked years of our youth, but watching Barely Proper makes it all rush back.
What a lovely memory. We all have a past and a present and what we present today is not always who and what we were or even secretly still are.
A year or so ago when visiting my godmother in WI. my husband was flirty with her which he has been for number years and she didn't hide the fact that she enjoyed the banter. She knew we are nudists and T had kidded her about coming to visit us in Okla. and going to the nude resort with us. She always replied; "your 20 years too late in asking me". Of course age is a non factor at the resorts and we assured her so. T asked her on that visit if she had any nude photos and she replied; "yes she does and that she would share them some day". We told her if she did we too would share some of ours with her and her husband.
Sadly in Nov. she passed from complications of severe diabetes. Plus I have had to put her husband in a memory care facility and now have a POA over their medical and financials.
I'm glad we have those memories.
We both loved you sharing yours of lovely times many could but would not share that.
Ms. K
Thank you for posting the memory, which would indeed have been a lovely forward to your memoir. It's unfortunate the movie you folks made of Barely Proper isn't available; I loved reading the play.