The Summer Grampa and I became Naked Smurfs!

The Summer of 1979 was one that would turn out to be One of My Most Cherished Ever!

It also would have The Day My Grampa and I Became Naked Smurfs!

This morning, I was happily reminded of a time long ago when My Grampa and I became Naked Smurfs, and subsequently, Skinny-Dipping Smurfs. (It was The One and ONLY time My Grampa happily got naked that I know of!) Yes, I am fully aware that The proper way to spell it is ‘Grandpa’… But He was My Grampa! J

I Cherish This One Day with My Grampa more than any other. I had many wonderful times with my Grampa, and many wonderful memories, But This is THE ONE, and Only time I can claim that we Were Both Happy, Naked, … and Blue, like Smurfs! It is the ONE and ONLY time it was not a bad thing when those around Me actually mentioned, and pointed at my penis.

Awww, wasn't I a cute kid at age 11? :)

I was 11 at the time, so this would have been the summer of 1979. Yup! We were naked, Blue, and didn’t have a care in the world!

What, you might ask, reminded me of this wonderful time so long ago? As I was doing my laundry this morning, I walked past the pool in my apartment complex. The maintenance guys were painting the fence, using brushes and rollers. The paint is a blue-green color. They were discussing how much faster it would be if they could paint the fence using spray. One of the things they mentioned was that all the spray would end up in the pool. This made me smile, and took me back to that wonderful day when I managed to make my Grampa’s pool a funny color of blue!

As a child, It was not uncommon for my sister and me to spend a week at our Grandparents’ house during the summer. It also was not uncommon to have some of our friends stay there with us. I always enjoyed whatever time I got to spend there. I had friends in the neighborhood, and it was The Most Comfortable, Safe environment in my entire childhood. Until the age of ten, we only lived a few miles from them, and we would still consider it a great “vacation” when we got to stay overnight, or for a whole week. But just after I turned ten, we moved an hour-and-a-half away from them, so the visits became less-frequent.

Grandma and Grandpa always had plenty for us to keep busy with while we were there. Sometimes they came up with creative lists of things that would not only be productive, but also would be fun, adventurous, and sometimes considered “work”. Most of the time, any project, chore, or “work” they created was enthusiastically welcomed by us. They let us create our own schedule, and decide what, if any, of these lists we would accomplish. (But most of the time, we eagerly took on any of the challenges they came up with.) Also, there was endless swimming, sunning, pool (as in billiards), barbeques, a fire-pit, garden, immense landscaping, trees to climb, fences to peek through at the neighbors, neighbors’ yards to play in, and kids to share the fun with, assorted games, books, and endless ways to entertain ourselves.

The planes that flew low and slow over Grampa n Gramma's yard.

They lived in Campbell, California. From their back yard, we often got to see all the big Navy Planes flying into Moffett Field. These planes were the big, four-prop slow-and-low-flying grey/ silver planes. They were a sight to see, and watch! (And the sound was a sound I will always treasure!) The planes flew so low, and so slow, we imagined the people onboard got quite an eyeful, and abundant entertainment with what happened in Gramma and Grampa's back yard! We knew since we could easily read the numbers on each plane, they could easily see what we were doing on the ground. One thing was for sure: We Never got bored at Gramma and Grampa’s house! Grampa was an engineer, and had one of the most wonderful work-shops I had ever encountered. (That is another story all by itself.) Grampa also had a bar in the rec-room, a mysterious, yet welcoming pool-shed, and a Car-port/ Boat-port in the back yard filled with wonderful old treasures, mysteries, and random junk.

Gramma was a wonderful person to learn from in the kitchen, the garden, and even in her sewing room. They owned several rental properties, and often we would help with assorted maintenance, or just some of the landscaping. Now, don’t assume they used us as free-labor. They Always paid us for any “work” we helped them with. Whether it was washing the cars, hosing off the roof, or even the things we looked at as fun… They knew we were helping them with these things, and my sister and I always enjoyed “being put to work” by Gramma and Grampa. We learned early on about the joy of getting paid for doing the job right, and how to have fun while earning some extra cash for the amusement parks Grandma would ultimately take us to later in the visit.

Did I mention we were also allowed to be naked as much as we wanted? At home, Mom had funny rules about naked. (We got to be naked plenty at home, but we did not have as much naked freedom.) But at Gramma’s house, we could be naked as (almost) as much as we desired. Gramma was often naked, but Grampa would only be naked when he was showering, or changing clothes.







(I go into great detail about the freedom of nakedness at Gramma’s house in many previous blog posts.) You can see those here: http://enterwithanopenmindorclosedeyes.blogspot.com/2011/09/joys-of-naked-as-child-then-lost.html

And Here: http://enterwithanopenmindorclosedeyes.blogspot.com/2011/09/surprise-your-family-moved-out-of-state.html

But the fact that we could be free, without any shame, and without anybody making it into something weird was a freedom I treasured! At Gramma’s house, nobody picked on me, or cared what my body looked like. Anybody who came there knew they were welcome in whatever level of comfort suited them best. They also knew that they would see others in whatever level of comfort fit each individual. Every person was welcome. Every age, gender, ethnicity was welcome. If somebody was not comfortable being naked, they did not have to be. Likewise, if there happened to be someone who was not so sure they wanted to see others naked, we would put some clothes on, to help them be comfortable. But most times, those who were not inclined to be naked would allow those who wished to be naked to freely do so. There, of course were those who would never be around anybody who was naked, and those people seldom spent time here. Those who were accepting of others would happily be here, and nobody ever had to worry about it.

Grandma and Grandpa’s back yard was hardly private. It was fairly secluded from the street, but it was fully visible to the neighbors, and also from the windows of the house, too. Some of the neighbors had two-story houses, which easily looked into the yard. Also, the fences were slatted, and not so much intended for complete privacy, but more to just separate the yards.  But it did not matter. This was a neighborhood where nobody got worked-up over what the human body might look like. It was not uncommon for a meter-reader, mail-person, or parcel delivery person to see someone naked in this neighborhood. Nobody locked their gates, and everyone was welcome to come into neighbor’s yards, be friendly, share a sunny spot, spend time in a garden. It was friendly, comfortable, and relaxed. There were times, of course, that the house and yard were transformed into highly-elite country-club type events. If we happened to be there when these occurred, we were still allowed naked freedom, but we just didn’t have full freedom to go wherever we wanted. Any guest at their house knew they would likely see a naked body through a window into the yard, or if they came into the section of house we were in, separate from the event. We knew how to be free, without causing alarm, or disrupting the event.

While naked was not uncommon, there were also two categories of people who were not included in the naked group:

The first is those who did not have a problem with seeing, or being around others who were naked, but for whatever reasons, they just never were naked themselves. These were the ones that did not freak out when they saw a naked person. Nor, did they freak out if another saw them naked. These would often change clothes, or be seen in a shower, leaving a shower and going to a room to get clothes, in a mixed-group setting, but just would not hang-out without clothes. Occasionally, this type of person would change into, or out of swimwear right next to the pool, and never worry if they were seen. They simply just did not want to hang out without clothes. These people were safe, comfortable, trusted, and never a problem.

