Teepee or not Teepee! or You Loin a new Thong Every Day!

It's Thursday! Officially "Loincloth Thursday"! Today we celebrate all things Loin-y. Looser than a speedo but more revealing than track pants, the Loin cloth is loved for its nearly-naked, not-quite-clothing, almost-revealing-it-all qualities. Popularized by the many incarnations of that famous King of the Jungle, Tarzan, the loincloth is the ultimate in comfort clothing. Won't bind or pull. Doesn't bunch up like boxers. It allows the freedom of "commando" with slightly more protection!

In celebration of Loincloth Thursday I'll share with you my own loincloth story. I don't remember how old I was...possibly eleven-ish?? My dad has always been into hunting and fishing. My parents took us to a hunting club; a huge wooded area where people had set up tents, there was a lodge with a giant dining hall (giant at least to my young eyes). Roasting on a tremendous outdoor spit was a bison! I remember clearly that it was most definitely a cut of meat I'd not yet eaten, and that I wasn't even sure what a bison was but that it was most definitely bigger than a cow. I believe there were several smaller spits with pig, cow and deer. All slowly roasting for the big feast to come.

What fascinated us kids was that someone had built an actual teepee (forgive me if that's not the PC term used today). A real actual teepee with wooden logs as it's support beams, animal hide stitched together for covering and a fire burning right up the middle. The guy who lived in it, out there on the hunting grounds, was an older (late 40's maybe early 50's) gentleman with a greying beard, grizzly Adams friendliness and wearing an honest to goodness leather loincloth. I'm sure I'd never seen anyone outside of the tv wearing a loincloth and I couldn't stop staring. He also wore leather chaps to cover his legs which only seemed to frame that loincloth.

What does he do when the wind blows? Has he different loincloths for all types of weather? What does he wear in the winter? Is it legal to walk around in a loincloth? Where do you buy loincloths? 

This kindly fellow saw us kids admiring his teepee and invited our family inside. It was large enough to hold us all with plenty of room to spare. We squatted around the fire (Is it too cold to sit on the ground in a loincloth?) and he told us all about making the teepee and how you put the fire in the middle so that the shape of the cone makes a natural chimney. The whole time he was talking I'm pretty sure I was trying to figure out that loincloth. He had on some sort of leather underwear so as not to be bared to the world...but I distinctly remember that it didn't cover his butt! I wonder now if my staring was obvious. I was a kid so I'm sure it was.

My parents thanked him for showing us the teepee, we toured more of the club and then ate a huge meal of spit-roasted meats and, I'm sure, some pot-luck style variety of other dishes. I kept looking for that loincloth guy afterwards but we didn't see him in the dining lodge. I like to think he sat, cross legged with his loyal dog by his side; eating a leg of bison with no utensils, no barbecue sauce or salt. Just roasted smoky charred meat. He'd toss the rest to his dog when he was finished, then lay back and watch the stars appear in the sky through the hole in the top of his teepee.

Happy Loincloth Thursday!

j.

p.s. The drawing? Oh yeah. The drawing is ol' Josh as a Tarzan type. I've always wanted to do a jungle series and now I've got a fantastically fun character in Rim'Ah. He'll be joined by a chimpanzee, naturally, though not in the typical "Cheetah/Tarzan" relationship. Fear not fans of loinclothery, Rim'Ah shall return!