From An Email Thread On The IAGSDC Mailing List On 7/11/08

From An Email Thread On The IAGSDC Mailing List On 7/11/08:

Harlan Kerr: If I recall right, Albuquerque had the first scheduled specialty tips with Leather, women’s, seniors, people of color and a few others, if I recall right—Bill should be able to chime in on this one.

Bill Eyler: I can't remember whose idea it was to schedule all these things for our convention or if ABQ was the first convention to have scheduled tips for this...it was probably a consensus that decided, since we talked about it for a very long time and thought it would be fun. We'd have to check the Miami schedule in '91 to see if they did this, too. Chris Phillips? ABQ WAS the first convention to have over 1000 dancers, and since we originally budgeted for only 750 dancers, you can imagine our surprise, especially when over 600 dancers arrived for the trail's end dance...and the La Posada ballroom could only hold a couple of hundred dancers! We started having to think BIG pretty quickly.

Harlan Kerr: Albuquerque was also the first convention with a moonshine tip. The turnout was so big that they had to switch rooms. When I arrived with Anne to call (with Bill and I think Andy) there was a human wall of dancers blocking the naked folks moving from one hall to another carrying their clothes. All you could see were their bare feet and heads. Since this was my first time calling moonshine I found myself with one challenge—I usually remember shirt colors for site calling but without shirts I decided to use hair. In the first tip there was a red-haired man #1 and corner lady #4. After checking things out I remembered them as big red and little red….

Bill Eyler: Yes, that was dangerous ground we were treading since we hadn't told the hotel staff and security EXACTLY what was going on, just that it was a private dance after-hours party. It started WAY late, since the HTQ-Contest-From-Hell dragged on at least an hour longer than scheduled.

Since it was just 18 months after the very first Moonshine dance in Phoenix in January 1991, it was all played by ear. Since I was coordinating this event, I only expected MAYBE 20-30 brave souls to try this. Imagine my surprise as I was in that small room calling (with you or B.J., I think) when Kathy or Laura came into the room and told me there were WAY over a hundred dancers clamoring in the hallway wanting to get into a room that only held 4 squares comfortably. Gasp! Chris Phillips had finished up a session next door in a larger hall, so someone came up with the idea to form a human wall of clothed dancers, so the 32 or so not-clothed ones could scurry over to the other room so no one would have to get dressed and undressed again! The security guard was NONE the wiser!

"Big Red" is still an active dancer and was at the Cleveland convention. He's not quite as red anymore, but is still very enthusiastic. ;-)

The callers were Harlan Kerr, BJ Dyer, Anne Uebelacker, and me...and I was truly nekkid since I wasn't sporting any body jewelry.

Two other memorable points to that dance.

1. I interjected easy line dances and a 2-step dance into the program in the breaks, like Tush Push. Oh, my, THAT was interesting to watch from the stage!

2. The air conditioning went off at sometime before midnight, and it had been over 100 degrees outside that day. You can imagine the volume of perspiration that started flowing.

I don't think everyone knows there is are Moonshine Bolos and Moonshine Dangles you can buy from the Fials ...it used to be $8.00 for the bolo and $3.00 per city/event/year tag. There were no forms in Cleveland for people to order them, so I'm going to order mine separately.

Paul Waters: And then there’s the issue of “known” or “unknown” to the venue.

• Albuquerque 1992: Unknown.
• Seattle 1993: Known. Anne and Dana met with the staff and explained that it would be a “naturalists” event There were more people in attendance at the Seattle Moonshine tip, than attended the first IAGSDC convention in Seattle.
• Washington DC 1994: Unknown.
• Chicago 1995: Unknown. When the security guards couldn’t get access to the room, one of them went to the overhead area that had windows onto the ballroom --- got an eyeful --- charged back to the main door --- by which time the “event” was over, and there was nothing for anyone to see.
• San Francisco 1996: Unknown.
• Las Vegas 1997: None. Nevada laws prevented this!
• Portland 1998: Unknown.
• Los Angeles 1999: Known. The start had to be delayed for about fifteen minutes, because by pure chance, catering took that very moment to change the bottles on the water coolers.

A related anecdote occurred at one of the Pass the Sea Fly-Ins in San Diego when Scott Parker made arrangements for a room. He told the staff that he needed a room for a special event that could be completely closed off (no windows, etc.). This was for something that he wasn’t involved, and didn’t know much about. But it was some sort of thing like the Masons or Elks with special ceremonies that are unknown to those who aren’t members.

His contact at the hotel said, “Sure, you can use this room, and as far as I’m concerned you can go in and dance naked if you want to.” To which Scott responded, “Um, okay.”

FROM AN EMAIL MESSAGE DATED JULY 14, 2008, FROM PAMELA REED: While at the Cleveland convention I participated in my third Moonshine Tip. Afterwards it was pointed out to me that I had done this before and after my sex change surgery! So I think that makes my participation somewhat unique!