The second is those who would never be around naked people if they could possibly avoid it. Those people always fled as fast as possible (But would always leer, or stare as they were leaving). When they did see a naked person, they would stare at the naked parts, instead of seeing a human being as a normal everyday occurrence. Those who fit this group would never be seen changing clothes, showering, getting out of a shower, or in any way ever allow themselves to see another doing the same. These people always gave me the creeps. A Creepy person cannot simply glance at another while naked. They always leer, stare, and get real nervous. These people seemed to look at naked as sexual, dirty, and forbidden. These same people also seemed to have something to hide, and often acted like they had hurt others in a naked way.  Even before finding out how they behaved around naked people, I always felt they were not to be trusted, and kept my distance.  I never would spend time naked around this type of person. This group was uncomfortable, not trusted, and gave everyone the creeps. Fortunately, this group of people would flee, instead of making the rest of us uncomfortable.

(At this age, I had not yet learned how bad these people were toward naked people, or what they did when they could get them naked. I Only knew that they were creepy, and should not be trusted. It would be another year, before I really learned about what this type of person actually did to others when they saw them naked, or could force them to be naked, and then harm them.) (fortunately, up until this age, I had never been touched inappropriately, or ever experienced any of the 'bad' things that people will do to a kid when they are naked.... That would come in the next year...)

While Grandpa was not fond of hanging out naked, he definitely fit into the first group. He fit well into the “safe, comfortable, and trusted” group. Anybody could be naked around him, and he never had a problem with it, nor did he ever make anybody uncomfortable. He never hid his naked body, but would choose to always wear at least swim trunks. He never hid while showering, coming or going from the shower, or even while changing clothes. He never did anything to anybody who was naked that would be considered unsafe, weird, or at all creepy. Nobody ever pressured him to join those who were naked. They accepted him for who he was, and he accepted them.

I mentioned early in this writing about my Mom having funny rules about naked. She was definitely in the “safe, trusted, and comfortable” category. I seldom have mentioned my Dad in the naked writings, or even his view on the subject. That is because he really did not care one way or another. So, he was definitely in the safe, trusted, and comfortable category. (This writing is about Grandma and Grandpa’s house, but I wanted to be sure that it was clear which group Mom and Dad fit into.)

Now, after all this, you are probably wondering how, and why the “Naked Smurfs” came about…

Well, during that summer 33 years ago, My Sister and I were staying at Grandma and Grandpa’s house for a week. One of the projects Grandpa had come up with was to finally clean out the boat-port in the back yard. The boat port had long before become a junk-collection. It had been decades since they had a boat, and it now served as a “garage” … but without any walls. On the concrete was a full-sized shuffle-board court. Above the shuffle board court was a ping pong table. Both of these had become so buried in years worth of treasures, leaves, pine needles, and an amazing amount of other things that tend to accumulate in a semi-outdoor place. We set to work moving all the piles of old junk, firewood, and miscellaneous what-evers that piled for years on top of, around, and under the ping pong table.

There had been a few times when we remembered playing shuffle board, and ping pong out here, but those years had long past. We were excited at the possibility of finally being able to utilize this fun space again. Grandma, Grandpa, Jodi, assorted friends, neighbors, and I all set to work tackling this project. Grandma asked one of her renters if he would haul the junk to the dump when we had piled it all up. He was more than eager to come and help. He parked his truck in the opening of the big gate, so we could just load it up as we went. He had other things he needed to do, so he did not stay, but left his truck. (He was the type of person who would not hang out at Gramma n Grampa’s house much. He was nice, and friendly, just not comfortable here. He was not comfortable seeing anybody naked, although he never made a big deal out of it, or acted weird, he just did not care to hang out where naked people did.) Of course, this opened-up the front fence to make it even more visible than usual from the street. The neighbors on each side also knew this was going-on, and were often coming and going to visit anyhow, but now those who were not on the sides also could see what we were doing, so it attracted even more neighbors.  Jodi and I both had many friends here, so when we visited, we often would have them come and stay with us, too. (I do not mention their names, because I am not so sure they would want it published. I mention these friends many times in my writings about our childhood, but am always careful to let them remain nameless. I mention my sister’s name, simply because everyone knows who my sister is, and it is impossible to keep her anonymous.) They enjoyed the adventures, fun, and freedom, too.

Many times at Gramma and Grampa’s house, in the summer, we would just stay in our swimsuits all day. Sometimes we would just go naked. It never really mattered who was there. Our friends definitely fit into the comfortable category. Many would join us, and some would not, but they never had a problem with it. But, this time, since we were digging into some rather rough things, and picking things up, moving things around, and stacking stuff, loading a truck with junk, and getting into who knew what, we were wearing pants shoes and shirts, too. It did not take long before we were all hot, dirty hungry and tired. Grampa suggested we all just jump in the pool, clothes and all, to cool off. This floored all of us, because Grampa was a stickler about keeping his pool clean, and in perfect condition.

This is a fun image I found online which represents

the fun that can be had when hosing each other off. :)
(The link I had for the original location of this photo is now not
working, so I removed it. ...If this photo is yours and you want
it linked, or credited, let me know! :) )

The rule was that if we were dirty, we had to hose ourselves off while standing on the lawn before we could get into the pool. (That in itself was always a funny event, too!... Imagine the hilarity when people clothed, or naked hosed each other off with a cold garden hose!) 

Well, after a minute of him trying to convince us it was alright, he was the first to jump in… Fully Clothed!! The ring of dirt that spread across the surface just made us all stare and see if he was suddenly going to change his mind. He didn’t. He encouraged the rest of us to join him. We all did. Yup, fully clothed! We cooled ourselves off, cleaned our clothes, and had fun while doing it. Gramma was the first to climb out. She stripped off her wet clothes, then spread them on the concrete to dry in the sun. She went inside to make some lunch. The first time any of our friends saw Gramma naked they would look a bit shocked, but after they realized it was no big deal, they never glanced twice. (It was not that they had never seen naked people, it was more of a shock to see an old woman naked, but once they saw, and noticed Gramma never was ashamed of her aged body, there would be no more shock.)This day, nobody looked twice. Grampa got out, took off everything but his underwear, laid all the clothes on the concrete and went inside. (This was just about the same as naked, since tighty-whity underwear does not conceal anything when it is wet.) The rest of us got out and stripped, too. We laid our clothes on the concrete, too. When Grampa came back outside, he had put on his swim trunks, and brought his wet underwear to dry.  All of us kids were lying naked in the sun, and the neighbors were sitting on the patio chairs in the shade, but opted to wrap towels around their naked bodies. There were wet kids, clothes and shoes lying all over the sunny concrete. Grampa went to work with the skimmer net to clean up the pool. Gramma came out with sandwiches for everyone, now wearing a swimsuit-cover, but without a swimsuit.

By the time we finished eating, our clothes were mostly dry (the shoes were still wet), so we all got dressed again, and wore squishy shoes, to tackle the project. We all worked until late in the afternoon, and made a ton of progress. We all jumped into the pool again, and this time when we got out, most of the neighbors headed for home in their wet clothes, and Grampa went inside still wearing everything. (Gramma jokingly teased him about wearing his wet clothes into the house.) The one neighbor girl, who was two years  older than me stayed. She was one I happily shared time with when I was at Gramma n Grampa’s house. Gramma and all of us kids stripped outside.

Gramma had us put our clothes into a laundry basket. She insisted on washing them, even though we would just get them filthy again the next day. My Sister, and her friend decided to go get other clothes on, and stayed inside after they got dressed. The neighbor girl, my friend and I stayed naked. Grampa came outside wearing swim trunks again, and started the barbeque for dinner.  Gramma always put clothes on for dinner. She dressed, went and started laundry, then went to the kitchen to get the food ready for the barbeque.

