How I learned of nudism I don't recall. Since I was raised in an extremely conservative family I do remember that my parents opinion of it wasn't positive. So I'm pretty sure doing something that my parents would be against was part of my motivation for me at the time.
During the summer of 1975 my mother got a job. Up until then she had been a stay at home mom while my dad went to work everyday. With my mother working now too it meant that suddenly I had the summer home to myself during the weekday.
I started by being nude inside the home while they were gone to work. Usually I would just do stuff anyone might do but I would do it nude. One time I saw some sunshine coming in through the front door and decided I wanted to get outside nude.
At this point I should describe my neighborhood. It was an older blue-collar neighborhood in a major Texas city. My backyard was a little larger than half an acre. When they built the neighborhood they didn't include an alley. At the far back there were two very old wooden tool sheds (which play a part in the story later), some trees, and a near jungle of bamboo that blocked views to the homes in the back. On either side of the back yard were other homes with just a wire fence separating the yards. This meant our property was open to viewing by neighbors on either side. They had fences, trees, and structures that meant none of the neighbors beyond them could be seen. The front yard was average sized with a driveway and no fencing or privacy for the majority of it. We lived on a curve at an intersection with another neighborhood street.
My first experiences going outside nude were in my backyard when my parents were gone. I would look to see if the neighbors cars on both sides were gone (being that everyone worked I assumed that meant no one was home) and then strip and go out the back door. I found it exhilarating every time I did this. So I decided to find more ways to be nude outside more often. Which meant I needed to find a way to be nude when my parents were home.
I decided to convert one of the ancient tool sheds into my own personal naturist resort. What I told my parents was that it would be my “club house”. Of course since I didn't have a club I guess that didn't matter. It would have simply seemed to them like another one of those crazy ideas I had all the time. One of the tool sheds, which I suspect had actually been a rather good sized workshop long time ago, was in pretty good shape structurally but it was a disaster inside. Decades of dirt and junk had piled up. So I grabbed a broom and paper towels and started cleaning. Once it was clean (to use the word loosely) it was time to make it private. So I got some trash bags, which were solid black, and cut the seams and used them to cover a large open part that faced a neighbor's house. Since the tool shed was in the far back buried in the bamboo I was secluded from our house and everyone else's now. Plus, the other shed, which was larger, gave additional protection from the view of the neighbors. I don't know how many hours that summer I spent out there listening to the radio or reading while nude.
But none of this was enough for me. So I decided to push the envelope some more.
In the summer of 1976 I started climbing out my bedroom window nude at night while my parents were asleep. My bedroom window was on the side of the house with a brick wall separating it from the neighbors. So being there meant I was outside looking at the front yard while nude. But since it was dark no one could see me from the street. The only risk was if my parents decided to check on me and noticed I wasn't in the room. Gradually I started to walk further and further into the yard each night. Being that it was around midnight or later there wasn't any traffic and no one was outside but me. Nor could they see me from any windows. At least once or twice I jogged down the block to the stop sign and walked back.
But this wasn't the biggest risk I took. At this time I also stopped using the back door to get to my backyard when my parents were gone. Instead I decided to walk out the front door nude, in broad daylight, and around the house to the front gate. But rather than use the gate I would climb over the fence just for the experience. Anything to enhance the sensation of being nude. And this was when I started climbing trees in the back yard, which was risky as well.
Now comes the really foolish part of the story when it all falls apart. One day, Lord knows why, I decided to take the trash out while nude. Maybe I was naïve and thought I could simply get away with this since I seemed to get away with so much else. Or maybe it was the thrill of the risk of getting caught. Remember there wasn't an alley so garbage pick up occurred in front of the house next to the street. So here I go wearing just my birthday suit out to the street carrying a bag of trash. And wouldn't you know it some neighbor kids (who I didn't know) went by on their bikes, stopped and stared for a moment. I turned and walked back in the house scared I was going get in big trouble. Nothing seemed to come of this over the next day or two so I figured it was cool. Boy was I wrong.
Later that week I went to a youth event down in Houston. Upon my return as I was dropped off by a friend I saw my parents sitting on the front porch as they often did when the weather was nice. But when I came up I saw they weren't happy. It was then that I learned that the kids had told their parents who had called the police. The police had arrived while I was gone to investigate a report of a “flasher”. But when they spoke to the kids that had seen me they were so intimidated that they wouldn't talk and the cops agreed not to pursue it.
Now don't go thinking I was out of the woods yet. As I wrote earlier my parents were very conservative and didn't approve of nudism. They just couldn't understand why I would do something like this. And they talked about how disappointed they were in me. So this ended my outside nudist teen adventures to say the least.
Off and on through the years afterwards I would still occasionally be nude inside while home alone. But even after getting married, my wife and I didn't go around the house nude. Then about 9 years ago I learned of Christian Naturists and found there was no conflict between my faith and naturism. In fact, I learned that they actually go together. By visiting naturist web sites I learned more of naturist philosophy and body acceptance. While my wife became a household nudist I accepted social naturism as being a big part of my life.
Today whenever the temperature permits I'm nude at home. I've written numerous articles for the Christian Naturist newsletter Fig Leaf Forum. I maintain two naturist web sites as well as participating here on Cat's message board and others. And I'm a moderator of a local Yahoo Christian Naturist group, which meets together monthly. So now I'm participating in social nudist events at house parties and naturist resorts. All of my close friends are either naturists or know of and have no problem with my naturism.