4.

“I’m not a nudist, but my father was. I grew up around a lot of nudity and visited him once at a place just north of Houston. He and my stepmom at the time were nice enough to wear clothes around me. Some interesting things I remember: You take a towel everywhere and sit on that. Makes sense. They had a store in the area. Nobody worked there. You just wrote down what you took, and they billed you at the end of the month. Apparently, being naked makes people a LOT more honest. Even the kids were naked. While a 3-year-old isn’t surprising, a 10 or 15-year-old sure was. It made me feel a bit uncomfortable, but that was 100% on me. They were all just running around having fun, and nobody cared.”

“Since you don’t have ‘outfits,’ people would decorate themselves in other ways. Tattoos, jewelry, and shapes of pubic hair shaving all added to individuality. It was rare to see somebody you *wanted* to see naked. You end up looking people in the eyes more, at least when they look at you. There was no sex allowed in public. The place was family-oriented, so that would be inappropriate.

I admire the lifestyle and see it as positive and liberating. It also pointed out my culture’s failures in seeing nudity as a bad thing (not that I really did, but it REALLY opened my eyes). I wish I could do it. I love feeling the sun and breeze on my naked body when I get a chance (and nobody is looking, lol).”

—bad_syntax