We had made lots of progress in the boat port. The surface of the ping pong table was now fully cleared off. My friend, the neighbor girl, and I were looking at all the detail in this old table, and wondering what it would take to refurbish it to make it beautiful again. This old ping pong table was a solid, sturdy table! It was not at all like the fold-up ones you see in most places. This one had strong steel legs, and solid wooden construction for the table top. Nothing folded, or hinged. It was built in two sections, for ease of movement. (The sections met at the net.)

The friend I had over could not stay the night this time, and we knew his family would be there soon to pick him up. But before they did, we got out the old ping pong supplies, swept off the table and played some games.  We noticed how the wooden table had warped, peeled, and splintered in the neglected storage. We talked about how we could do some work to make it smooth again. All three of us were completely comfortable, in a safe place, and did not care that we were fully visible to all who passed by the open gate.

While the barbeque was cooking, Grampa came to join us. He played some games on the uneven table with us, and we discussed what it would take to make it smooth and properly finished again. We discussed how much time it would take, and decided we would get a good start on it this week, but knew we likely would not complete it. We agreed it was worth the effort, and would be fun. The neighbor girl liked the idea, too, but was not enthusiastic about the sanding process. We made plans to visit the hardware store the next morning so we could get the supplies we needed. She asked if she could come along, too. Of course, Grampa always said yes!

When my friend’s family showed up, they just came in through the side gate. They were not at all surprised to see us playing naked. (They said they could see us before they even parked the car.)They were quite comfortable with naked life. They, of course knew Grandpa and Grandma, and even knew the neighbors well, and comfortably just walked through the yard, and into the house any time they came over. The family had spent time here before, and welcomed the freedom of us to be clothes-free if we chose. (I always found it interesting that his parents were comfortably naked at home, but if other adults came over, they always got dressed. They allowed their kids to be freely naked here, but they never took off their clothes here.) His little sister knew that when she came here, she could always go swimming naked. (At their home, skinnydipping was not allowed, since it was a common-area pool in a courtyard of condos.)

:)

Even before their parents had gone inside to see Grandma, his little sister was stripping off her clothes and asking Grampa if she could jump into the pool before they had to leave. He, was chuckling at her eagerness, and of course said she could. (We always figured it was good that he said yes, because if he ever told her no, it would be too late, since she was usually stripping and jumping off the diving board as she asked!)  He had an older brother, who came along also. He often would be naked at home, and occasionally, here, too… but never when the neighbor girl was here. She did not mind if he saw her naked, but he was nervous around her, so kept his clothes on. (But he never knew that she would watch through the fence when he thought she was not around, so she had seen him naked many times, but none of us ever told him.) After a few minutes of visiting, it was time for them to go home. My friend and his little sister reluctantly put their clothes on so they could go.

Shortly after they left, we sat down to eat dinner. We ate on the patio, which meant the neighbor girl and I could still stay naked. (If we ate at the dining room table, we had to at least wear something, plus a shirt…. It could still be a swimsuit, but no bare bottoms, or bare torsos could be at Gramma’s dining room table. If we ate in the Rec  Room, at The Breakfast Bar, or at Grampa’s Bar, we could be naked, too, just not in the Dining Room.) Sometimes the fun of eating naked at the patio table was the fact that the chairs left a funny criss-cross pattern on our behinds! The neighbor girl and I were the only one without clothes, but nobody cared. They pretty much expected us to be naked.

While we ate dinner, Grampa told Gramma about our idea to refinish the ping pong table. Gramma loved the idea. Jodi and her friend were not too thrilled about that part of the project, but they agreed they would keep cleaning the boat port while Grampa and I worked on the table.

The next morning, before going to the hardware store, Grampa, the neighbor girl, and I cleaned all the dirt out of the pool, and it was sparkling again! We even scrubbed the ring around the tile at the water-line! (A chore we often used as an excuse to get naked and be in the pool!... since everyone knows it is much easier to scrub the tile without bending awkwardly over the pool-edge.) We headed to the store, and Gramma, some neighbors, Jodi and her friend started working on the cleaning-up.

When we returned from the store, Jodi and her friend had decided that was not what they wanted to do, so had gotten cleaned up, and Gramma was getting ready to drive them somewhere. They told us to have fun, and we told them the same. The neighbors had gone home, too. Gramma made it clear that they would not be home until dinnertime. No worries, this was normal in our lives. They could go have fun with what they were gonna do, and we would have fun with what we were going to do.

At the hardware store, Grampa purchased lots of sandpaper, special masks so we did not breathe the paint-dust, goggles to keep it out of our eyes, some special primer(which was tinted to help match the color of the finished table), and the special “Official Ping Pong Table Paint”. Grampa had plenty of power sanders for us to use! We were excited to get started! The neighbor girl was not interested in doing any of the sanding, but stayed for a while when we started. She always liked to hang out when I was here, and I loved having her here, too! (She had been in my life since birth, and was a comfortable, trusted friend.) She decided that being near us while we were sanding was not going to be fun, but did not want to go home, so she spent her time swimming and sunning.

We started the sanding project wearing all the clothes we had been wearing while cleaning. It did not take long before we realized that with the masks and goggles, too, it was just too hot. In no time we had changed into our swim trunks. (The clothes we changed out of were layered with a blue-green splattering of paint chips, dust, dirt, and unidentifiable debris and wood that we were sanding off the old table.) When we decided to go at it in just our swim trunks, we knew we would be filthy, itchy, and a total mess in no time. The neighbor girl giggled at the sight of us in swim trunks, masks and goggles. She also told us she was convinced we would be totally naked in no time. I did not doubt that, but Grampa insisted he would not. Of course, the neighbors had come back over to see how it was going, and the noise attracted anyone who was passing by out front.


The neighbor girl was still naked, but nobody cared. This was normal. None of the people stuck around long when they saw how fast they were going to get coated with the same debris.  The neighbor girl had to keep retreating further away from us, because the dust and debris kept getting on her, too. She finally decided to go back home.

So, we were sanding wearing our masks, goggles, and swim trunks. We were sweating a lot, too, so all the debris totally stuck to our skin. It did not take long before the itch of the debris in the elastic waistband of our swim trunks made it completely uncomfortable. We did not itch anywhere else, just where the waistband rubbed on the debris, and dust. I asked Grampa if I could strip completely. This gave him a good laugh, and he said “you’re going to have a blue penis!”  I thought about that for a second, then took off my shorts… then we both laughed at what we saw... I already had a blue penis! The shorts had not kept any of the dust from getting in there. The Only place I was not blue was under my mask, and under my goggles! He was laughing so hard, and then called me a Smurf! (Now, before anyone gets all uptight about the Smurfs reference… Yes, The Smurfs existed Long before the television cartoon came out. The Smurfs originated in a comic strip cartoon decades before the TV Smurfs came out in the ‘80’s. And One of the great joys I shared with My Grandpa was reading the daily comics, so we both knew exactly what he was referring to when he called me a Smurf.)

We thought this was entirely too funny! I wanted pictures of me as a Smurf, so he cleaned himself up a bit, and went to get his camera.

