I had a Nissan pickup with a high-rise cap which I had outfitted as a one man sleeper for camping. It was a warm late spring day and the weather seemed like it was going to be rainy. I checked in, and was assigned a place to camp. I immediately undressed before I did anything else. After all, that was why I was there.
When I has finished setting up my "campsite" I strolled around the grounds a bit. There weren't a lot of people there yet, but the ones who were, were quite friendly. The pool was open, but being early in the year, the water was plenty cold, despite the warmness of the evening. As it got dark, I wasn't really ready to go to bed yet. I noticed that there was smoke coming from the chimney at the lodge.
It was still drizzly, but not cold at all. Still, I thought that a fire might be nice to drive off the dampness. With that thought I got a book from my things and headed for the lodge. Inside there were several chairs and sofas in a semi-circle around the fireplace. I put my towel down on one (nudists always carry towels to sit on), sat, and opened up my book. People drifted in and out, and I talked to a number of them, including Ellen, the owner/manager who was still waiting for people to come and check in. She turned out to be very active in the national naturist organizations, and was also a political activist who had done a lot to further the cause of nudism in various legal arenas.
It was during this time that a van pulled up outside and in came a family. They consisted of Mom and Dad with three kids. There was a 13 or 14 year old girl, a boy of 11, and a younger girl who looked to be about 8. Overhearing their conversation with Ellen, it was obvious that they were regular members, and had a permanent camper already set up. The kids were obviously restless after the car ride, and the parents looked like two people who had worked all day before starting on their weekend trip, in other words; tired. It wasn't terribly late yet, so the parents sat down on a sofa opposite me and started to relax. The kids, on the other hand were in no mood to sit. As kids usually do, they had their own agenda. "Mom, can we go to the frog pond?" After a moments consideration she replied, "That's fine, but take your clothes off first."
I was immediately struck by several thoughts. First of all was, "What a really odd thing to hear a Mother say to her children in a public place. The second thing was, "That makes a lot of sense." It wouldn't matter a bit if the kids got wet and muddy playing in the rain. They would rinse right off. Here was a Mother who wouldn't have a lot of laundry to do after the weekend. My third realization was a feeling of belonging. I was finally in a world that made sense to me. I was one of a group who had managed to lay aside the artificial, and live in a way that was comfortable and natural.