Copyright 1998 Lake Edun
Foundation, Inc
Official Publication of the Lake Edun Foundation, Inc October 1, 1998
Box 1982, Topeka, KS 66601 - Voice Mail: 785-478-BARN - E-mail: bornnude@aol.com - Website: www.lakeedun.com
|
Copyright 1998 Lake Edun
Official Publication of the Lake Edun Foundation, Inc October 1, 1998 |
|
Our last event of the season at our special place will be a children's Halloween party. Bring your family and plan on camping. There will be a prize for the tent with the best decorations. Barrie and others are working on decorations for the haunted trail. Little goblins (and bigger kids looking for goodies) will be out in force. So, bring your treats or be tricked. Don't forget your costume. Be prepared to be scared. Annual Meeting Notice Our Annual Meeting will be held Friday, October 30 beginning at 6:30pm. We will elect members to the Board of Directors, receive a financial report and a report from the audit committee, hear from our various committees, and have a general discussion on priorities for next year. All members of record on October 29, 1998 are eligible to vote in person or by proxie. This is an important opportunity for all members to affect the planning process. We hope all Eduners will be able to attend. See the article on the Halloween party for location and directions. Wonderful Weather For Fish Fry Eduners enjoyed amazing weather for our fish fry. The sun was warm, and the water was great. It was particularly gratifying to see so many kids enjoy the day. Clearly, we are meeting our family objectives. Thanks, Les, for providing lots of good fish. We all extended our sympathy to Sally who celebrated another birthday. (Don't worry, Sally, if you were a Redwood Tree you would be young.) Consider the Board of Directors This past year has been very good for the Foundation. We enjoyed healthy membership growth and successfully pursued our educational objectives. This success is a result of the great effort of those wonderful Eduners who serve on the Board of Directors. Elections for the Board of Directors will be held at our Annual Meeting on October 30. There are lots of ways every Eduner can help out. You may run for a position on the Board or serve on one of the committees. Included with this issue of Bare Facts is a listing of Board responsibilities and a description of each committee's responsibilities. If you see a way you can help, get involved! Choose Freedom at Lake Edun Eduners Plan Scary Halloween Party By popular demand, we are planning another fantastic Halloween celebration at the rustic site we used last year. It comes complete with resident ghosts ready to appear as soon as the fun begins. Myron Jones will be our (g)host. Festivities start as soon as the Annual Business meeting ends on Friday, October 30. We will enjoy a pot luck dinner and an evening of live music (compliments of Nude Fusion), partying and costume judging. Our (g)host will provide beer, pop, chips, dip, paper plates, napkins and plastic-ware. Eduners provide their favorite dish. The Advisory Board is asking everyone to make a $10-20 (or more) tax deductible contribution to the Naturist Action Committee. To get there [Directions in printed newsletter sent to members]. This is a wonderful setting to celebrate Halloween and will be a fun evening. Bring your friends (visitor fees apply) so they can see, first-hand, how wonderful it is to be clothing-free. If you missed last year, don't miss again! DON'T FORGET
Oct 3; 10-12; Board of Directors Meeting For What Use Are Public Lands Managed? Many people do not even own a back yard. Almost no one owns prime recreational real estate. For this reason, governments at all levels have wisely set aside the best parts of our American wilderness for public use. No citizen has the right to hog an entire park or beach or dictate that only his/her favorite type of recreation be allowed. Rather, every citizen has the right to some small corner of our vast public lands where he or she can safely enjoy nature in ways that do not harm the environment. Good custodians of well-managed public lands juggle the needs of all significant user groups to find a place for each. They designate the most appropriate areas for picnicking, walking one's dog, water skiing, skinny-dipping, or fishing. While some activities are restricted to certain areas, no one is kept out. People can still walk along the bicycle path, wear swim suits in both the clothed and clothing-optional sections of the beach, or look for birds on the horse trail. There is plenty of room for everyone. Bad management, on the other hand, does not eliminate Naturist families; it only forces them to move beyond the reach (and protection) of the law. They risk encountering a very different type of people who are sexually irresponsible. Good management provides accommodation and protection for all citizens. Governments at all levels provide recreational facilities for the many and varied interests of its tax payers. Do they provide recreational facilities that address your interests? This could be a discussion topic with candidates seeking your support in the upcoming elections. Fall Is Upon Us Autumn is such a beautiful time of the year. Leaves begin to change color and fall to the ground; Animals make preparations for the cold winter that is coming; Evenings take on a wonderful crispness. A brisk walk around the lake strengthens the body and rejuvenates the soul. As we prepare for our winter schedule which will be held at various locations in the area, it is important we not neglect our special place. We will have a work day on Oct. 3 to put some things in order. In addition, each Eduner should clean personal items out of lockers, and fridges. Take home any tents, chairs, floats you may have. As you walk