(And before anybody gets worked-up over him taking pictures of me while I was naked… Relax! There never was anything but simple nakedness. Back then, nobody got worked-up over such simple things in life. If ya saw a picture of somebody’s grandkid naked, it was considered normal, and nobody would have ever considered it a bad thing. Back then the photo labs would develop and print the pictures without a second-thought. I was a kid who loved to live life naked. My Grandpa happened to be a loving, wonderful Grandpa who never did anything weird, creepy, or wrong to a naked child. All of our friends, their parents, the neighbors, our parents, and anybody else who knew us, saw us, and was in our lives approved of our lifestyles. None of our activities were done in hiding, or in some manner that anybody could be ashamed of.)

(I removed the link for the source of this photo, because it now
will not open, Security hardware saying it has
Malicious hardware if opened.)

While he was inside getting his camera, I went back to the sanding. It was so funny, and priceless, he called some of the neighbors to come and see for themselves. My goggles kept getting completely clouded, too, so I stopped often to wipe them off. One of the times I stopped, I could hear a lot of people talking, laughing, and enjoying something from far enough away that they were not getting coated with the dust. I recognized many of the voices as neighbors. One of those voices was my friend from next door. She was laughing, and teasing me about how she was right about me getting naked soon! When I removed the goggles, I saw that the thing they were enjoying so much was me! There were many of the people I knew well from his neighborhood. There were people his age, and people my age… and people from every age in between. He was so happy to show everyone how much fun I was having, and they all wanted to be part of it, too! Of course, the fact that I was naked did not matter one bit.

https://www.deviantart.com/the-3dartist/art/Nude-Smurf-177698782

They had all been around me while I was naked plenty of times, and I had seen them all naked, too. Usually, nobody ever mentioned specific anatomy when naked. (And if they did, they would be considered unsafe, or weird, and I would not feel comfortable around them.) But this time, the mentioning, and focusing on the blue penis was quite acceptable. The neighbor girl and I were quite familiar with each other’s bodies, since we had grown-up together, and spent much time playing naked. While we had obviously done plenty of touching, and learning, as kids will do, we never made obvious remarks about the other person’s naked parts. We never embarrassed, or shamed the other. But this time, she had been the very first to mention my blue penis. I was totally okay with that. If anybody had the right to do so, it was her, and I actually welcomed it. Without trying, I managed to create a fun way to look at how the body looks completely different when it is completely covered in dust… Blue Dust, at that! Nobody, including myself had ever seen a real-live Smurf before! This made me smile, and feel really good! This was one of the things I always loved about Gramma and Grampa’s house! If anyone laughed here, it was always in a positive way, never in a bad way. Every one of My Grampa’s friends, and neighbors had known me my whole life. I trusted them. They understood how to make people comfortable, and relax. They knew about my insecurities, how I hated people to notice my scrawny body,and how much torment others gave me in unsafe places. These people knew how to make me feel GREAT! Grampa had been taking photos of me while I was working, stirring up a huge cloud of blue-green dust. He asked me if I’d come out of the cloud, for some more photos. I was happy to have my picture taken. We got some funny pictures of me, still in the mask and goggles, but fully blue head to toe. Then I took off the mask and goggles for more funny pictures. Grampa got fun shots of me in so many places around the yard. I made sure to get a bit of blue on each of the neighbors, too! Besides my neighbor girl friend, there were other neighbor girls, too. They were all my age, and teens. I knew them all, but not as well as the one next door. They wanted to have their picture taken with me. This, too was nothing new… except This time I was the only one naked, and Blue! My neighbor girl friend decided that I should not be the only one naked, so she got naked, too. The other girls just giggled at the sight of us taking pictures together… Me, a Naked Smurf, and her naked, but quickly getting blue all over herself! Only one neighbor boy ever came around when anyone was naked. He was the only boy in the neighborhood who was not weird about naked. This one happened to be her brother. (I always enjoyed the company of girls, and they always accepted me for who I was. Most boys never understood me, or some would just flat-out be creepy, and I hated being around most boys. The few I allowed in as friends were the ones who I trusted. The girls were never a problem to be around.) Grampa took more pictures as I pretended to be diving into the pool. (But there was no way I was gonna get all this in His Pool, so I just pretended.) He pointed out the layer of blue dust floating on top of the pool, and we watched as the current gently pulled it in a nice stream toward the skimmer. He pointed out that there was not a place in the yard that had not turned blue. (Even Gramma’s flowers and her garden were coated with blue dust!) We were really glad Gramma had closed all the doors and windows before she left, or the entire inside of the house would be blue, too! One of those big planes flew over, and he joked that the military could easily see my naked blue penis! We all thought that would make for great stories by the fly-boys when they landed!

After all the fun with the neighbors, Grampa told his friends that he was going to put his camera away, and join me in the sanding. Some of the neighbors teased him and asked if he would get naked, too. He laughed and told them “You know better than that. I do not run around naked.”

Grampa had cleaned himself off so he could take the pictures and not get any on his camera. He suggested we eat some lunch before starting sanding again. I stayed outside with the neighbor girl, while he went to get us something to eat. After we all ate, we both started sanding again.

She decided since she was already blue to stick around a while. She eventually got bored of watching us, jumped into the pool to clean off the blue dust, then went home. It did not take long before he was really itchy around the waistband. I told him I was not itchy. He insisted he would not take his shorts off out here. He looked around as he said that to see if anybody was still in the yard. No problem… I just kept sanding. We worked on the table all afternoon. I was The Happiest Smurf in the world! He was the itchiest Smurf in the world.  

Many times, when I stopped to clean my goggles, I noticed he would look at me and smile again. He commented many times about how comfortable, and happy I looked. One time I heard his sander turn off, and I could hear him talking in the open gate. I turned off my sander, and removed my goggles. He was talking with his mail lady. She was the same mail lady that had done this route for as long as I could remember. She knew me well, too, and never cared when she saw me naked. She, too, was quite excited about how fun this was, and how funny we both looked as Smurfs. Even she commented about the blue penis, and I was not at all humiliated about it. Then she asked Grampa why he was still wearing his shorts. He got a bit embarrassed, but told her she would not be so happy if she had come around the gate and saw him out here naked. Even though she was easily half his age, she gave him a look that only a mother, or grandmother can give. That look she gave him told him exactly how ridiculous that statement he made was. He understood the look, too! Then she rebuked him, and told him to stop being such an old grump! She reminded him how accepting this whole neighborhood is, and how nobody here would ever think twice about seeing someone simply enjoying life naked.  He got a look on his face that said he understood that, and that he admired her honesty. He told her how tempted he has been to remove his shorts all afternoon, and made it clear that he was not wanting to remove them to be naked, but only to be comfortable, and itch-free. She smiled, and told him he should be comfortable. Then she told us goodbye, and left.

Haha! Not exactly My Grampa,
But (or Butt!) it is the best I could find
as a safe picture of a naked blue man! :)

We went back to sanding again. The next time I removed my goggles for cleaning, I could see that Grampa was now without his shorts! This was The First (and ONLY) time I ever saw My Grampa purposely doing something naked! I did not want to let him know that I was surprised, but just as he found it so humorous when he saw me completely naked and with a blue penis, I saw the same humor and hilarity when I looked at him! I really tried to not let him know I had noticed, but it was almost impossible. He turned off his sander, took off his mask, and goggles, and with a huge grin, told me, “Don’t even think about trying to get any pictures of Me!” We had a good laugh about how we both looked. He then looked around again, and said, “And don’t even think about inviting your girlfriend over while I am naked!” (he liked to tease me and call her my girlfriend, which he knew totally embarrassed me!) I just grinned, put my goggles back on, and started sanding. He did the same. For a little while I noticed he kept looking out the gate, and also toward the neighbors’ homes to see if anybody was watching him out there naked, and blue. He was closer to the gate, and I was at the far end. From my vantage, I could see out the gate, and across to the neighbors’ without having to look around much. He had to make an effort to look behind him.

