Sex al fresco in Northfield

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The StarTribune’s entertainment tabloid, VitaMN, ran a story last week titled Sex … al fresco by Alexis McKinnis.

“When the weather warms up, Minnesotans can’t get enough sex — outdoor sex, that is.”

It caused enough of a stir that Kate Parry, Star Tribune Reader’s Representative, devoted her Sunday column to it: Reality check needed on ‘Sex al fresco.’

McKinnis has her own blog, Girl Friday – Confessions of a Concierge, and she’s blogged her response to Parry: Oops, There Goes My Skirt Droppin’ to My Feet. MNSpeak has a long discussion thread on the topic.

Since McKinnis’ neighborhood is Northeast, and since she grew up in North Branch where she says “It’s just something we always did growing up,” I’m thinking that Northfield must be ranked highly in this al fresco activity that dates back to the Garden of Eden.

So I’ve set up a straw poll and added it to upper lower right sidebar. And I’ve temporarily suspended our unwritten rule about using your real name when attaching a comment to a blog post.

STRAW POLL: How many times have you had sex outdoors in the Northfield area?
(See poll in upper lower right sidebar.)

Tell us your stories of your outdoor sex al fresco escapades by attaching a comment here, either using your real name or a pseudonym with a fake email address.

Since the topic might be controversial, I’ve added another poll:

What’s your opinion of sex al fresco?
(See poll in upper lower right sidebar.)

Weigh in with your comments about this post, pro or con.

And now, a little exerpt from Greg Brown’s “The Poet Game“:

Down by the river junior year
walking with my girl,
and we came upon a place
there in the tall grass where a couple had been making love
and left the mark of their embrace.
I said to her, “Looks like they had some fun.”
She said to me, “Let’s do the same.”
and still I taste her kisses
and her freckles in the sun
when I play the poet game.

15 Comments

  1. Joe Fresco said:

    The Carleton Arb is a favorite of ours (longtime married couple), especially in the summer when the students are gone and the likelihood of being discovered is more remote.

    June 18, 2007
  2. Griff Wigley said:

    Thanks, Joe!

    A comment about illegality. I think there’s a common sense element to consider.

    Having sex in a remote area of a park is one thing. Having sex in an alley downtown near a restaurant is another.

    Sorta like skinny dipping at night on a beach at Circle Lake vs. the fountain on Bridge Square.

    June 19, 2007
  3. Ross Currier said:

    I’ve always been fond of that song, “The Poet Game”. Ani DiFranco did a nice version of it on “Going Driftless”, available on St. Paul’s Red House label: http://nddc.org/weblog/post/238/

    I wish that lazy bum at the NDDC would get Greg Brown to play at the Grand. Somebody should bug him about it.

    June 19, 2007
  4. Bob Robertson said:

    The Arb is a good place… but the miles and miles of rural area surrounding Northfield are more reliable. I’ve never done anything within a block of Division.

    June 19, 2007
  5. Ross Currier said:

    I’m suddenly having a sinking feeling that this discussion, or lack thereof, will prove Alex’s point about age group characteristics, Bohemian Behavior, and Northfield…

    June 19, 2007
  6. Token Broad said:

    What, are you all nuts? I know way too many people around here. (Although it was suggested to me that to hint at this subject might be a really good way to convince my significant other to build that nice little pergola or gazebo in the back yard that I’ve been angling for…)

    Any alfresco frolics that I indulge in are gonna be far, far from here.

    June 19, 2007
  7. Joe Fresco said:

    Bob wrote:

    > miles and miles of rural area surrounding Northfield are more reliable

    I agree, Bob. The County parks, esp the Rice County Wilderness Area, are primo.

    June 20, 2007
  8. Griff Wigley said:

    Rooftop sex al fresco? Not a good idea, evidently. “Naked couple dies after 50-foot fall from roof. Police on Wednesday were investigating how a naked couple fell 50 feet from the roof of a downtown office building to their deaths. Clothing was discovered on the roof, leading authorities to suspect the man and woman, in their early 20s, may have been having sex.”
    http://www.startribune.com/484/story/1257569.html

    June 20, 2007
  9. Solstice said:

    Does a gazebo count? How about a porch, screen porch, patio or any other assorted outdoor structure? Hot tub? Just wondering what you consider al fresco…this may change the answers.

    June 21, 2007
  10. Griff Wigley said:

    Ooh, yeah, all those count in my book, Solstice, as they all embrace fresh air…. even the garage, as this t-shirt proclaims:

    June 21, 2007
  11. Solstice said:

    Thanks for the clarification. I’ll vote again, this time with gusto

    June 21, 2007
  12. Griff Wigley said:

    Since we’ve now had over 30 people vote in our staw polls, and since not many have taken them in the past two days, and since the top vote getter in the opinion poll was “Can’t you guys stick to civic issues?” (31%), I’ve moved the polls box down to the lower right sidebar. I’ll keep it active until the next one.

    June 24, 2007
  13. Anita Hahnjob said:

    Areas within some of the Rice County parks are conducive to this activity. My husband and I treated ourselves to some afternoon delight on Saturday.

    June 24, 2007
  14. Ross Currier said:

    Gosh, this is one discussion topic that I really wanted to go away quietly.

    However, last night a friend of mine told me that when she first moved to Northfield (30 some years ago?) some of the “backyards” of the commercial buildings along Grastvedt Lane (behind the old “Jacobsen” block) were quite overgrown with bushes and trees, creating a, let’s call it, zone of opportunity.

    I just had to mention it because, contrary to popular opinion, apparently some people did “Do It Downtown”.

    There were a number of artists’ studios in the upper floors of those buildings at that time. You know those Bohemians…

    June 26, 2007

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