our trails, take note of what you may see near at hand. This is the season when it is easy to pick up the odd bit of trash that may have been carelessly tossed aside by a visitor. Through the winter, we will have several special projects we will be working on: The Great Cedar Tree Round-up will be an effort to thin out some of the many cedar trees that compete with other, more desirable trees. We have other projects in the planning stages including work on additional beaches, etc. If you want to be notified to help with these projects, please notify a member of the board. Zoning Board Appeal On September 14, the Board of Zoning Appeals considered our appeal on the zoning issues. You may recall, they claim because we sell memberships, we must be zoned commercial. It was good to have several Eduners were present to witness the spectacle. Keep in mind that the Kansas Court of Appeals (right up there near the Kansas Supreme Court) has already determined it is OK to operate a hunting club, sell memberships, and shoot game or clay pigeons on agricultural land. The county has even told us if we operated a hunting club, we would be OK. Keep in mind, also, that the Board of Zoning Appeals is a citizen-board, not trained in the law. The board was not swayed by the fact that the Foundation merely leases Lake Edun; that it has activities at places other than our special place and has a mission far different than providing a recreational facility. The County Counselor started off saying the issue was not nudity and she went back to that point several times. While the issue may not be nudity, it was clearly on the top of everyone's mind. Well, the neighbors had an opportunity to tell the board how terrible we are. They used the same old examples from over two years ago. From what they said, it was obvious they study our web site and read Bare Facts regularly. It is a tribute to the mankind's ability to maintain a closed mind. In spite of the facts and research we present here, they continue to cling to their preconceived notion that clothing-free equates to "wrong" or "morally degenerate." The Board decided against us. Now we can appeal to the District Court where more rational minds can consider the matter. This will be expensive. Now, more than ever, we need your support! From The Board Of Directors At its August meeting, the Board announced our membership is at a record level. This is a direct result of the wonderful Eduners who go out of their way to make visitors and new comers feel welcome. Congratulations to us all! After much deliberation, the Board decided to terminate membership for one person based upon verified reports of un-Edun like behavior. The Board appointed Dorothy, Beverly and Lew to an audit committee. They will present their report at our annual meeting. Finally, the Board continues to work on the agenda for our annual meeting. If you have an item you would like to see added to the agenda, contact a member of the Board. Items We Need
Microwave oven Random Thoughts & Reflections Thanks, Sam, for cleaning up the road in front of the lake and up and down 53rd Street. We know we don't throw out trash. Now the neighbors know we work hard to keep the neighborhood clean. We have a fireplace insert for sale in good condition. It may be used as an insert in your fireplace or as a stand-alone unit. See Chuck or Webb. Asking $75 or best offer. Time to change our lock again. Members will find the new lock combination enclosed with this issue of Bare Facts. The lock will change October 5. Does anyone have a portable welder. We have a very small welding project, if someone can help us out. Missing Links By Ed Weaverling Do you regularly surf the Internet? Do you know of any interesting web sites? Share them with the rest of us. Send us the web address and a brief description so we can put them in "Bare Facts". Here is a few I found that I think are worth checking out: http://www.netnude.com Extensive message board. Legal reports. Photo gallery. Location reports. Comics. Singles friendly site list. 1st time reports. Chat room but special software required. (My 1st time report at Lake Edun is posted on this site.) http://www.cybernude.com Another great site. Many articles. Comics. Photo gallery. Great chat room with no special software or membership required (talk to naturists from all over the world). http://www.nifoc.com A new chat site brought to you by the cybernude folks. Still has a few bugs but getting better daily. No membership required. (Note: NIFOC stands for "nude in front of computer") http://www.best.com/~cgd/home/naturist/ "Being & Nakedness" web site. Newsletters. Articles. Sauna page. Guestbook directory. Links with over 1200 sites. http://www.nakednatalie.com Just a fun nudist site made and run by Joe & Natalie. Lots of creative graphics & fun stuff. http://www.ray3d.com/figures.html Ray is a professional photographer. He has done some beautiful nude figure studies and made 3-dimensional photos of them. Neat, one of a kind site. http://www.virtual-naturist.com Shopping mall with great T-shirts (34 styles). http://www.infosponge.com/naturist/index.html Extensive links list. http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Strand/1271/ Nautical Naturist site for recreational nude boaters. From The Mail Bag Dear Lake Edun; Thank you for a great summer last year. I've started over the road trucking again. That is why I wasn't able to help out this year. Good luck in all your endeavors. - John Sullivan Hello Lake Eduners, My wife (Sherrie) and I (Jonnie) along with our little red headed girl Juliana attended the Return to Edun get together this past July. At that time Sherrie was VERY pregnant. We just wanted to let you know that Juliana's little brother, Victor, came into the world