After a while, he seemed to forget that he was naked, and stopped looking. (As is usually the case when people finally get naked) But I could see many of them purposely peeking around the front of the house, and through the fences.

They seemed to really enjoy seeing Grampa naked and blue! (It was probably their first time, too!) I saw more neighbors going for a walk out front than I usually saw. And the funniest part was that they had all seen me the same way, and came to have their pictures taken with me, but it was different for them to see Him! Almost everybody in the neighborhood had walked by to see him after he stripped off! I could only imagine what it looked like from behind him, while he was bent over, and sanding the table with his blue butt, wiggling about! It gave me quite a chuckle. They all waved when they saw me look up, and never tried to hide… but not a single one of them dared come any closer! It was too funny!

We sanded for the entire afternoon. The table was completely sanded, completely smooth, and had no imperfections remaining in the surface. We were hot, tired, and exhausted… And BLUE! We were coated in layer upon layer of blue-green dust, and it was literally glued to us from all the sweat. We thought we were completely finished sanding, but knew we had to be sure. We knew we had to clean off the surfaces so we could see the table without any of the dust or debris. We got brooms and rags to clean the entire surface. We swept, and cleaned it all off, and were very satisfied at the work we had done. I found it funny that the neighbors only came by to look when we had the sanders going, and making plenty of noise. When it was quiet, not a single one dared come out to look!

We knew we still had a huge mess to clean up all around our work area, plus the entire yard. We still had on our masks, since we were still stirring up the dust. After looking at how much work it would take to clean the yard, we decided we had done enough for the day.

I saw Grandma’s car pull into the driveway, and knew they had seen Grandpa, and he was busted! He was moving something at the time, and had not seen or heard them pull in. I had gotten so used to everyone seeing me while I was Naked and Blue, I had completely forgotten that Grandma, Jodi, and her friend had not seen me yet!  Before they were even out of the car, they erupted with a roar of laughter, giggles, and guffaws. The laughter was Grampa’s first clue that they were home. He did a half-panic, half-try to hide move, and found himself wedged between the table and a roof support pole. He was too late, and bumbled his own escape! Gramma, Jodi, and her friend were already inside the gate, and just filled with joy, laughter, surprise, and slight disbelief. That was when I realized they were surprised equally by my appearance as they were Grampa’s.  That actually caught Me off-guard, because I was not used to people being surprised when I was naked. Gramma, Jodi and her friend were not at all mean, or even harmful in any way. I could not recall a time that gramma had laughed so heartily, and it was wonderful to see! Jodi and her friend were not quite sure what was appropriate to say to Grampa, or even if looking at him in this comical way was OK. But they had absolutely no problem looking at every detail of my blue body!

After a couple of minutes, Grampa finally regained his composure, and asked, with a slight grin, “Haven’t you ever seen real-live Smurfs before?” They loved that, and then we all relaxed. Everyone was still grinning, and loving every minute of it. They all said how if they had known this would happen, they would have stayed and joined the fun! Grampa was still not quite sure what to do when naked, but he handled it well. One of those big military planes flew over nice and low n slow.. Of course we all looked up and watched it go gracefully on by. Then I siezed the opportunity to tell him that those military boys could see his naked blue penis! We all howled with laughter! He knew how safe this really was, and that nobody was gonna say, or do anything mean. He was his usual fun, comfortable self… Just Naked and Blue!

Of course, they all asked hundreds of questions, and wanted to know all the details of the day. Of course, none of us could stop grinning, giggling, or even looking and laughing again at the blue penises. Seeing naked people was nothing new for any of us, but seeing naked Smurfs… with Blue Penises was just too hilarious for all of us!

Keep in mind, I was 11, Jodi and her friend were 10, so all this was just totally plain funny. So, here was a scrawny kid, and a not-so-scrawny Grampa as real-live Naked Smurfs! Grampa was a gentleman, and never referred to any naked part in any inappropriate way. He was just simply naked… and Blue! Gramma was just like a little girl, seeing a naked boy. This was the one and only time that I recall that actually pointing out someone’s penis while they were naked was actually appropriate, and even welcomed. I can guarantee that if he was not Blue, Grampa would have put his trunks on, and nobody would have mentioned he even had a penis! The same goes for me… if I was not blue, nobody would have even noticed, or mentioned that they noticed I had a penis.  But it was OK. Everyone was happy, comfortable, and finding naked Smurfs in the yard was the absolute best thing for everyone!

Then, the neighbor girl re-appeared on the patio around the side of the house. She had come through the house, as she usually did. She stayed behind the bushes on that patio, where Grampa did not see her, and she gestured for me to come over there. I went where she was, and I was surprised that she was not alone. She had brought several of her friends with her.  I knew all of these girls, too, and they were safe, but never had any of them come over to Gramma’s with her. I always saw them out front, or when I was at her house. They had seen me naked before, and knew she loved to be naked, too, so there were no worries there. She told me she had called them to tell them how much fun it was to see me as a Naked Smurf, and they all wanted to come see, too. They did not want to freak Grampa out, and had watched for the right time to come over. When they saw Gramma come home, they knew he would be distracted, and came into this side of the yard. They all were trying really hard not to giggle out loud because they did not want Grampa to know they were here, but that was almost impossible! So, I hollered at Grampa and asked if it was okay if the neighbor girl was here. He said, “She has likely been watching through the fence anyhow, so she can stay.” At this she giggled again. Grampa was still distracted by his own nakedness, and Gramma, Jodi, and her friend, so he did not pay much attention to what was going on over here.  The girls decided to sit on the benches in that part of the yard, and try to be quiet. I went back to Grampa, Gramma, Jodi, and her friend.

As we talked and laughed, we walked around the yard, looking at all the mess. Gramma was a bit concerned about her garden, and flowers, but I showed her how easily it came off with a little blowing on it. Every step we took, we could see foot prints in the blue dust. The pool was no longer clean, and you could not see the bottom with all the dust that settled into the water. The entire back of the house had a coating of blue dust on it. The windows were covered in blue dust. There was not a surface in the entire back yard that was not blue.  We all decided that we had done enough for today, so we would save the clean-up for tomorrow. Gramma suggested we go out for pizza for dinner. (Yay, that meant Straw Hat Pizza!) We all agreed. Either Grampa really never noticed the girls on the side patio, or he was noble enough to pretend they were not there. (And the girls were doing their darndest to peek through the bushes at the two Naked Smurfs, and not doing a great job at keeping the giggles quiet.)

But before we could go out to eat, we needed to clean up. Gramma asked how we planned to clean ourselves off, cuz she sure was not gonna let us inside looking like that!

Without missing a beat, Grampa and I both looked at each other, grinned hugely, and said “Watch!” Then as we turned to jump into the pool, the giggles and laughter started again. But this time, the laughter was from across the fence, and in the open gate! We were already airborn, leaping into the pool when we realized all the neighbors had come back again after Gramma got home! They figured as long as Gramma, and the girls were here, and the group of girls was here, too, and Grampa was not freaking out, they could come over and join us.

