Nudist Hygene

One of the arguments against going nude is that it's "unhygienic".  That sweaty smelly oily skin is hard on furniture and that it's unsanitary.  That siting directly on furniture is bound to transfer fecal matter to it and to others who sit there after you.

Fair enough.  I see that as being no different than lying on the couch wearing sweaty, wet, dirty clothes after working in the yard on a hot day.  Yuck.  Clean up or put something down between you and the furniture, please. 

Let's face it.  Even clean, our skin is hard on furniture.  Even if it's just bare arms sticking out of shirts and bare legs sticking down from shorts.  But the bottom thing is another matter.  You can fix that just wearing underwear and nothing else, but who wants to go just that far and no further?
 
Hence the towel thing.  Or sheet, or whatever you can put down and clean separately.  I contend that most towels are thicker than most of the clothes we often wear are.  OK, it's a pain to carry a towel wherever you go in the house or have towels or sheets put down everywhere you might sit.  If you have towels put down everywhere and someone unexpectedly comes over, it's going to look strange and if they know why you put the towels down, they're not going to want to sit there.

One thing that doesn't get mentioned much is if you carry and put down a towel, are you putting the same side against you each time, or are you allowing the towel to sometimes flip and possibly transfer to where you're now sitting?  The simple fix for that is to use a towel that has different prints or patterns on each side and making sure that you're putting the same side against you wherever you go.

What about outside or at the beach?  Do you still need to sit on a towel?  Generally yes, though places that get sun exposure are quickly sanitized by the UV from the sun.  Others ask isn't it more hygienic to wear a bathing suit in a sauna or on locker room benches instead of sitting nude on top of a towel?  I put it to them this way...  Would you rather someone sit on a bench in a wet bathing suit, having stewing that suit with whatever issues they have for hours, leaving the bench wet behind them to be sat on by another person likewise in thin swimwear to sit on, to stew in the same mix they then pick up, possibly for hours?  Unless both people are wearing waterproof plastic, transfer is easily going to happen.  Even a wet towel and nothing else between the two people provides better protection than that.  Using a dry towel is certainly better.

So there you have it.  Any other concerns are red herrings. Besides, towels are nice things to have with you at all times as described below from one of my favorite books:

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you — daft as a brush, but very very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost." What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)

— Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy  

How to ask, How to say, It's OK

I'm writing this from an apartment we're renting in Oregon.  It's a VRBO, detached from the host's house on 40 acres of hilly, heavily wooded property.  Very secluded and private, accessible only by a long winding driveway through the woods.  I can image the hosts not bothering wearing anything, anywhere on the property on warm days when they don't have guests.  If so, renting out the apartment on nice days like this would be a real drag.  They're usually gone during the day on weekdays, but they sometimes show up out of the blue.  So other than sunning myself on the upstairs deck where I wouldn't be seen and being able to hear them when they come up the drive, we've kept ourselves covered up.

Poking around the VRBO and AirBnB sites you'll find very few references to naturist friendly offerings.  I suspect that more owners would welcome such use, if only so they didn't have to remain clothed themselves.  But it's probably a turn-off to many potential guests if it was even hinted that the option was available.  And it would probably be a turn-off to the majority of owners if guests outright asked "can we be nude here"?".

I suppose I could kid around with the hosts and say something along the lines:  "Your property is so secluded that it must be hard to wear clothes on warm days around here".  That would probably be taken as a bit odd, yet not direct enough to trigger a give and take about whether they really use it that way, and whether we'd be welcome to do the same.

Thinking about that, how would I hint that the option was available without turning off other guests, assuming I couldn't afford to rent to just naturists?  Perhaps I'd just mention in the paperwork at the time of rental that the property is completely private and though we'd normally be casual about being undressed, that we'd remain clothed unless we were told it's OK for us not to be.  But that you, of course, are free to dress or undress to the level of your comfort here, anytime.  I suspect some guests would tell the owners that it's OK if they're nude, but would stay clothed themselves  While others might try being nude, but they'd prefer the owners not be.

At home, we have a whimsical sign posted on our patio about skinny-dipping.  It sometimes triggers guests to halfheartedly ask if we actually did that ourselves. When it does, we simply say yes.  That when we don't have guests over, we don't wear anything in the pool or hot tub, and leave it at that. A few guests have asked if they could join us that way, and they have.  Likewise, if a family comes over, the kids want to go swimming, but drat, they didn't bring their swimsuits, we say it's OK that don't wear anything and leave it at that.  Sometimes the kids get to skinny-dip, but most of the time their parents don't let them.  Probably because they don't want their kids to even think that's a legitimate option.

I'm usually more direct and usually have a "Clothing Optional Zone" sign posed.  But my wife usually puts it away when we know we're having guests.  My sister-in-law often comes by the house to look in on things when we're away.  She knows we only use the pool and tub that way, and that I love to lay out in the back yard naked.  So when we leave, I remind her that she's free to use the pool and be out in the yard anytime, but that it would be a shame if she didn't take advantage of being naked there when we're gone.  I don't know if she's ever taken advantage of that, but I know the kids have when we were away,.  At least individually, until they left the nest.

