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A Farmer’s Bitter War Against A Nudist Colony During the Great Depression
Lifestyles clashed in 1930s New Jersey when neighbors found they had different interests and clothing choices
Nudism is a lifestyle choice that may be for some, and also not for others. Freely baring one’s body along with their soul has enough adherents that nudist colonies have popped up all over the world for years. That was the cause of an outright war levied by a New Jersey Farmer in the 1930s who took none to kindly to a nude camp opening adjacent to his property, and led to an onslaught of naked people frollicking in the fields next to where he worked.
The unusual conflict unfolded in Long Valley, New Jersey in 1936. 57-year-old farmer Will Serles became enraged after local nudists from a neighboring property began congregating along the property line during their stay at the clothesless camp beginning the year before. Furious at what he was enduring, he decided to fight back when the weather turned nice again and he expected them to return. Announcing what he termed his “Anti-Nude Deal,” a play off of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, he laid out exactly what he planned to do:
“Last fall, I said I was going to fight them nuders ‘till hell froze over… And even if hell does freeze over…
