Buff the magic streaker

Buff the magic streaker

Streaked naughtily,

And frolicked 'neath the streetlights

In a state called nudity.

In footsies clad in tennies

And round his head a towel,

He looked to gazing eyes

Like a depiliated owl

The college children cherished

The legend that Buff made;

‘Twas said he streaked a rest home

A church, and a ladies’ aid.

He shocked a million people

From Maine to Tennessee– 

Truly Buff the magic streaker

Had won ubiquity.

As anyone with foresight

Might easily predict,

The cops were soon on streak-out

And straining to restrict.

One night the mercury tumbled

‘Twas snowing cold and bleak,

And Buff lit out for Broadway

Leaving a pale blue streak.

This time the cops were waiting

With flashers winking low:

They pinched poor Buff parading

A local talent show.

Now Buff’s streaking days are over

And according to reports,

He has quit long-distance streaking

And gone back to streaking shorts

They say that impish Cupid

Encouraged streaker Buff;

He didn’t think it stupid

To take off all your stuff

But cupid isn’t with it

In our mod society;*

He’d be a streaker too

If he had visibility.

March, 1974

from “Where the Wild Thyme Blows” A seventies column. Streaking was only one of the many fads that hit the disco-driven seventies,“that mod, mod, mod, mod world.”

© GP