Chapter 32: An Avalanche in Pahrump

What happened in Pahrump over the next few weeks and months was truly astonishing. From that first morning when the eleven year old Janine Carlyle bravely took off all her clothes in front of her classmates nudism just spread through the town like wild fire. The New Way in those next few weeks and months quickly became the ‘Only Way’. Lifestyle Nudism gained such a strong foothold in the town that it went from being a lifestyle on the defensive and in need of state and federal legislation to protect it to one of total dominance.

Nobody could quite work out why the nudist lifestyle had taken off the way it did in the town - especially when people recalled the incredibly strong opposition it had attracted when it was first mooted. Experts from all walks of life came up with their own ideas for the phenomenon but none could agree with the other on what the true cause was. In the end most of the rank and file citizens just put it down to good weather.

Pahrump had a reputation for being part of the nation’s driest region with very low humidity and an average of 216 sunny days per year - coming in only second to Yuma in Arizona. The Summers were typified by temperatures around the 100 degrees Fahrenheit mark with clear skies and warm breezes. The Winters could see temperatures drop down to the fifties but the days were still relatively clear. Those Winter days also still had lovely, warm sunshine that drenched all the town’s afternoon activities in its embrace. This high desert climate of mostly dry sunny days just seemed to lend itself perfectly to the shedding of clothes and within three months of Janine Carlyle’s striptease act 99% of the town had done just that.

Once this New Way concept had embedded itself so firmly into the town’s culture those of the opposite persuasion started to feel very threatened and thus began to make waves to have the whole thing somehow overturned. Unfortunately, all their efforts completely backfired when the greater populace thought that their New Way lifestyle might come under threat. There was just no way that any of them were going back to wearing clothes again so they forced the mayor into holding a binding referendum which resulted in the whole town being listed as just one big, giant, nudist resort. This meant that nudism became the expected norm for the whole town. It was not just ‘clothing optional’ it was ‘no clothing allowed at all’ with inclement weather being the only thing that could challenge this. Those people who did not want to go about naked found themselves being the ones having to apply for special ‘Textile Status’ to do so. Quite a few groups did apply for Textile Status but they still only comprised a very small percentage of the town’s 36,000 residents.

One of the other interesting things to come out of this was the erection of huge billboards on all major roads coming into the town. Those large signs stated very clearly that you were coming into a ‘Nudity Expected Zone’. Any visitors to the town would be expected to disrobe within half an hour of crossing over the boundary lines unless they went straight to the 24/7 public relations office and got an exemption. Very few ever seemed to bother with this procedure with most visitors to the town only too happy to strip off immediately once they got inside the city limits.

The other thing, of course, that came with the town’s full embrace of Lifestyle Nudism was sex - and lots of it. One of the freedoms Lifestyle Nudists had fought for and won was the freedom to engage in sexual activity anywhere and at anytime. The only requirements being that nudists clean up properly after them and that their sexual activities in no way impede on the business of the day or was abusive in any shape or form. It also had to be totally consensual between all parties with no one being forced into doing anything they did not want to do.