When we hit the water, all the layers of blue on our bodies erupted like an explosion! From under the water, it looked like we were in the middle of a Blue-Smoke-Bomb! I came to the top before Grampa. The pool had turned almost solid blue-green, and the water was not at all transparent! All the neighbors were in the yard. Gramma was laughing as hard as they were. Grampa took his time coming to the surface. He knew as he went into the water that he was naked for all to see. When he finally surfaced, they all cheered and applauded! He still did not know that they had all been watching him all afternoon! He thought this was the first they had seen him. He was not sure how to proceed. I used the water to scrub as much of the blue off my body as possible. Grampa just went to the edge, and looked up bewildered at all the attention. He looked more surprised by the group of neighbors, than he did about the group of girls, so my guess is he knew they were all there, and since they behaved, and did not actually get close to him, he could feel comfortable.

I told him they had all been watching him all afternoon without him noticing. Gramma let out a howling laugh. He got a grin on his face, and called them some adult-words, to which all the adults laughed. The young ones, and us kids did not laugh. Then he realized that he had just cussed in front of the young girls  and his Grandkids, too! He quickly apologized for swearing in front of the kids. Everyone told him it was ok under the circumstances. He tried to explain that he only took his swim trunks off because of the itchy waistband. They all assured him it was not a problem. Not only was it not a problem, they were all glad that he had done it! These were his friends, and neighbors. These were the same people he was so proud to have come share the joy of seeing Me as a Naked Smurf! They all assured him how much they admired him, and told him how wonderful it was to watch Him and Me so happy, so carefree, so filled with absolute shared enthusiasm over the Smurfing! As they all told him how wonderful it was, he realized they were just expressing the same exact feelings he had when they were watching me, before he was naked. He looked to each and every one of the people, and his smile just kept getting bigger, and more comfortable. He realized that he had seen each of these naked previously, and they had seen him naked, just not hanging out naked…. And especially not Blue! You could see him relaxing again, and starting to not care if he was naked.  I got out and was streaked with blue! There was no way I would get clean in that messy pool! Grampa finally cleaned off as much of his blue as was possible, then got out of the pool, still streaked with blue, too.

Now that we were mostly cleaned up, and not completely blue, nobody actually looked, or commented about any parts of our bodies. The young girls did shy glances , giggles, and grins like they always did anyhow, and that was totally acceptable, even normal. We all had a good time enjoying the fun, and just common neighborly friendliness. Some of the neighbors offered to come help in the morning. Gramma went and got a couple of towels for us to wipe our feet on inside the door, so we could go inside to shower, without tracking any blue dust in with us. After we each had showered, we went to pizza.

When we came home from pizza, we got out the hoses and hosed off all of the garden, and most of the plants around the yard. We saved the rest for the next morning.

The next morning, several of the neighbors came to join us in the project. My friend who had been here the first day was able to come over again for the day, and was disappointed that he was not part of the Naked Smurf event. All the dust in the pool had settled to the bottom, so Grampa and one of his neighbor friends easily vacuumed it up. (It took several hours, and they had to keep back-flushing the filter, but it cleaned up easily.)He wore his swim trunks, of course! The neighbor man often went naked, but since he was working with Grampa, and Grampa kept his shorts on, so did he. We could not scrub the pool-tiles around the edge, because to vacuum the pool, the cannot be movement in the water, or it will stir-up all the stuff that had settled, so the tiles were saved for another day.

This is not a photo of any of us ...
Although it easily could have been!
(The Blog this photo originally appeared in,
Is No Longer there, so I have removed
the link.)

While they were taking care of the pool, the rest of us got hoses and started hosing down the house, the windows, the patios, the furniture, and all the plants we had missed the night before.  I was naked~Duh! :) My friend also was naked. The mom from next door was naked. The brother and sister from next door also came to help. He was a year older than her, so three years older than me. He would only go naked if his sister was not around, but loved to be naked. You already know how much she loved to be naked.  Since he wanted to enjoy the naked freedom, and fun, he opted to be naked, just worked on the opposite side of the yard as she did. It was funny. She loved to torment him, too, so she always found ways to cross his path, and even get real close to him. This flustered him endlessly. He would run and grab his swim trunks every time she came near. Then when they were apart again, he would strip. I found it odd that he never cared if his mom, Jodi, or her friend were naked near him, only if his sister was. Gramma wore her gardening clothes.  Jodi and her friend would go from naked to swimsuits and back to naked again. (Often they liked to play naked, but not stay naked for long periods of time…. And the naked/ dressed/ naked/ dressed happened more frequently when my friend was over.) After we had hosed down everything, and the yard was clean again, we washed all the windows. We stopped for a swim and lunch again. Some of us went skinny dipping, but Grampa kept his swim trunks on. We all laughed. He scowled at us. It was clear we were supposed to forget he had been a Naked Smurf!  

After lunch, and resting in the sun, we were ready to tackle the rest of the boat port project. All the really bad stuff had been done two days ago, so none of us put on our full pants and long sleeves this time. The guy who loaned us his truck came to help also. He was not comfortable with working around us while we were naked, so we all wore our swim suits. That afternoon, we finished cleaning out the boat port. We got all the junk into the truck, and the guy drove it away to the dump. Grampa was eager to close the gate as soon as the truck was gone.

Haha!
This so easily could have been me as a kid! :) 

The neighbor girl, her mom, my friend and I each got naked again immediately. Her brother decided his sister was too close to him, so he went home. Jodi and her friend alternated from naked to clothed and back again. Then we moved the ping pong table out of the boat port, so we could completely clean the concrete floor. We swept and hosed it down until it was shiny and almost new again! The shuffle board court was glistening. That made us want to play some shuffle board! It had been years since we had done this!

We all played shuffle board for a while. We also swam, and continued the finishing clean-up on the boat port. After a while, we all agreed that we were done with the boat port. The adults went inside for some relaxing at Grampa’s bar. The neighbor girl, me, my friend, Jodi and her friend stayed outside and played, swam, and relaxed. Her friend had to go home that night, and when her family showed up, we all made sure we had our swimsuits on. They knew she enjoyed playing naked, and did not have a problem with it, but they just were not comfortable around naked people.

My friend got to spend the night this time. We set up “camp” in the back yard this time. Normally, the neighbor girl had to go home at bed time, but this night, her parents allowed her to stay and camp-out with us. Grampa let us build a fire in the fire pit, and we enjoyed a wonderful evening camping naked under the stars. We cooked hotdogs over the fire, we roasted marshmallows, we carved sticks, and had a fun, silly night under the stars. Normally, we turned on the pool light for night swimming, but this night we decided to turn off all the outdoor lights, and have a truly star-lit, and moon-lit campout. We went skinny dipping under the moon light many times, and then would hang out by the campfire again. Gramma and Grampa let us pretend we were camping without any adults around, and stayed inside. All of us kids were naked the entire time.  We did not actually set-up a tent, but just creatively hung some rope, and sheets to make ourselves a tent. We all put our air mattresses on the ground to sleep on, and once we were thoroughly exhausted, we all finally crawled into our ‘tent’ and slept. My gramma came out to wake us in the morning, and to tell us breakfast was almost ready. My Gramma also liked to tease me about “my girlfriend”. The neighbor girl and I both were endlessly embarrassed by this, and in the morning, Gramma saw another perfect opportunity for teasing. Inside our ‘tent’, Jodi was curled up under her own blanket. My friend was curled up under his own blanket, and I was curled up with the neighbor girl under the same blanket. Jodi had put some clothes on to sleep in. The rest of us were still completely naked. Gramma thought this was a perfect opportunity to tease us! To us, we were kids who enjoyed life naked. We also were very comfortable with each other’s bodies, and happy in each other’s company. We were well-aware about sexual stuff, because it was openly discussed, taught, and not made to be a shameful thing, but we were not at all interested in making such pure freedom and fun into anything more, and just the mention of anything along those lines mortified us endlessly. This gave Gramma endless amusement.

