Last Journey

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6. Freedom to run around nude if we want to

       The site was two miles from Bus Village. Two or three shuttle trucks carried campers as far as the information booth, but most people probably chose to walk. The booth was staffed 24 hours a day. It’s function was to help people find their way to the eighty different kitchens and all the camping areas, also to hand out “Rainbow Guides” and “Always Free” magazines, the Rainbow Guide contained names and address of brothers and sisters in every state and listed their interests. If any brother or sister were passing through a new state they could contact someone in the guide and ask them if they could shower or crash there. The “All Ways Free” was published twice a year normally, and contained current events and items that Rainbows should be aware of, like new legislations that might require a letter writing campaign; and the winter edition provided information on the whereabouts of the coming national.

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       The site itself stretched through thick Minnesota forest for five miles in the shape of a horseshoe. Paths connected the eighty or so kitchens that fed as many as twenty thousand people at the gathering’s peak.

       One of my favorite kitchens was “Disappearing Dave’s Kitchen”. He was a Minnesota fella who had never been to a Rainbow gathering before. He said he felt he was called, to run a kitchen and he arrived on the site in May and stayed until September cleaning up. He built his kitchen half way along the two mile road between the site and Bus Village. People carrying heavy loads in or out welcomed his campfire, his shelter, his coffee and his meals. Dave said he was basically a Christian but he did not fault any nudists or Buddhists or Fruitists or Zippity-zoodists. All he did was provide free food and coffee and shelter and human kindness. He carried two five gallon buckets of water a half mile uphill several times a day; water or washing dishes, water for rinsing dishes, water for brothers and sisters to drink, water for coffee, water for soup, water for rice. Brothers and sisters often lent their shoulders to help him. Otherwise he did it all himself. He was always busy, always happy, always kind.

       There is always a lot of work to be done at Rainbow Gatherings. The entire extravaganza survives soley with volunteer participation. Various crews keep busy doing things that need doing.

       One of the most important jobs was digging the shifters. Where would we all have been without the valliant efforts of those kind brothers and sisters? Every kitchen and every camping area and every section of path needed at least one functioning shitter. And it had to be kept up according to the standards of the Public Health service or they would close the whole thing down. There had to be a bucket of lye or ash at each shitter. There had to be ample toilet paper. There had to be a bucket for washing hands. The crews dug the trenches a foot and a half wide and seven feet deep and ten feet long. When they were full the crew returned and covered them with dirt and dug another one somewhere and made signs to point the way and cleared paths. Some shitters lasted only a single day. A lot of digging had to be done for twenty thousand people. Wally was so wiry! He could outdig almost any of the young scamps. He always seemed to have a shovel in his hands.

       Barker Lake was a real blessing. Tea Time was situated at one point along the shore—24 hour tea and coffee, conversation and music. A couple hundred feet away through the bush was Sister’s camp, also along the shore.

       I brought my canoe to the Sister’s camp and asked them if they would like to care for it. Any Rainbow brother or sister who wanted to use it could take it out for a half an hour, as long as one of the sisters knew who it was that had it. And of course the sisters could use it whenever they wanted to, too. The sisters much appreciated the gift. One sister said she had been praying that someone would bring a canoe for them to use. My cedar canoe was a beautiful thing to see on the waters of Barker lake.

       The weather was quite hot usually, however we had a couple rain storms that were wild and wooly. The wind blew so hard that the Bike Bus was rocking back and forth. I was sure glad I wasn’t in a tent down in the site. There wasn’t a tent ever made that could resist a storm like that, and everyone got soaked. But mostly we had a lot of sun.

       We’d all considered the famous Minnesota mosquitoes with foreboding. Herbalists had stocked up on Pennyroyal. I had brought several cans of OFF. But Rainbows must be truly be blessed. There were no mosquitoes. It was unheard of! It was a small miracle. Minnesota and mosquitoes go together like lakes and shores. But the gathering was free of them. How could that be? During the entire month I was at the Minnesota gathering I never even got bit once. People were nude everywhere, but none of them got bit by mosquitoes. Why? Was it our garlic diets? Was it all the smoke from our campfires?

