Gowanus Dumpster Pool

In the summer of 2009 Macro Sea filled two dumpsters with water and opened the Gowanus Canal swimming hole. Jocko Weyland, one the the minds behind the pools, invited me to the opening and I planned on leaping off a nearby roof into the water.

Jocko didn't think this was a good idea.

"It's not that deep."

"We'll see." I had jumped off the cliffs of the Quincy Quarries and various bridges around the world as well as piers and docks.

That evening we arrived at the site.

One look at the dumpster and I bailed on my feat.

There were no children allowed after dark, I went swimming naked.

Several women joined me.

It was good to be free in a city of so many restraints.

Thanks to Danny Tinneny, whose idea created the dumpster pools.

FREE AS THE WIND by Peter Nolan Smith

Man and woman have emerged naked from their mothers for time immemorial. Nudity is our natural state. Adam and Eve roamed through the Garden of Eden without any Gucci grape leaves covering their genitalia. Despite this biblical precedent New York retains several laws banning public nakedness. Most were written to prevent the spread of pornography, however law § 245.01 directly deals with the exposure of a person's private parts in public places.

Several years ago I protested this odious restriction by skinny-dipping at the dumpsters pool erected by Macro Sea along the Gowanus Canal in late-May.

It was late. The full moon was hidden by clouds. Our host Jocko Weyland green-lighted my nakedness and I climbed onto the deck with a female accomplice. May was wearing a bathing suit and expressed no need to bare her flesh to the four elements on a summer night, especially since we had only met twice.

Modesty accepted I stripped off my jeans and shirt.

I was not wearing underwear.

As a young man I had the body of a Greek god, which decayed after the decades of wear and tear.

I thought of myself as the Acropolis.

In a state of ruins, yet in the right light its failed glory was obvious to the eye. I waited for the full moon to break through the overcast. My body glowed like a decrepit statue dug from a grave.

The swimmers in the pools laughed, as I approached the water. 57 year-old naked men are funny, especially since my hands were cupped over my genitalia to avoid any embarrassment about the size of my penis. I leaped in the water. It was cold, although not as cold as the air and I could feel my cock shrivel to a cashew. The other bathers veered away from me, until my accomplice joined me.

May was young.

22.

Cute.

Beautiful girls have a tendency to lessen the younger peopled's disdain for naked old men.

I was no longer a pervert.

Only cold and I climbed from the dumpster filled with water to get dressed in my clothing. No one really saw my member and I was glad, but even cold I was definitely bigger than Michelangelo's DAVID.

No police arrested me and I returned that evening to my bedroom at the Fort Greene Observatory.

I only believe in indecency exposure in the bedroom.

Both alone and with my wife.