We all got up, took down the tent, and put out sleeping stuff away. Jodi was still the only one wearing clothes. We ate breakfast, then decided it was time to put the primer on the ping pong table. Grampa  had us put newspaper all around to catch the primer drips, got us set-up with brushes, and got us started, then left us alone.  He laughed at the fact that we were all naked, except Jodi. He warned us that if the primer got on us it would not come off easily. We took this as a challenge! Jodi went inside and put on grubby clothes from head to toe, but the rest of us stayed naked.  

The primer was a special formula meant for this kind of surface. It was an oil-base, plus it was tinted so it would help match the final paint of the table. Yup, you guessed it… The primer was tinted a blue-green. We managed to get the entire ping pong table primed, and we were quite impressed at how smooth we had gotten it. Grampa instilled in us the importance of making sure there were no runs, or puddles in the surface. Of course, in the process, we managed to pursue the ‘challenge’ Grampa had unwittingly put upon us. Now, you would probably guess that we only got some on us occasionally… Nope! We managed to focus on the quality of the table, Plus the quality of what got on our bodies!  Jodi was the only one wearing head-to toe clothes,and wanted no paint to get on her body.  She got some, but not much on her face and hands. The rest of us took great joy in seeing how creative we could get in the applying of paint to each others’ naked bodies. Yup! You guessed it. After what you know about how comfortable we were, and after the Smurf incident, we were  unashamedly gonna become artists! We determined (without discussing, or even agreeing to it) that there was nothing off limits. We already knew our boundaries (well, there really weren’t any, cuz we were friends, and comfortable with the naked body, and all its parts.) It would be safe to say that what we did with the primer on each other could be considered… ummm, shall we say, “Creative, artisitic, and slightly twisted”?

(If we were older, it likely would have been erotic, even sexual, but since we were still "just kids" not seeking actual sexual activity, it was considered innocent, harmless fun that kids do…. Ahh, the innocence of childhood! When touching is just plain touching, learning, understanding, harmless, and even innocent. Yes, our parents taught us about appropriate touching and inappropriate touching. They also encouraged healthy learning, acceptance, and differences. We all knew fully well that if another was not wanting the touching, it was not acceptable. We also all knew that this kind of play was encouraged, healthy, and helps people accept, understand and learn about the human body in a safe, comfortable environment. We never ‘groped one another’. The touching that was done was simply the touch you would give if you applied makeup to your friend’s face…. Except we were comfortable enough to apply it to other parts of our bodies. We also knew that this sort of thing is not shameful, nor to be hidden, nor to be done by someone who is older, or ever unwanted. We knew that if it was done, it was to be done without shame, and if we felt it needed to be hidden, that meant we were probably doing something that would be considered inappropriate.  We understood all about all that stuff. None of us was in any way doing anything that would be considered inappropriate for that time and the ages we were. … Keep in mind, we were kids who were also allowed to sleep naked together and it was simply that, because in a naked lifestyle, people can appreciate other humans without perverting it, or making it sexual. )

We did not just go at each other with wild, broad strokes of the brush. Nope, we certainly approached it from an artistic look. We did not set-out to just wildly cover each other in paint. Grampa had made it clear that it would not wash off, so we knew what we painted would stay for many days, barring the application of toxic chemicals to our bodies. But we also knew none of our parents, would inflict such chemicals on our skin, so we became artists with bodies and paint!  We were quite proud of what we painted, and how it was decorated.

We made sure that we were careful not to smudge the paint we each had on our bodies, so it would dry in the same design we had applied it. The ping pong table was under the boat port, so it was not in direct sunlight. We carefully sunned our painted parts so the primer could dry. Once we were done painting, and our painted parts were dry, I went to get Grampa for his inspection. He about fell over when he saw how my body was painted. He let out a few gasps, and then managed to holler for Gramma. When she came around the corner, she burst out laughing. Then, asked if “my girlfriend” was also painted. After I told her “all of us were, except Jodi”, she immediately called the girl’s parents to come over. She had me go back to the yard and wait. Grampa reluctantly came out, expecting we had botched-up the painting of the ping pong table since we focused on painting ourselves. But as he came to the table, his eyes showed that he was pleased with our work. After examining the table, he then turned to examine our artwork. He grinned hugely, then walked back inside. He came back out when the girl’s parents came over. He had his camera again. The girl’s parents were thrilled with what we had done! Grampa took photos of us, and our artwork on our bodies. (Keep in mind, he did this with the blessing of her parents, and they were there while he did it, too. It was not in any way perverted, or could it have been later deemed wrong.) We were thrilled to have done what we did, and just like the Smurfing, this made it acceptable to actually admire the specific parts of our bodies. Jodi made it clear that she was very glad nobody painted her, but she was more than happy to have helped apply the paint to us. She took off all her grubby clothes, then looked at her non-painted body next to our painted bodies, and looked sad. She did not say so, but she looked like she wished hers was painted, too. We cleaned-up and put away the painting supplies, and stayed naked the rest of the day.  

When it was time for my friend to go home, his family came to get him. This time, the gate was closed, so they came through the house. Gramma had called and told his parents what we painted, so they would not be shocked. They came to the yard, and again his little sister was stripping and asked Grampa if she could swim. She was skinny dipping in a matter of seconds! His older brother again looked embarrassed when the neighbor girl was here naked. Then when he saw the painting, and learned that we each had painted the others’ bodies, he was really embarrassed. She tried to casually show him the artwork, but he was too embarrassed to look at her now. Their parents laughed, and admired our artwork.

The little sister got out of the pool, and asked if she could be painted, too.  We told her no. She was just the right height that she looked straight at each of our painted parts. She bent slightly to get an "under view", too, and this gave us all a good laugh. She was quite open, and hardly shy about what she wanted. And it was clear that at this moment all she was interested in was learning about the detail of our painted bodies. She looked only briefly at mine and her brother's parts, but was very interested in the neighbor girl's parts. She could tell that the neighbor girl had similar parts as she did, but also knew it was different, too. She kept looking at herself, then at the neighbor girl, really close. Then she would go and look closely at Jodi's parts. She was not quite as interested in Jodi's since she was not painted, but she noticed exactly what she needed to notice. She went and looked closely at the neighbor girl again. The neighbor girl was aware of what she was looking at, and just let her ponder it. Finally the little sister asked her if she was a girl, or a lady. She clearly knew the difference (but was not aware of the age at when changes occur) and seemed to be confused about which she was. The neighbor girl chuckled, got down to her level and asked her why she was asking that. Without hesitating, the little girl stated that Jodi was a girl. It was a statement, because she had totally decided by looking at her she was still a girl. Then she told the neighbor girl that she looked like a girl, and was friends with her brother and me, and played like a girl, and was the size of a girl, but had hair like a lady. The neighbor girl knew us and the parents well enough to know how to approach this. (and they just stood quietly by, and smiled) She smiled sweetly at the little sister, and told her she was a girl, quickly growing up, and becoming a lady. At this, the little girl pondered it a bit, then smiled and said she hoped to grow hair herself, and become a lady some day. She asked her mom how old she had to be before she was allowed to be painted like that. The mom did not miss a beat, and told her "When you are becoming a lady." The little girl was satisfied with that. Then went straight back to the pool again. We dedided that wasa  good idea, so the rest of us kids went in too. The only one wearing a swimsuit was the oldest brother, and he would not let the neighbor girl swim near him. She terrified him while she was naked. When it was time for them to go, They all thanked Gramma n Grampa for allowing them to come and play.

