Paul Maclean & The Nude Boys Go To Jail by Deane Jones
Paul Maclean & the nude boys go to jail
Keeping Up With Jones by Deane Jones
Swimming Fashions
Phil Rowe, whose father, J. P. Rowe, was head of the Geology Department at the U and boss of the Interscholastic Meet for years and years, writes from Walla Walla, Wash., where he practices law. Asks Phil:
“Do the kids still swim in the old slough near the Van Buren Bridge? We used to, a la nude. We would wave nonchalantly at the Milwaukee passenger train that went by westbound each afternoon. One day the railway cops and Missoula police came off the bridge after us. We ran, but the cops just stayed by our clothes till we returned.
“They marched us two by two to the police station. My kid brother Tommy was the youngest – about 4. He cried and yelled at going to jail. The cops made him promise to wear pants when swimming thereafter, and let him go. The rest of us went on, debating whether or not to give our right names and get on the police blotter.
“Paul McLean, a Presbyterian minister’s son, was first in line. He made the decision – he came up with his right name. The police judge said ‘hello, Paul. How are your mother and father’? That got us. He knew us all. We were released with a strong admonition on swimming naked. We went home over the Van Buren Bridge and there in the irrigation ditch was my kid brother swimming in the raw. (Tommy Rowe is now dean of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Michigan and has a son who has been swimming on the American team at Oxford, England. Trunks? I guess so.)”
Yep, Phil, I went through my years of swimming at Hyde’s Slough, and until a few years ago it was still pretty well crowded at times. But nowadays it’s older guys. The small fry take to the city pool and the University plunge for the most part.
The above is from Keeping Up With Jones by Deane Jones in The Missoulian on June 6, 1967.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/349980621