They Call it the Streak

      A few of last week's posts involved stories of nakedness – a streak of stories, actually, and I have one more – this one is about streakers! This is a copy from my 2008 attempt-at-a-story-a-day collection.

       There was a popular fad going on during my college days called streaking. In order to streak, one had to take off all of one's clothes, put on sneakers or other appropriate running shoes, and then run through a crowd. The object was to shock the crowd and yet not get stopped or arrested for lewd behavior. If one could get a friend or two to come along for the streak, that was fun too.

       I have never streaked myself, nor have I ever even seen any streakers myself. Mostly we would hear about them at sporting events – a naked person or more would streak across the playing field to cheering onlookers.

       While at college, my friend, Laura, told a story of dorm students streaking through the Rathskellar once. (The Rathskellar was a room in the lower level of Old Main that had a bar which was open one or two evenings a week and sometimes on Friday afternoons.) Laura said that there was one Native American in the entire student population, and he was quite apparent amidst the white bodies running through the room!

      And then there was the story of another group of dorm students who streaked across the quad one evening. What was unique that night was the fact that they were moving slowly across the quad. A handicapped student who used a walker wanted to go streaking – so his dorm-mates surrounded the walker, and they slowly streaked through campus – all of them naked. Can you just see the Hallmark movie of that?

      One wintry Sunday morning at home, my Dad went to the mailbox at the end of our snow and ice-covered driveway to get the Sunday paper. When he stumbled back into the house, his face was bright red, and he looked to be in pain. Turns out Dad had done a reverse streak – he was wearing clothes, but he ran barefoot to the mailbox! As Mom used to say - “Crazy Old Coot!”. Dad worried that his feet might never recover.

      We still hear about the occasional streakers nowadays – but not so much as when they were a fad. Now they are easier to catch and throw in jail, I guess.

      But with global warming in the air, perhaps streakers with sneakers will make a comeback!

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