       Someone suggested that when 20,000 people come together in a small area in no time at all all the mosquitoes are swatted dead.

A_bikini_top_for_Stacy.JPG (17318 bytes)        I took my bag of leather Bikinis to the barter area near the information booth. Many sisters sat around me checking out the different styles displayed on my Indian blanket. The bikinis were easily worth a hundred dollars. Sisters tried them on right there.

Rainbow girls have great figures! Since money wasn’t allowed in the gathering there wasn’t really any way for me to get anything of value for them. If I was to just give them away they’d have been gone in less than a minute. But I did give some away—just to see my handiwork being worn gave me a thrill.

       I met a young sister named Stacy. She loved the bikinis but she didn’t have anything to trade for one. Just sitting with her was payment enough for me and she had to sit there while I made her a custom fitted top, ticklish business... It’s a whoopycat job but someone has to do it...

        Nicole was another young lovely. She was an earthy sister, too. She arrived with the seed camp, always the first camp on a Rainbow site. Those brothers and sisters arrive months before the gathering, their purpose being the initial preparation. They dig the first shitters and they cut paths into the best areas for the large kitchens. When I met her she had already been on site for almost three months, and she looked like it too. Shitter diggers always seem to be covered with a layer of dirt.

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      Nicole's flannel shirt and dirty ripped denims didn’t look too feminine. But her eyes sparkled girlishly and her smile was the smile of a hard working Rainbow sister. She had a feminine side and she loved my leather bikini tops. She was so large on top that I wondered though if I made her one it would take a great deal of my precious elkskin. But I decided I didn’t care about that, not really. So we sat on the bed in the back of my Bike Bus and spent a couple hours making a top for her.

       If I had chosen not to make a top for Nicole simply to conserve my material I would have deprived myself of a chance not only to create some art, but also I would have deprived myself of the opportunity to make someone happy. I love to do my art, whether it is making gemstones, or carving, or painting with oils, or creating photography, or sculpting in clay, or carving wood, or making deerskin bikinis.

       I gave another similar bikini to a sister named Cory and we paddled out on Barker lake in my canoe and did a photoshoot.

       Yeah, I sure had fun with those bikinis. And my camera was so hot it was smoking. While I was videoing at Tea Time one day I met Bridget, a 25 year old blond French-Canadian sister. Bridget plays guitar and writes music and lyrics in both French and English. She got Tea Time rocking out with her songs and I videoed several of them. Later we jumped into my canoe and paddled around the lake in the sunset and shot a couple rolls of film. The setting sun poured on her like honey. She was an ancient bronze icon with a grin.

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At one point she saw a dead tree leaning out over the lake. She suggested to me that she might climb it. All I could think of were the slivers of that old bark and the way she was so unprotected. I cautioned her not to try it because she might hurt herself.

       She responded adamantly:

       “No! RomTom, I tink I can climb dat tree! I tink I can!”

           So I watched with considerable trepidation as she made her way up about twenty feet. Some fantastic photos resulted from her climbing that tree.

       Ashes was another sister I photographed. We shot a roll of film beside the lake. Unfortunately the camera malfunctioned and none of hers turned out. But I didn’t find out about that until I went to develop the roll.

       I met Dawn one afternoon on the road in Bus Village. Sparkling effervescence poured from her like wine. We really got into some great conversation. She loved the idea of doing a photoshoot. Later she came to my Bike Bus and asked if I’d like to do it in the sunset which was approaching. She had brought along her newly wed husband and the three of us walked out along the shallow stream and shot a roll of film. Honeymoon photos.

Whew! She was fresh as daisies...

        Blond and vivacious “Rainbow Dancer” traded some carved amber earrings to me for a elkskin bikini with a triangle patch of beaver fur for the crotch. She wore it wildly around the gathering. Whenever anyone remarked about the fur piece or asked what it was she answered in her thick North Carolina accent:

       “Why, That’s my BEAVER!”

       How funny....

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