The Legend of Ron Johnson

2/28/2014

The nudist community and the world lost a great dude this year. Mr. Ron Johnson was my mentor, my hero and my friend. In his early career, he was one of the original members of the doo wop group The Crew Cuts. You may not remember the group, but most everyone has heard their hit song “Sh-Boom”. When I arrived at Paradise in the late 80’s, Ron had been the social director there for years and had pretty much shaped the Paradise image. One day, he approached me with a proposition while I was performing my duties as beverage manager. He said “Buddy, (I’m not exactly sure why he called me Buddy), I’ve accepted a new position in Cocoa Beach and believe you would be the perfect fit to fill my shoes.” I was honored and a little surprised that he had that much faith in me, but I had witnessed how much fun he had doing his job and figured anything was better than doing another monthly bar inventory. I accepted his offer and then Ron said “Meet me on the basketball court at 9 am to begin your training”. The next morning, I arrived at the court to find Ron wearing shorts (he rarely wore shorts) and dribbling a basketball. He passed the ball to me and said, “First one to ten wins” and then proceeded to wipe up the court with my ass. He was at least twenty years my senior, but I was no match for him on the court. I believe the final score was 10-2, but I think he felt sorry for me and let me have the one basket. I’m still not exactly sure what the actual purpose of the game was, but afterwards I did have a deepened respect for the man. Over the next two weeks, he took me under his wing and taught me everything I would need to know about how to carry on the “Ron Johnson tradition” at Paradise Lakes. Then left me to fly on my own. I guess things didn’t pan out for Ron in Cocoa so he returned to Paradise the next year. I am pretty sure that he would have liked to have had his old position back, but Ron was way too classy a guy for that. Instead, he started coming up with new ideas about how to improve the entertainment at Paradise. Ron had a golden voice and an amazing ear for music. One of his major accomplishments was something he called “The Moonlight Serenade”, in which he brought together a group of members for a weekly performance of classic tunes from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s.When Ron first came to me with this proposal, I have to admit I was a bit skeptical as I had heard most of the performers on Tuesday’s karaoke night. When I expressed my concern to him, he smiled and explained that he just couldn’t tell anyone no, but not to worry, he had a plan. As it turned out, his plan was quite ingenious. He turned up the volume on the folks who could actually sing and turned it down on those who were vocally impaired. That’s just the kind of guy Ron was. He was truly a selfless man and seemed to find his greatest joy in the pursuit of helping others have fun. If there is a heaven, I’m sure Ron is in charge of the activities, riding around in his golf cart with a handful of drink chips and his bull horn calling all the other angels out to play.

1 Comment

Linda Warren

3/29/2019 06:29:55 am

I am sad to learn that Ron has passed on for the next part of the journey. Thanks for your comments. I attended quite a few Moonlite Serenades and admit that I was not a fan of those oldies. Even so, I loved listening to Ron's magic voice. We always had FUN on those Sunday evenings, especially when Dee or April was serving the cocktails! Ron truly made a difference at Paradise!

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About Wali,
The Grateful Dude

In my formative years, I was lucky enough to attend an amazing high school modeled after the freedom school from the Billie Jack films. The curriculum included outdoor education, pottery and organic farming and emphasized values like creativity, self awareness and a strong sense of community. I spent several summers traveling from show to show with The Grateful Dead and found that not only could I beat the crap out of a plastic bucket in a drum circle, I was also quite the imported beer salesman. My early career started off in the eighties driving limousine for posers, drug dealers and wannabe rock stars in Los Angeles. In the late eighties, I was introduced to the former owner of Paradise Lakes Nudist Resort who had just seduced and proposed to my roommate while she was on vacation in Florida. Fred took me aside one afternoon and told me, “I like you, kid and since I’m taking your roommate and I’m pretty sure you can’t afford this beach rental on your own, why not come on out to Florida? I’ll find you a place to stay, give you a job and you’ll be surrounded by naked women”. So I loaded up my truck and moved to Paradise. Lakes, that is. Swimmin’ pools. Porno stars. (insert banjo solo here).

I wake up every morning (well almost every morning) knowing that today is a wonderful gift to be unwrapped and explored. I believe that every day is filled with limitless possibilities and endless abundance. I’m convinced that our true purpose in life is to interact with our fellow beings and give witness to this amazing universe that surrounds us.

If you are searching for miracles in life, you need go no farther than your backyard to realize that we are living in the midst of the greatest miracle of all.