Hot Springs Etiquette

Umpqua Hot Springs

We're on an extended road trip across the country and last week we stopped by a couple of hot springs here in Oregon.  Both were noted on web sites and by the signage there as being "clothing optional".  But it was obvious from the comments on the various web sites that a lot of people don't like the nudity (the "hippy-dippy naked people") they encounter.  We didn't have a lot of time, so we concentrated on just the two most popular public springs where nudity was supposed to be common.

Leading up to the forth of July weekend, we encountered a lot of people but only a few who were nude at Umpqua hot springs.  It was awkward.  The few who were nude tried to stay away from the textiles and their families, reaching for towels and covering parts of themselves up as they entered and left their tubs.  With my not wanting to put on my bathing suit (I reluctantly brought it) and my wife absolutely refusing to wear hers, we waited for an open tub far away enough from others that they wouldn't see us once we were in the somewhat murky water.

That didn't help.  A large clothed family settled into the tub next to us.  They seemed grudgingly OK with us not wearing anything, and I wasn't going to waste my time scurrying for a towel and trying to cover my bits as we moved into another basin.  Grrr...

It wasn't as I had hoped, but the next day we tried the other spring (Cougar Hot Springs).  What a difference.  A woman at the trail head collected our $6 each and asked us straight up if we were aware that the spring is clothing optional.  I smiled and said yes (thank you).  She answered questions, was very pleasant, and was there to watch the cars in the parking lot.  The outfit she works for cleans the springs on Thursday mornings.  Fortunately, it was Friday afternoon.  Unfortunately, it was the Friday going into the forth of July weekend, so there was even more people at that spring.

When we arrived at the spring after a short hike, it was wonderful to see that almost everyone there was nude, happy, and perfectly at ease.  People came, took their clothes off, socialized, and casually moved around no differently than if they were at a nudist resort.  Most of the time we were there the only people who were not completely nude was a few older couples and a couple of guys who were part of a large mixed group of otherwise happily naked young adult friends.  For some reason, those guys decided to keep their shorts on even though the other men and the women with them (who outnumbered the guys) stayed happily nude.

A couple of young (probably only 16 or so) girls came later and joined us.  I assume they grew up as nudists or at least grew up being nude in hot springs.  My wife was concerned about them coming on their own, but to tell you the truth, I felt they were much safer around the people there than around the people at the first spring.  One large older full blooded looking native american was there that my wife thought was a bit creepy around the girls, but I found him to be rather majestic.  There was a German, a Polish, and a Japanese couple there, about our age.  All chatty and fine with everybody being nude.

But most of the people there were young (20's, early 30's) with only a few being loose couples and the others being part of the large group of friends.   All very friendly and social.  We stayed several hours, chatted with just about everyone, and hated to leave.  Just as we left, another large clothed family with young children set up on one of the lower basins.  I felt sorry for the kids.  At least they should have been allowed by their parents to enjoy being nude there.

Are Nudists Born or Made?

I enjoy reading questions and answers on Quora.  I learn about a lot of subjects and I like putting in my two cents on topics that I have some knowledge of.  I do so under the name Rick Orlando, which is, of course, the name I use here.

Yesterday a question came up there that got me thinking:  Are Nudists Born or Made?  If you follow the link, you can read my response.  Meanwhile at about the same time, Nick Alimonos of The Writer's Disease wrote a very interesting article Sex Nudity and Science which I think is a "must read".  His article least likely to become a nudist has a lot of parallels with my own life.  Including my growing up not very far from (actually, scary close to) where he grew up.  Maybe it was something in the water...

Nick brings up the point that when he had a pituitary problem and his testosterone level sank, he lost interest in being naked.  From my understanding, having low testosterone causes men to lose interest in just about everything.  Plus, why do so many women love being nudists?  Or for that matter, why do so many of us of "advanced age" with lower testosterone levels still love being naked?

Beyond that, in the "Sex and Science" article he ponders the "nature vs. nurture" question.  In other posts I've talked about my background of being likewise painfully shy well into my 20's, yet raised in a family that was apparently more casual about nudity than most other families around me were.  Humm...  So did I come to identify myself as a nudist because it developed naturally from my upbringing?  Or was I genetically predisposed to become a nudist because I inherited it from my mother, who was the most casual one in the family about nudity?

I thought back to when I was dating my then future wife and she told her mother that I liked being naked (she has a weird habit of outing me, which I've learned to appreciate).  She said that her mother's response was a nonchalant "maybe he's a nudist".  What the heck was she thinking when she said that?  That men have their unique kinks, but at least that one's a rather harmless one?  As in, sorry dear, he was born that way and that's the way he is.  Or that he's been conditioned or influenced to be that way and maybe he'll grow out of it.  What's the truth?

So yeah, why do I like being naked?  The more I think about it, the more I think why the heck shouldn't I like being naked?  It's more comfortable, it's often more practical, I feel better about myself when I'm naked, and I feel happy for others when they're naked and feel accepted by me simply as they are.

