Cultural Attractions

No one seems to know exactly why certain changes are happening in France and Holland but … there are strange things blowing in the winds of human affairs. Several young Parisian ladies recently told Time Magazine that if you see a woman going topless these days in France, she's probably getting along in years, because the modern women are more demure and modest. There are reasons I find these new attitudes difficult to understand.

Maybe it was 1948 when Army buddy Charlie and I found ourselves on furlough at Nice, France, after coming to the Mediterranean coast from Paris on the Orient Express. Checked into a hotel near the beach about 7 p.m. Charlie wanted a little nap but I put on my swimming suit to take a dip. There were some benches where I sat down to study the palm treed Riviera scenery and saw a man locking up a row of "changing booths." That's when things got interesting to the point where I completely forgot why I had walked over there.

People were still coming down for a swim but they weren't bothered by the booths being closed, just took off their clothes and wiggled into bathing suits. Quite a few of these recreationists were young women. Did notice one with a male friend who gallantly held up a large towel to give her privacy; however, he held the towel on the opposite side from where I was sitting, so it was still a view leaving nothing to the imagination. People just didn't do that sort of thing on Somers beach where I came from in Montana.

Thought I should run back to the hotel and let Charlie know about what was going on because he was from Kansas; but just then a group of about six young ladies arrived and I decided to let Charlie get more rest.

Ah Yes! That was the France I learned about; and who can forget where the "bikini" came from and what women first started just wearing the bottom part? Names like "Moulin Rouge," "Follies Bergere" and Bridgette Bardot added to that country's world wide rep for upper torso exposure. Hard to believe, "It is over." I'd probably go there and check things out except for one thing … Iris threatened to tear up my passport.

Now! About Holland (Netherlands' — That little country is not just a picturesque landscape of tulips, windmills and country folk strolling the dikes in wooden shoes. Amsterdam is one of the busiest seaports on earth and home to the biggest glitziests "Red Light" districts known to man. When Iris and I took a cab tour of that huge inner city of professional prostitution in 1979, there were over 500 "advertising windows' along both sides of a big canal.

On display were big, muscular black women, dainty little redheads, tall blondes, short brunettes, every kind of female from around the world. Each was posed in a provocative setting designed to lure customers. The "Pink" section of Amsterdam was advertised in C of C type pamphlets. Hundreds of scattered "coffee shops' served marijuana. Hard drugs were openly used and flaunted during all-night orgies in the big plaza next to the Queen's Palace. It took large crews every morning to clean up. The whole Amsterdam scene was the ultimate display of "liberal rights' running amok. Got the picture?

Last December, things had gotten "out of control," according to members of the City Council. (Seemed out of control 30 years ago.) Biggest current concern is the infiltration of organized crime, drug dealers, international prostitution rings, etc. Bans will be placed on "massage parlors and peep shows," as part of the "plan to drive organized crime out of the tourist haven;" however, Councilman Lodewijk Asscher says: "The city center will remain true to its freewheeling reputation.

"It'll be a place with 200 windows for prostitutes and 30 coffee shops — very exciting, but also with cultural attractions."

That's a plan??? Seems like cutting "prostitute windows' down to 200 would put thousands of "pink ladies' on unemployment. If they take away your window in Amsterdam, you can't keep working as …a "cultural attraction."

G. George Ostrom is a Kalispell resident and a national-award winning Hungry Horse News columnist.