Modesty and The Peeping Tom

 When I was twentyish, maybe 19. I can't remember but the fact is this, I was a tall drink of water. I was long, lean, toned, had blond hair and legs a mile long. My family moved to Gilbert in 1996 the year after I graduated high school. It was a great set up and my house quickly became the place where all of my friends congregated.  I was so happy because for the first time EVER we had our very own pool.

 This is our pool a few years ago. That is Louie he is the lifeguard of the pool. The saga begins......

 One sunny, summer afternoon a few cousins, friends, and my BFF M&M came over to lay out and swim. We all had bikini's on, ice cold Diet Cokes, and The EDGE 103.9 playing on the radio.

Now, I have always been a very modest person..okay except for the little short shorts I always wore... but in the comfort of my own backyard I didn't think twice about wearing a bikini. I didn't wear it anywhere else. I figured no one would see me anyway.

We were all giggling and having a grand old time, talking about how HOT Gavin from BUSH was when I got this creepy feeling. I can't explain it. It was just weird. We all flipped over onto our stomach's to tan our backs. I looked up for some reason and noticed on the south wall the neighbor boy who was one year younger than me staring at us over the fence. I sat up and said, "GARY! What are you doing? Go away!"

Do you see the fence in the pool picture?  That is the north wall, where I am taking the picture is pretty much exactly where I was laying all those years ago. The south wall looks exactly like that but it is behind me.

He sort of laughed, herherher...and disappeared. I was obviously creeped out and so was my entourage. As I remember my parents were out of town with my brothers and sisters on a summer vacation. We sat there talking about the event of Scary Gary staring at us over the wall. I mean really though, I can't blame the poor kid we were ALL lookers. Until he did it again, and I caught him and yelled at him followed by all of the girls chiming in to scram.  This relaxing afternoon was starting to stress me out. We all calmed down, swam and proceeded to soak up some sun. When. The back porch door opened and guess who walked through it? Scary Gary. Did this guy have a brain? I was FREAKED, because not only did he have the GALL to stare at us over the fence and get caught several times, NOW he had come through the garage, FAMILY ROOM and out into the back yard. Luckily, I was surrounded by a GANG of feisty BRIGGS women and M&M. I said, WHAT are you DOING? He sat there mouth gaping. "Oh, Uh...I came to return your families spare key." YOU HAD A SPARE KEY TO OUR HOUSE? I spat. AND, YOU HAD TO GIVE IT TO ME RIGHT NOW? Get out of here before I tell your MOM. My backup bikini clad girls chimed in, YA, That is SO WEIRD! Quit staring at us! Get OUT of HERE! Eyes rolling. He didn't bother us again THAT day.

But, weird things started to happen around the house. Like our pool furniture would be moved and pushed up against the wall to the bathroom window's. EVERY TIME, I would be outside kissing my boyfriend,  Scary Gary would appear out of nowhere....Hey guys. He would say that every time...Hey guys. It happened so often and was so STRANGE it became this inside joke. Anytime one of us would say, Hey guys we would crack up giggling. One time in the summer my family went on vacation, I had to work so I stayed home by myself. We had motion detector lights all across our back porch. I was in my Mom and Dad's bed when one by one, click, click, click, click the back porch lights flicked on. I lay there in pure PANIC, not knowing what to do. I didn't want to walk to the kitchen as our WHOLE front room is floor to ceiling windows looking into the backyard. I called the police. They came and nothing happened, they decided it was a coyote. The next night, my cousin Ben came with his rifle and slept on our couch.  I started to have major anxiety about being home alone. CLEARLY. We never put two and two together until SEVERAL YEARS later. I had been married off for a while and my sister was in Jr. High. When early one morning she saw a flash of a white ball cap and a man staring at her in the shower! SCREAMING HYSTERICALLY, My Mom ran to see what was going on. When she found out she ran out front in her jammies with a baseball bat yelling some pretty scary things, I am SURE.

We tried and tried to figure out WHO wore a white ball cap and would be up EARLY in the morning.

THEN. Scary Gary's family moved and we noticed, it all stopped. AND THEN, we put all the puzzle pieces together. Scary Gary, all along. DUH.

This is my sister, (and her ADORABLE husband who loves her for JUST who she is) she is lovely in every way and probably never wore short shorts or a bikini in the backyard. Oh. WAIT, yes she did.

But, we don't anymore. We have learned what dressing immodestly does to the men around US. To me I was just oblivious, ignorant really. I now choose modesty. I don't dress ugly, or frumpy in my opinion. I embrace the feminine form. I want people to SEE me. My brain, my heart..the important stuff. I wrote this because after posting a picture of my new, very modest, swimsuit a friend sent me a link. Please watch it, and ladies let's choose modesty. Isn't there enough half naked women we see every day? It comes through our phones, the TV, in HUGE ads at the mall, and is easily accessed on your own PC. I for one am not going to add to it, I have a big heart. I have a smart mind, I have a caring spirit, and I am STILL a TALL DRINK OF WATER. Please watch.

The Evolution of the Swimsuit