I arrived at Sycamore Hollow, five miles west of Lawrence, Kansas and
eighteen miles east of Topeka on the afternoon of the second day of the ASA
convention. Les, at the gate, was friendly and I let him stick me five dollars
for a “gold” medal which really isn’t gold at all –but it isn’t tin either.
It’s heavy and looks real nice. Also, there was the nine dollars ground fee for
three days and the usual two dollars registration fee to ASA as well as the one
dollar camera fee, half going to the ASA and half to the host club.
There are about five acres of level lawn and play area at Sycamore Hollow which are attractive, clean and well kept. The nice-sized pool, about 25-foot by 50-foot, has concrete sides, a sand bottom and is plastic lined. The filtering system is homemade but seems to work. The pool is bordered by a link-wire fence. Sycamore also has a trailer park on a hill above the park and has its own landing strip.
The most outstanding feature of the club is the partially finished clubhouse. When finished, this facility is likely to be the talk of the nudist world. At the present state of construction it is ready for the windows, doors and the roof. This professionally constructed concrete block building (the floor is finished) is fifty feet wide and one hundred feet long. Owner “Doc” told me there are four stools in the ladies’ room. There will be four fixtures in the men’s room in addition to the wash basins. Also in the building is a store room, a shower room, a shuffleboard court, a two-lane bowling alley, and two plate glass windows overlooking the spacious five-acre lawn. It was obvious, wherever one looked, that there was a man (Doc, the owner) and members who were knocking themselves out to build a club of which all nudism might be justly proud.
During the time I was there, an order of undetermined origin was wafted periodically across the club grounds by the breeze. The difficulty, I imagine, was from overloaded facilities which were simply not designed to accommodate the almost five hundred convention visitors in the first place, and which are soon due to be retired.
It has been a dry year in Kansas, as it has been all over the country. Thus Sycamore has a temporary water including a dry lake and the necessity of hauling water in tank trucks for the convention period. There was an epidemic of diarrhea which plagued many of those in accordance, requiring forty dollars worth of medicants and possibly sending one man to the hospital.
Otherwise, the convention was one of the most enjoyable I have attended in my twenty-four years as a nudist –although a few times I had to remind myself that I had come to observe and report but not to participate politically. When I approached the assembly, I was told later, someone made the remark, “He’s got a lot of guts to show up here.” Then he put on his other face and came over to greet me as a long-lost buddy. Then there was the Lilliputian from the Northwest who made use of his official position in a vain attempt to discredit a club director he dislikes. But otherwise, as I have said, the convention was merely wonderful and the host club and its owner deserve a great deal of credit for performing extremely well under less than ideal circumstances not of their own making.
Under consideration by the general assembly when I arrived, was the offer by Ed Lange, doing business as Elysium, Inc., to publish a magazine for ASA. Sun Era, Inc., also known as, Milt Luros of Parliament News through representatives Bernie Abramson and Steve James also made an offer. There was considerable discussion amid the flashing of dollar signs before the matter was turned over to the board for resolution.
Members of the ASA board had received copies of the Lange proposal but there were insufficient copies for general distribution.
(Source: The Nudist Newsletter, No. 141, October, 1963)
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