Love Sunshine

When destiny called: the founding of my sunshine crusade

People ask me, Helioholic, how long have you known solar activism was your vocation? I smile benignly, and recall the following moment of ephinay.

I must have been about 6. Like most children, I nurtured dreams about what I wanted to be when I grew up. These included the usual things like spy, detective and rock star; but before that I, like so many young boys, formed my aspirations on the football pitch. But unusually, I wasn’t interested in being a star striker, or spectacular goalie, or any of those chaps sharing the glory. I wanted to be the guy getting ALL the attention.

It must have been around 1974 (the annus mirabilis of the profession) when I saw my first match or news coverage, and I knew what I wanted to be. Not a striker, but a streaker. I didn’t understand he wasn't actually an official part of the proceedings, or that streaking wasn’t actually a profession. More of a calling. And it called to me.

So I decided to give it a go. It was early one Sunday, and the sun was shining, when I set off starkers to do a circuit of the cul-de-sac on which we lived. I’m not sure there were many witnesses to my maiden voyage in unclothed expression. There was one that I know of. My brother, who promptly marched to my parents and grassed me up. With bare-faced cheek I flatly denied it, and somehow convinced them of the absurdity of the claim.

From then onwards, I knew streaking was illegal, had its perils (exposure in so many senses), and was not as rewarding as one might imagine. But I also knew my destiny was to express myself in the great outdoors, and to help others enjoy the benefits of sunshine in a (legal) minimum of clothing.

Streaking may (alas) be a thing of the past, but sunshine is part of the glorious future.