The Nude Life

It wasn’t bad, it was a great time! But we did have to wear clothes…

Angie and I went to Chicago to visit a couple of very good friends. I’ve known him most of my life, her for a long time. Angie has only met them a few times since she met me but has become a part of the ‘family’. Actually, he’s the clergy that married us. For the sake of their privacy let’s call him ‘E’, she ‘MP’.

They aren’t nudists, aren’t interested. Far from prude but not interested. I mean, we were going to go see a cross-dresser revue Friday night but didn’t because I was not feeling well. Not prude folks.

I’d like to think maybe someday, but realistically, it is rare for nudists to convert textiles to the lifestyle. It has to come from within. Now, Angie took the leap from never-having-thought-about-it to a can’t-stand-wearing-clothes-anytime died-in-the-wool nudist in the space of a few minutes. Happens!

In olden days, E and I, plus a lady of mutual acquaintance (his girlfriend, then) shared an apartment and ran around undressed all the time. No biggie. Of course, we were young and life can be quite flexible.

We went our separate ways, aged, and got used to the lives we lived. That’s cool.

Circumstances in my life eventually conspired to allow me to try something I’d been drawn to since, oh, when the doctor first spanked my butt. I was sold. Nudism/naturism is such a part of our lives now that it’s almost a religion. You know how it can be, I’m sure. Like someone who runs 5 miles a day feels deprived if they miss a day. Remember that, E? Yeah.

So, we spent a great weekend with these guys, talked about nudism/naturism a bit, but they’re far from sold. Like E said, “See these Jockey shorts? What difference can 3 ounces of fabric here or not here make?”

All I could say is, try it and if you still can’t tell the difference, don’t try it again.

Ahh, I hate to see those I love so hampered by ideas that have been sold to them by others that don’t have a clue as to what they are teaching. A natural state of being has been turned into an un-natural one.

How is it that someone raised in a conservative Republican family becomes a Democrat later in life? Or vice-versa? Through growth and experience and the willingness to try to understand new ideas, that’s how. It’s a shame that textiles can’t apply those same life-learning lessons to considering that our lifestyle might have some merit. Maybe something for them, maybe not. They’ll die without knowing if they won’t try. That was the position I found myself in, I tried it. It changed my life. I may live a long time, or a short time. Either way, that time is immeasurably better now.

The thing is, I know and love E and MP and are confident that they would love social nudity. They are very intelligent, involved in social issues, reject a lot of the bull which is thrown our way, yet have a blind spot here. Missing out on a new joy in life they could share, because it is so hard to shed the false impressions we have been raised with. They have a link to this site, may check it out, and may learn something that gives them food for thought. Maybe they’ll explore further (probably run across ‘nudist’ sites that are shills for porn) and see that a LOT of folks have something good to say. Those ‘nudist’ porn sites don’t help the image at all. Unfortunately, they get the most exposure (no pun intended) and the most hits. And folks believe that’s what it’s all about, when it couldn’t be further from the truth.

E and MP, I hope you understand what I’m saying here and are not offended. None intended. Thanks for the great weekend, maybe you’ll spend a weekend at the beach with us this summer!

Like John Lennon said, “…maybe someday you will join us…”

- Steve

After being nudists for over a decade, and living the nude life at home and with friends in an active nudist club for all of those years, it seems that one’s perception of what is ‘normal’ takes a dramatic twist.

For example, how many times have you been greeted warmly by a smiling nude woman, with a sincere hug and “air kiss,” the moment after walking into her house? When is the last time you stood inches away from a half-dozen naked folks of all ages, shapes and sizes, yakking away while you yourself and all of them are just as naked as can be, and having a great time with no sense of self-consciousness or discomfort? How much time do you spend sitting among a group of nude folks in a bubbly hot tub, with steam and warm water invigorating a chilly winter night, with no thought at all that anything is the slightest bit out of the ordinary? Have you spent a night playing BINGO at a nudist resort in a room filled with 100 other folks who couldn’t care less what you are or aren’t wearing? Have you stood in front of 1,200 strangers on the stage of a cruise ship, nude, performing in the passenger talent show during a nude cruise — and had a standing ovation?

