From Spectator To Participant At Southern California’s Silliest Tradition: The Mooning of the Amtrak
I had been to Southern California’s legendary Mooning of the Amtrak several times before but this year, fueled by drinks from the host bar and encouragement from strangers, I finally joined hundreds of people in one of the state’s funniest—and strangest—annual traditions.
I did it. I mooned the Amtrak.
Unbuckled my belt, lowered my shorts, bent over and mooned the passing Amtrak train.
Now before you think I’m some kind of nincompoop, I was not alone. In fact, hundreds of people did the same thing all day long and into the night. Believe it or not, this is an annual event called the Mooning of the Amtrak when people gather in and and front of a bar in Southern California and then dash across the street to drop their pants to expose their rear whenever a train passes the area.
It started in 1979 in the Mug’s Away Saloon – a dive bar in a strip mall of auto repair shops – when one of the patrons dared his buddy to go out and moon the passing Amtrak train. He did it, others followed and now it’s an annual tradition in Laguna Niguel, CA, in south Orange County the second Saturday of each July.
There’s a band, food vendors and merchandise booths in the parking lot as well as some lively “mooning” characters, such as the girl who was dressed up as an Amtrak conductor and was proudly showing off a a “full moon tracker” scorecard which, to that moment, showed she had mooned the train 11 times.
Whenever a train would approach people – volunteers, mind you – would honk air horns and people would stream across the street, lean up against the fence, assume the position and drop their bottoms at the passing train. Seeing everyone scamper across the street by the dozens was hilarious and I never tired of it. The Amtrak employees love it too; the locomotive engineer blew the train’s whistle and one year I was there, the train employees stood in the doorway and mooned the mooners.
I liked the door policy at the bar – there was none! You could walk out with a drink and walk in with one, too. You can have those drinks in the parking lot right up to the curb but the bar does ask not to take them across the street to the fence where you line up to moon the train. A couple of police cruisers cruise up and down to make sure there’s no idiotic behavior from anyone.
It’s all silly, fun and had myself and PubClub.com cameraman Andy Campbell laughing all day. It was one of the most fun days I have had in a long time. And that’s saying something because I have a lot of fun.
And like pretty much everything, it’s the people that really make the event.
Andy and I were fortunate enough to meet Scott Boden and and his wife, who made it onto the front page of the Orange County Register one year and their lovely daughter Amanda, who kept track of the approaching trains. “There’s one leaving Irvine in three minutes,” she would say. After a few moons of the train (and a few more drinks) we got along so well it was like we had known each other for our entire lives. I made them really laugh one time when, sprinting out to moon an approaching train, I slipped on some rocks and landed on my “mooner.”
There was also a John Lennon look-alike who kept showing up in our group. He was like a fly at a picnic that kept coming back time and time again. But we were having too much fun together to pay much attention to him and he eventually faded into our background.
The irony is that in order to get there from San Diego we took – you guessed it – an Amtrak train. And took it back that night.
What a day. What an event.
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The Nightlife Blogger is the bar columnist for PubClub.com, is an award-winning journalist and expert who has covered destinations, events and bars for more than two decades. He has been to the Mooning of the Amtrak in the past but this is his first time taking part in the mooning activity.
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