Hundreds Of People Turn Out For 27th Annual 'Mooning Of Trains'

[matcom]

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LAGUNA NIGUEL - Dismiss them if you like, but these people baring their behinds to passing trains are your neighbors, your children's teachers, your attorneys, your policemen, your World War II veterans and yes, even your mothers!

Once they were a bunch – a small bunch – of crazies. Now they are a nation.

You had ladies from the Red Hat Society standing next to members of the Hessians motorcycle gang, standing next to a group of nudists, standing next to a 70-year-old (normally sedate) mom standing next to an avowed libertarian.

All laughing, chatting and waving. With their pants down. And their behinds up against a chain-link fence every time an Amtrak train passed.

"It's the greatest feeling in the world," said Robin Felton, 52, of Anaheim, a manager for ICC in Cerritos. "I pay my taxes. I follow the laws. I pay the high gas prices. This is my one day to say, 'I live with it, but you know what guys? Here. Have a little of it back. Here's to everything I don't like.' "

Legend has it that this all began as a dare 27 years ago in the Mugs Away Saloon on Camino Capistrano. Patron K.T. Smith vowed to buy a drink for anyone who'd join him mooning the train across the street. A handful did. A tradition was born. On Saturday, that handful had grown to an estimated 5,000 people.

Kids sold lemonade. Motor homes raised American flags, tiki torches flared and smoke issued from barbecue pits. Rock bands drove in from Vegas,. Vendors hawked jewelry and T-shirts from booths.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/article_1207104.php