Each of those situations, and many, many more, are part and parcel of the nude life for us, and have been for a long time. All our best friends are folks we see most often when they have not a stitch on, and we’re just as comfortable and at ease with them and with ourselves when we’re all nude as any other group of good friends would be sitting at a TGI Friday’s fully dressed.

Is this ‘normal?’

Is it sensible / rational / acceptable for adults to accept others as friends / fellow humans in their natural state, without the contrivances and artificiality that textiles confer upon us when we’re dressed?

Those of us who live and love the nude life would argue strongly that it is — if not “normal” in the common sense of the word — that it is something that humans are very adaptable to, and in fact, are more suited toward.

Standing among a group of good friends and discussing matters great and small, nude, is something that is very intoxicating about the nude life. Relaxing in summer’s heat in Nature’s own couture among your fellow skinnydippers, or spending a cool evening in a warm a steamy hot tub with a group of other carefree nudist friends — all of these are experiences that have become second-nature to us after all these years and which we would not like to live without in the future.

Well, we’ll soon be able to scratch another nude “to-do” off our list: nude roller skating!

Here in the depths of dreary winter, our club goes to great lengths to find fun things to do until summer beckons us back outdoors with her warmth and light. We use just about any excuse we can think of to hold indoor nude parties during the cooler months, including all the major and minor holidays: Mardi Gras, SuperBowl, Holiday, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween and many others.

We also are constantly on the lookout for places we can rent out for a night for our exclusive use, and that has led us to some great events in the past. A nude New Year’s Eve in a rented party barn with a live DJ, disco ball and a huge pot-luck feast, for example, and even nude WhirlyBall — which you have to see to believe.

And now, we will soon be able to add to our list of kookie things we’ve done nude a night of nude roller skating. Our club has rented out a local roller rink for a Sunday night in early March, and we’re hoping for a big turnout from our own members as well as members of other clubs in the area.

It will certainly be the first time many, many of us have been up on skates in several decades (if not more) — nude or clothed! But it just sounds like too much fun to pass up, and besides, spending a chilly March night with our nudist friends is always better than the alternative, even when it doesn’t involve the likelihood of serious injury!

“A child who has never been allowed to see his parents and brothers and sisters naked sees nudity as something shocking.”

- Dr. Helga Fleischhauer-Hardt,

Quoted in Show Me (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1975)

And expressing the same sentiment from the other point of view: “I didn’t grow up with a mother telling me what was under my clothes was bad or evil.”

Academy Award-winning actress Charlize Theron, quoted at imdb.com

Our hosts seems to be busy on vacation (lucky them!) so I’ll just drop this little piece of fluff in for your perusal.

Like a lot of you, Angie and I are clothes-free all of the time at home. Exceptions are when company is over that is uncomfortable with it or when our kids are here. It’s always fun when the doorbell rings and we have to scramble to become ‘decent’!

Now, being re-married folks with a mess of kids, things get a little complicated. Two of my three young adults have been exposed to nudist environments and survived, though they did not leap into the lifestyle. One of Angie’s has been to camp with us and been around me (Angie is not prepared to be nude in front of any of our kids), I think he’ll come over this summer. Maybe her other son and wife too. We’ll see. No push.

Then there’s the grandkids. Little kids say things in school and the next thing you know, Child Protective Services is knocking on your door. This not an uncommon situation. Has anyone out there had to deal with this? How do you explain that being a nudist is not an evil thing? We’re harmless but perceived as somehow evil. And that’s unfair.

So, we’re not an extended nudist family, yet. We have hopes.

Anyway, we survive Wisconsin’s horrible winters by tolerating high heat bills for the comfort of being natural at home. There are area nudist club events that help break up the long cold season, and we count the days until we can get to camp and hit the beach again.

Angie has recently gotten a new job which give us a lot of free air travel so we’re hoping that will ease winter-pain until we can move to a warmer clime.

Just survived a blizzard and more nasty weather is expected. Whoopie. This time, two years ago, I took Angie to the beach for her first time. Not this year!

No more to say other than we wish we were in Florida or Texas or wherever our hosts are sunning themselves right now. I tell ya, it just ain’t fair!

-Steve