Originally writing under the name Bonnie Belkin

The summer of 1961, before I started college, I was a camp counselor. There were a dozen of us, six gals and six guys, about the same age. We were up there all summer. The kids came up on Monday and went home on Friday. We had the weekends pretty much off.

One weekend, the camp director and his wife went into town. There was a campsite by the lake, about a mile away if we walked by the side of the county road, or about two miles through the woods. Camping equipment, canoes, some equipment and stuff for a rainy day, and some food was in a shed at the campsite. The counselors hiked from the camp to the campsite as soon as the tail lights of the director's car rounded the bend. We brought beer with us. No more food, just beer.

After eating, we built a bonfire and were shooting the shit. We got to talking about games, and one of the guys suggested strip poker. Someone else said there wasn't enough time. The guys were talking about other variants of stripping games. Everything the guys proposed, the gals declined. But we were getting silly, and one of the girls mentioned a banzai stripping game.

The guys were up for anything with the word strip in the title. She said it was just cutting cards. Low card threw one garment into the fire. The game ended when there were at least two gals and two guys naked. I don't know what possessed me, but I said I didn't want to burn my boots. One of the guys said that we wouldn't burn footgear, just clothing, so I said OK.

Actually, it was the beer that said OK, not me. The guys were all in favor. I'd said I'd play, and the gal who suggested it got talked into it, possibly against her will. The guys worked on the rest of the gals, and one by one, they all agreed.

The first low card went to one of the guys who threw his pants into the bonfire. When the gals lost, we threw our shirts. The guys all threw their pants in first.

My blouse went after 4 or 5 people had already lost once, and one of the guys had burned his shirt too. By the time I burned my pants, two gals were braless, and three of the boys were down to their Jockeys because they didn't have undershirts. I was low card and tossed my bra into the fire on the next draw.