Stop Being So Creepy Weird

We need to stop being so "creepy weird" about nudity.  By that I mean that we need to stop allowing it to be a big deal.  Because by all rights, it shouldn't be.  It didn't used to be when I was a kid.

Case in point.  I went to a local event yesterday at a community center a few blocks from where I live.  It was built in the 70's when the town was a lot smaller and concentrated in that area.  It survives by hosting events, having a library and a very nice nature trail and boardwalk next to it, and having a rag tag skateboard park built in the back.  Even so, it still operates as a community gym with a nice basketball court, a pretty decent workout room with lots of equipment, and lots of physical programs, such as yoga and martial arts.  Membership for residents is ridiculously cheap.  Enough so that I wonder why people flock to fancy private gyms scattered throughout the area when they can get their basic gym needs satisfied so cheaply.

At the event, being an apparently tired American, I had a need to find the rest room.  It was, of course, the men's locker room, where I got a reminder of how simply we used to treat nudity.  At least in gyms.

You first walk into a large square room with lockers along the wall and benches scattered about in the middle of the room.  From there, you walk into another open room where the urinals and toilets are.  The toilets had stalls, but the urinals and sinks were packed close along the wall with no other partitions in sight.

A little further on, there was a small steam sauna, followed by a large room with numerous shower heads every few feet along each wall.

What struck me as "odd" these days, is there was no place to hang or leave a towel.  I remember the days where you simply came back to the locker room, stripped, put your clothes in the locker with your towel and other "stuff", and simply walked with the crowd toward the showers.  You'd do you business, if you had any, along the way. Often waiting in line there, and for a place beneath a shower head.  You'd talk with your friends while you soaped up and rinsed off, then made your way, often en masse, back to the lockers where you'd open your locker, retrieve your towel, dry off, get dressed, all while continuing chatting with your friends, and leave.

I bet those showers very rarely get used anymore.  People would rather stink up their cars and go home to shower, instead of just going to work or continuing their day from there.