Thinking further about it, I'm just resentful that my culture doesn't accept everyone just as they are.  And that for a long time, I didn't accept myself, simply as I was.  It's not that clothing is a perversion, but that the need to hide oneself in it so quickly becomes one.

So am I different?  No.  I'm sorry to say that other people have just simply made themselves different from me.  After a couple of bad decades of not being happy being what I was, I became happy to be as God made me and I've been happy to be that way ever since.

Revisit: Blind Creek Beach

The wife's out again this week and she doesn't like hot weather anyway, so I made a short return visit to Blind Creek Beach near Ft. Pierce today.  It's nice that it's only a little more than an hour away from our house.  It's much closer than Haulover and about the same distance from home as Playalinda, which I  still consider somewhat unsettled.  Plus, we know the county sheriff who has justification there very well, which makes going there a bit awkward.

It was mostly cloudy when I got Blind Creek and it was a pleasant 83 degrees.  But within a few hours, it was 90+ with more sun than I needed after a few hours.  The water at least was delightfully cool.  My informal count was around 100 nude people, expanding to probably over 150 by the time I left.  They're off to a good start and I suspect Memorial Day Weekend will have more people there than I'd be comfortable around.

The Treasure Coast Naturists put some signs up before I left and I was generous with a contribution on the way out.  They pay, not the county, for the porta-potties and their servicing.

I notice that I get a much deeper and more even tan at the beach than I do in my own back yard.  Probably because of the UV backscatter from the sand and water, and the more uniform exposure as one walks along the beach than one gets just laying out in the yard.

Either way, my dermatologist never says anything about my burn free even tan when he examines me.  I wonder what a black doctor, such as himself, thinks about white people who deliberately try to darken their skin against their advice.  I have a massage this week which I routinely remove everything under the sheet, and I'll have a general annual physical in a couple of weeks where the way that doctor does it, it's obvious that I'm responsibly tanned everywhere.  Never in decades of being exampled by these professionals has anyone questioned how I got so tanned.

Naked Pictures of your Kids

Ever since the invention of the film camera, parents have been taking naked pictures of their kids.  My mother certainly had plenty of such photos of us from infant "bare rug" shots, to us in the tub or kiddie pool together, to us just running around and playing naked, which was pretty much our right at home when it was just family around.

That was back in the day when the clerk at the store would check the photos on arrival for quality, but before anyone would ever think to question any parent about those shots.  Mom would torture us by showing off the photos to her friends, but in the end, we stopped caring.  My wife even used a few of the shots with my older sister and I on a poster board she made for my 50th birthday party.  I took some ribbing about "now we know what you look like naked" from friends and co-workers.  If they only knew...

Further revealing my age, our son is married and now has a son and a daughter of his own.  I married my wife with her family in progress from an earlier marriage to a jerk who would have made our lives miserable if I tried to raise "his" kids as nudists.  Our son (technically, my step-son) is married to a wonderful, but very conservative lady who I doubt approves of casual nudity, period.  Her husband, our son, certainly knows his mother and I are pretty casual about it between the two of us, but he doesn't know all the details of my background in social naturism, the way our daughter does.

Either way, it's sad to watch them so ruthlessly clothe their kids.  Around their house, bathing and diaper changing is the only time they're not compulsively imprisoned in clothing.  We go up and visit about once a month for a few nights at a time and sometimes when they're away we let the kids play in their kiddie pool, diaper free.

The last time we were up and the two were away, my wife went a bit crazy taking several dozens of pictures of their kids, completely naked, in their pool and running around the yard with me in the pictures.  Granted, they have a huge back yard which is completely fenced in, but I'm quite sure their mother would not approve, even though my wife and I stayed clothed.

When my wife asked me to send the pictures from the visit, I "neglected" to send the naked pictures, and I got roundly chewed out by her because of that.  I guess I'm still sensitive about being a nudist male and people assuming that I must be some kind of pervert, even a potential pedophile, for being around naked kids.

Dealing with Guests

Whenever we have house guests, I'm reminded how much work it is for those who hide themselves in their own homes all the time.  Doors have to be closed when one is changing, sleeping, or getting in or out of the shower, you have to be "properly" dressed all the times, and don't get me started on having to wear a bathing suit in the pool and hot tub with them :(  What a drag!

My wife is much more likely to "out" me when people unexpectedly drop in, than I am with her.  She'll just say I'm out back, naked, sunning himself, working in the yard, or swimming.  She'll then come get me (meaning she'll ask that I at least put a towel around myself before I come in).  I'm pretty sure that if they were to say it wouldn't bother them, she'd just let them come out and I'd be perfectly fine with it.

On the rare occasion that a neighbor or delivery person has gone through the fence and run into me naked, I've acted no differently than if I were clothed and let it be on them for coming in unannounced.

One of my wife's sisters lives nearby and stops by often.  I expect that one of these times she'll intentionally go out back, knowing I'm naked.  She'll try to make fun of me, and I'll stop getting dressed when she's around.  So there.

We have had a few guests who when told that we normally would be nude in the pool or tub, have asked if they could join us that way.  Likewise, once that's over with, them being nude and us being nude is OK thereafter.