January 3, 2009: a Saturday. Mr. Obama still retained the official designation of “president-elect” for about another two weeks. Jay (my soon-to-be BBF) and I arrived separately at the Naked Happy Hour (nude cocktails) event in downtown Washington, D.C. We stripped off all our clothes in the second floor men’s room with over 100 other guys. We proceeded downstairs (clothes free) to the bar area and that’s where we met. We’ve been BBFs (bare best friends) ever since then; exactly fifteen (15) years ago today!
This day was more than a full year before Aaron and I met one another. As a matter of fact, Jay was very encouraging to Aaron and myself and was the singular “honourary” best man for both Aaron and myself on August 15, 2015, the day that we got married. Fortunately, over the years, Aaron and Jay have also become BBfs together!
For the past four years, Jay’s bromantic partner is Raheem. Ever since we’ve met him, Raheem has been an integral component of our now BBF foursome. He fits as an appropriate “odd man” as he’s the only one of us who “wore” clothes until he met up with Jay! His unofficial designation (in jest) is as our “token textile convert!”
Despite our often laughing at Raheem’s “novelty” nudity status, we’ve welcomed him into our clothes free world. Amazing, he does have an enthusiasm for social nakedness and enjoys our outings among others as well as among ourselves. Jay often has a “new” Raheem tale of “naked energy” to share with us. It is rewarding to be with another who is enthralled with body and clothes freedom.
Over the 15 years of our “best bare friendship,” Jay and I have both considered not only the timing of our meeting one another but also the chronological implications. It was very early into a new calendar year, the actual third day of January, 2009. The day held promise and excitement. To start with, it was a very moderate day temperature-wise, I wore shorts and sandals to the planned “naked cocktail” event. An unusual occurrence for January of any year in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The unseasonably warm outdoor temperatures contributed to the exceptional crowd gathered for the bare “happy hour” gathering!
The crowd was one of the reasons that Jay and I met. I was looking over the attendance for a place to sit. Jay was seated at a “table-for-two” and had no one in the opposite chair. I approached him and…voila, we met! We shared the same table for a couple of hours, exchanging notes with one another and Jay practicing his American Sign Language (ASL). Before parting as the naked cocktails event ended and “textile cocktails” (clothed cocktails) began, we shared email addresses and agreed to keep in touch with one another.
We sent emails throughout the week following our meeting and were both very excited about Obama’s upcoming inauguration and the commencement of both change and hope for all of us living in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. We discussed meeting for a lunch during one of the upcoming weekends but were unsure of the throngs of people anticipated before the swearing in of the new president. One of the suggested dates was to wait until after the president’s event and people returned home.
We didn’t have to delay our next encounter together. The following Saturday, nor January 10, 2009, we surprised one another (again) by eventually realizing that we were both shopping inside a bookstore in Arlington, Virginia. The confusion was based on the fact that neither one of us recognized the other because we were wearing clothes. We only knew one another through being naked – not under the disguise of garments!
Unfortunately, we didn’t recall one another until we were leaving the booksellers. It did provide us both with laughter as we realized this would probably be the contact incident that would permanently seal our friendship!
“Sorry! I didn’t recognize you wearing clothes!”
Naked friendships cause less confusion than one might think!
Naked hugs!
Roger Poladopoulos/ReNude Pride
Author’s Note: The next post entry here is planned for Friday, January 5, 2024, and the proposed topic is: “Footnote!”
ReNude Pride: Guys Without Boxers! 