Fate of the Platonic Snuggle?

I was talking to my friend Steve the other day about snuggling. I remember that as a teenager I could snuggle endlessly with friends of both sexes without any expectations. Watching a movie, hanging out in someone’s basement or backyard, even at school, I felt like I could sidle up to nearly any friend and give them a squeeze or a nuzzle as easily as a high-five. Of course there were some exceptions. I wouldn’t nuzzle a boy who had a crush on me if I didn’t reciprocate his feelings. That’s called “leading him on.” But snuggling was so accepted that it was pretty okay to do it with your friends boyfriends, as long as you knew them both real well and it wasn’t alone in your car or anything weird like that.
We used to have huge “cuddle puddles” that might look something like this:
My head on Liz’s belly, Liz’s head in the crook of Joey’s arm, Joey’s other arm around Heather, whose feet are in Whitney’s lap, who is leaning back to back with Stephen, etc.
It was all pretty innocent, and I can’t recall anyone’s feelings being hurt by any snuggle situation.
In college there was snuggling too, but it was a little more complicated because you hadn’t known the other people for years and years, and everyone’s expectations were different. Most of my college snuggles led to college kisses, and that was fun too. But I had a couple of platonic snuggle-buddies on campus, plus whenever I went home to Denver the snuggle patterns remained the same.
Recently I’ve noticed that my snuggling partners have whiddled down to basically one. Jake Longstreth. When I see my Denver friends there are plenty of extended hugs, but no more cuddle puddles. My best girlfriends and I will have good snuggle sessions, but they are on the East Coast, so I hardly ever get my fix. Add in a long distance boyfriend, and I am seriously snuggle-deprived! I try to be entirely honorable in my dealings with other men, since Jake isn’t often around and I want to live up to the trust he puts in me.
Thus I now satiate my snuggle desires with back patting and arm petting. At parties I find myself patting friends on the back all night long. Sort of goofy, I know. But I need that physicality in my relationships. Am I alone in this? Is this a loss that we all experience as we grow older, or is it all another relic of my bizarre Denver adolescence? Anyone from Denver wanna weigh in here? Sigh.
Yours,
Snuggles
PS There is a local band here called The SnuggleUps. Coincidence?