on August 13th early in the morning. Everybody is doing fine and we hope to be able to show victor off at a future gathering. You have some video footage of Sherrie and Juliana playing in the water from Return to Edun. We are eagerly anticipating our copy of the finished product. Those were the last pictures taken of Sherrie while still pregnant. We really enjoyed ourselves at the get together. Good music, good people and good times were in abundance. Your friends, - Johnnie & Sherrie Dear Lake Edun: Just a quick note to say thanks for making me feel very welcome and accepted. I WILL be back soon . I had a very nice day in r & r and breaking out of my shell a little and talking ... Thanks again. - Sherrie G. Dear Lake Edun, You really don't know how much I miss all of you and Edun. I have been so busy with work and my 2 boys age 15 and 12. Football, soccer, you name it. Being honest here, I have been thinking of our place almost every day. I am planning on coming down soon, I hope. The Halloween party sounds like it will be fun. ... Say "hi" from me to all my friends at Edun. Miss them all. Talk to you sooooon. Ken C. Social Nudism And The Body Taboo [One of the most astute American behavioral scientists to study nudism was Professor Howard Warren of Princeton University. He was Professor of Psychology and Chairman of the department of Psychology at Princeton for many years. Dr. R.S. Woodworth of Columbia University paid tribute to Prof. Warren when he referred to him as one of the most eminent psychologists of his day. Prof. Warren served as President of the American Psychological Association in 1913. Twenty years later, he visited a German nudist park and recorded his observations which were printed in the Psychological Review of March, 1933. In his learned paper, Prof. Warren notes the sudden and painless removal of the body taboo he experienced personally and observed in others. This closely parallels the observations of Darla McFarland in Pitch Weekly and Jennifer Curry in the University Daily Kansan. While his paper is now 65 years old, its currency seems as valid today as it must have been then. This only serves to illustrate that while great progress has been made by organizations such as The Naturist Society, there is still a long way to go. Dr. Warren's paper is reprinted in full in appendix 1 of the authoritative study of nudism in America, Nudist Society by William E. Hartman, Marilyn Fithian, and Donald Johnson. We reprint only his conclusions and summary:] Two conclusions of considerable psychological importance were satisfactorily established: (1) Since the traditional body taboo can be readily, almost immediately broken without detrimental results, it is not a fundamental human trait. (2) Social nudity is not in itself indecent; only a widespread and persistent social convention has made it so. v. SUMMARY A brief historical review indicated that among civilized races and savages clothing has been adopted to a great extent for body concealment as well as for protection or adornment. In some races this body taboo has been familial; under Christian influences it has come to be largely intersexual; in Anglo-Saxon lands it has risen to the level of a moral principle. Recently there has been a growing tendency to discard superfluous clothing and to limit the taboo to a few sexually distinctive parts of the body. This has resulted in modifying the taboo, but not in abolishing it. In the last few years the practice of sunbathing has weakened the taboo; but since the sexes are segregated in America, the intersexual restriction still persists. The nudist movement in Germany is a real challenge to the body taboo. The attitude of the writer's friends and acquaintances toward social nudism is reported, and the opinions of psychologists in reply to a questionnaire are cited. All these opinions were found to be based on theoretic grounds and not on personal experience. The writer spent a week at a nudist park in Germany and describes his experiences and observations. The data gathered, supported by findings of earlier writers led to the following conclusions regarding the psychological effects of social nudism. 1. On coming into contact with a nudist group, the subjective experience of shame and the objective experience of shock tend to disappear at once or after a short time, so far as could be observed. 2. Where complete exposure of the body, except for protection from sun, rough soil, etc., is the universal practice in a group, there is no embarrassment or self-consciousness due to one's own nudity. The modesty attitude does not vanish along with the taboo, but its manifestations are almost diametrically reversed. Any gesture of concealment becomes an attitude of immodesty. Such gestures or attitudes were never observed; they would be socially discountenanced. 3. Where the entire group are unclothed, the sight of the naked body ceases to arouse curiosity. Nudity is accepted as a natural condition. Since there is nothing to focus the attention on any specific part, one has merely the impression of the body as a whole, and sex differentiae no longer possess special significance. 4. The writer's observations and the testimony of others indicate that social nudity is not productive of eroticism. There is less sexual excitement, less tendency to flirt, less temptation to ribaldry, in a nudist gathering than in a group or pair of fully clothed young people. 5. The taboo is present so long as any part of the body is covered, not for protection but for concealment. This distinguishes genuine nudism from the near nudism of athletics and the pseudonudism of the stage. 6. It is not clear from the data at hand whether the practice of nudism could be applied with advantage to the community at large. |