Quote:
Originally Posted by FKKFan
Paradox,
Your pictures and the location remind me of some scenes from the bicycle movie "Breaking Away." Any chance that was filmed there? Or are there a lot of quarries in and around Bloomington?
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Breaking Away was indeed filmed in Bloomington. The quarry scenes were shot, not at Packinghouse but at the Sanders quarries south of town. When 20th Century Fox was scouting for quarry locations they considered Packinghouse but one major problem scuttled that plan; the producers wanted a dramatic cliff for the diving scene and they found it at Sanders: a 65 foot drop local daredevils call rooftop. Go to Youtube and search 'rooftop quarry.' Even to this day young men and a scant few women risk arrest for trespassing for a chance to test their bravado against the monster. And in the process, fatalities have occurred.
Another factor may have scuttled the possibility of having the
Breaking Away quarry scenes filmed at Packinghouse: the movie was a family film and the producers didn't want a bunch of nudists running around in the background.
Indeed, there are many quarries around Bloomington. I have uploaded a Google Earth image of the major quarry complexes. Packinghouse is the letter A and the Sanders, the letter I.
Additionally, two small abandoned holes, D and K, are on private property. How lucky for those land owners to have the world's best swimming holes in their backyards.
I have also included a cover photo from
NCAA Champion magazine taken at the
Breaking Away quarry. This singular image celebrates the union between Bloomington and Indiana University and their shared quarry culture.
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The following is
not a sexist statement but rather, the result of years of firsthand observation: college age women spend far more time sunbathing than their male peers.
After a long cold winter spent bundled in their overcoats and trudging through snowdrifts, the first blush of warm spring weather sent scores of IU co-eds flocking to the quarries to get a jump on their summer tans. April was a month that saw, not only large crowds at Packinghouse, but also female-to-male ratios in the ballpark of 2-to-1. For a guy like me who enjoyed showing off
and perusing fine female flesh, those warm spring days spent socializing amid a predominately female crowd made for enormously pleasing afternoons.
Summer was high season at Packinghouse and peak numbers varied by time of day and day of week. When the spring semester at IU adjourned, the vast majority of college students left town but 5,000 or so remained for summer school. Most of the summer students, it seemed, took fewer credit hours than during the main academic year, leaving them plenty of time to hang out at the quarries. Any time of day, students could be found there.
On weekdays after work, townies came out to enjoy the long evenings and many stayed until dark. And on weekends, when students didn't have classes and townies didn't work, the 200 acres of Packinghouse played host to hundreds of people, virtually all of them free-spirited nudists.
Late August saw increasing attendance at Packinghouse as IU students made their annual migration back to Bloomington. And on the last weekend before the fall semester commenced, 40,000 students in the 18-22 demographic had nothing to do but cut loose and party. And for many, that meant skinny-dipping at the quarries. On that manic weekend, quarry first-timers experienced the same epiphany as I did at the beginning of my freshman year: here's a place you can run around naked in public and it's perfectly legal.
Quarry old-timers, as they approached Sundown on the trail from the parking lot, simply proceeded to their familiar favorite rock. But in late August I could spot first-timers a mile away. When the ocean of bare skin came into their field of view, without exception they stopped and looked around, sometimes for lengthy periods. That was the tell-tale giveaway. Only a handful turned around and departed; most, after reconnoitering, proceeded to an unoccupied rock. College students are adventurous souls who thirst to experience the new and exciting and social nudity fit that definition. Based on the number of first-time college guys and girls whose bodies sported tan lines, I can conclude that for most, if not all of them, being naked under the sun wasn't part of their recreational repertoire.
Such was the case for the three girls in the last 4 photos. On that final August weekend before classes began, down the trail they came from the parking lot and stopped at the junction of the south shore trail. Tell-tale. After a minute spent looking around and talking quietly among themselves, they proceeded to the western slag pile. There, they spent another minute trying to decide which rock would be suitable to spread their towels. Finding no rock to their liking, they reversed course and walked the short distance to the eastern slag pile. Another minute of looking didn't result in a consensus as to which rock would be suitable. They retreated up the trail toward the parking lot. I figured they had departed or were going to find a private rock in some isolated slag pile.
Ten minutes later, they appeared in the far southeastern corner of Sundown and made their way over the jumble of rocks, finally stopping at pedestal rock. There, on the pedestal and the flat rocks that formed its base, they spread their towels. For several minutes the remained clothed and then, as if daring each other, they slowly began removing articles of clothing until, bit by bit, all were naked. God! I love first time nudist college girls!
That first visit led to repeat visits by the trio, always on pedestal rock where they could be a part of the scene yet maintain a measure of separation from the others. Their weekend visits continued through September and early October until finally, cold weather brought an end to the season.