My parents, two brothers and I became naturists when I was 12. Neighbors, friends of our parents and their kids, were members of one of the finest family naturist resorts in the country, and we initially attended as their guests.
We lived just 20 miles from the camp, located alongside a lake across the county line.After a few weekend visits, our family made friends with many others in our town who belonged and we joined them at home nudist parties, including at our own home.
Those homes like ours with pools or others with isolated wooded areas were the most popular homes for these get-togethers.
We became home nudists as well and three non-nudist parents with our school friends became accustomed to visiting us as families and swimming naked in our pool.
When I met my husband-to-be at 19 - he was then 26 - he was hesitant to join me as my guest at the park. I told him that, unless he accepted and participated in the lifestyle I had come to love, no further relationship of any sort would be possible.
After his first visit, he was hooked and we have remained avid naturists since.
My husband's business causes us to live in one of four company condos around the US just over half the year and in the islands the rest of any year.
We have visited many nudist camps across the country and in foreign nations. We have met affable people in virtually every field of endeavor. Teachers, truck drivers, ministers, rabbis, stock brokers, physicians and physicists each find mutual interests at nudist parks.
Thanks to a likeminded cruisline and an exceptional job by several excellent organizers, we have also been ship passengers on one nudist cruise. These are not uncommon, but circumstances haven't yet allowed time to go on another such cruise.
As often noted elsewhere, it is also true that nudist resorts tend to attract an unusually large percentage of swingers. Any regular attendee can spot these groups. Swingers too can easily spot others - you'd have to be there to understand this because none of these display untoward social behavior - and most of those tend to stay together in various groups rather than socialize with the straighter families and their children. We have never heard of any ********* problem anywhere we have visited and families feel completely safe in these environments.
Many, who for whatever psychological reasons feel uncomfortable in other social surroundings, find they are far more comfortable and sociable among naturists. There's a freedom and openess among naturists found in few other social gatherings. As difficult as it may seem for non-nudists to believe, everyone there is considered a friend.
Last year at a park in California, we met a TV actor from one of our favorite shows and his family and still exchange e-mail with his wife, who particularly likes sending inside stories from the entertainment industry people they run across.
I am now 27. Unlike most married couples at family resorts, we do not yet have children, but we enjoy the children's company whenever the families get together at our home or at our club.
We correspond with many we have met out of state or across the state. We offer our home as a sort of "hotel" for free to many of those when they vacation in our area's rather popular tourist area.
We have yet to host acquaintances we have met across Europe and Canada but regularly correspond through e-mail with several of those also. And, oh, that TV actor and his family - they were in the area just once but checked into a local hotel. They were here just two days, partly on business, but his wife phoned us and gave the family's regards.
If our circumstances allowed, we would move full-time to one of the on-site residences available in some parks. I cannot imagine leaving this lifestyle even when we're old and gray. I pleasantly consider our aging whenever I talk with retired people we meet at these parks. Many have been nudists their entire lives and the majority seem considerably happier and healthier than many we know elsewhere.