The neighbor girl had to go home for dinner at her own home this time, because Gramma, Grampa, Jodi and I were all taking GG out for dinner at a nice restaurant. This meant that we had to go and shower, and attempt to scrub off any paint that was on our faces, arms and hands. We had to wear pants to dinner tonight, but short sleeves were ok. Jodi had the easiest time scrubbing, because she did not get much paint on her at all. After some rough scrubbing, most of the paint came off my arms, but it left a tint in the skin. In later days, I would discover that where the paint was, it left funky tanlines! So, even after the last of it had finally washed away, I still had the patterns! The neighbor girl and I both were thrilled about this! It was like reverse tattooing! 

As with any visit to Gramma’s house, of course, there was the mandatory day at an amusement park, fun dining-out experiences, shopping, visiting our G.G. (Great Grandma), gardening, going to other friend’s houses, going for bike rides, going to the movies, watching slideshows from Grampa’s photography, and many other adventures that take up the time available during the week. The week flew by, and we did not have time to fully complete the ping pong table.

Even though we managed to get the primer painted, we never got the actual finish-painting done. After this week, the old ping pong table sat neglected under the boat port.  It had received some much-needed love and attention, but it would now sit, only half-finished for the rest of its life at Grampa’s house. This week turned out to be our last time spending quality time at Gramma and Grampa’s house as kids. The next summer, we ended up moving to Oregon, and then the teenage years were upon us. Our lives got busier as we became teenagers, and we suddenly seemed to have notions about nakedness that was no longer allowing freedom. Suddenly we found ourselves in a completely different life than we had known as children. Some of the events that happened just before we moved to Oregon, plus the total change of life as we knew it changed a lot of things for us.  

Grampa always had his photography made into slides, and seldom into prints. He took great joy in showing his slideshows every time we visited. Because of this, it took more work to view the pictures he had taken, and often it was not even possible during short visits. Also, if the pictures included anybody naked, there were times that he could not show those slides, depending on who was at his house at the time. (I mentioned earlier about those people who do not accept naked, and how they even become creepy about it.) Even though there was never anything wrong with Any of Grampa’s photos, or anything that was wrong about what he photographed, these few creepy people made it so none of us could enjoy the photos he had taken. This was the case with the photos he took of when I was a Naked Smurf, and also of how us kids had painted each other! I visited many times, and was only able to view these photos by holding the slide up to a window to see it.

The girl next door told me she had seen the entire slide show. Her entire family came over one night shortly after Grampa had gotten them developed, and he happily showed the entire week in slides. I showed many friends, and some of my family how much fun it was, but We could never view them on the full-screen, only in the tiny slide, held-up to a window, or light. We enjoyed, laughed, and cherished the memory those slides captured. Often, Grampa would tell others of that fun day, but when he told the story, he seemed to ‘forget’ to tell about the part where he became a Naked Smurf, too.

Many years later, we searched and searched for those slides, but they had disappeared. Nobody would say where they went, or why they were gone. I suspected one of the relatives who was not safe around naked people discovered them, and either did something creepy with them, or burned them. Either way, the photos were gone, and all that remained was our own memories.

For many years, Gramma, Grampa, the neighbors, and the mail lady talked and talked about that day. This was a day that could never be duplicated. It was one of the most special days as a child that I can remember. I was never embarrassed, or felt the need to hide what happened that day. (Although in later years, when I went into hiding my body, I likely would not have eagerly brought up the topic.) Jodi and her friend only mentioned it a couple of times. (Jodi only enjoyed her naked freedom for about a year after this, then for some reason naked became something that was hidden, and shameful, and even forbidden to mention for her.) The neighbor girl was correct when she said she was a girl, quickly growing up to become a lady. Within the next year, she fully became a young lady, and I was still a kid. She no longer would enjoy the freedoms she knew as a girl. She had found that dating young men was what she was interested in. Her and I could never again be the same level of friends we had been. She was seldom around if I visited, and when she was, she had other interests, and did not come and spend time with me anymore. My Gramma, and even the neighbor girl's parents assured me that she still spoke fondly of our friendship, and of the time we shared growing up, and especially about the events of that last summer. She was never ashamed of what we had, and what we did, but had grown into different interests. My friend and his family moved also, and we seldom saw them again.

I still cherish that day (and that week, too!) I still laugh, smile, and find great joy in knowing not only did I become a Naked Smurf, but So did My Grandpa! I know it was the one and only time he willingly got naked, and stayed naked. While we had many wonderful days we shared, this one is easily THE MOST WONDERFUL Day With Grampa EVER! I Cherish the joy every single person found in both seeing me as a Naked Smurf, and also the joy everyone got when Grampa became a Naked Smurf, too! I cherish the safe, comfortable non-threatening environment where nobody could harm me, and I was free. I absolutely cherish the environment, and feeling that gave Grampa the freedom to feel safe, and be naked for many hours. Before, and after that day, there has never been one time I felt that safe, happy, and comfortable with ANY Naked person. I have had a lot of naked, joyful experiences in my life, But This Was Absolutely The Best One!

I know this is one of the longest posts I have written, and I thank you for taking the time to read it, and learn more about what makes me so passionate about the "simple" things in our lives. So much of what drives me, and makes me who I am can be found happening in this week I wrote about above.
It has taken almost a week of writing to put this post together, and Ironically, as I was almost done wrapping it up, I got a package in the mail yesterday. This package contained many new rubber duckies! (yes, I am aware that nowhere in most of my blogs do I even mention The Ducks, But They are immensely important and represent a side of me that is passionate, caring, loving, and basically my roots.) This package had so many wonderful things inside it, but the timing, and One Duck in particular absolutely were perfect! I will most certainly write more about the ducks, and about My wonderful friend, Colleen in New York who sent them. You can see her Duck-work at: http://duckshow.com/
I tend to write about things that are for some reason tugging at me to explore, and put into words. The Ducks are hugely important, but I just have not felt the tug to write in depth about them... yet. This blog is more about some of the really in-depth feelings, beliefs, and ponderings that bounce through my soul. I use a page on facebook for the fun of sharing my Ducks and their adventures with the world. You can see that stuff here:
https://www.facebook.com/giantrubberduck


But, now back to the conclusion of this post. I got a Duck in the package yesterday that Absolutely fits my life, and fits so well with the feelings this writing is about. Here is a picture of that Duck.

This is a specialty duck made by Bud Ducks. It is called "Positive Poem".
On it are all the words that fit my soul, and the timing of its arrival could not have been better!
In this photo, you can see some of what it says, but here is a list of All the wonderful things it shares:
Co-operate. Love. Peace. Huggle. Giggle. Sing. Live. Laugh. Community. 

I hope you find peace, love, laughter, joy and all that is needed for making your life as wonderful as it can be! Find your safe place, and be happy! Maybe even become a Naked Smurf! ~=:-)