Throwback Thursday

I love so many things vintage, but one of my favorite old things are nudist magazines. Of all I own or have seen, this is my favorite cover. I just love it! Those shades and brown skin just scream summer.

As I mentioned, I have several old nudist magazines. The plan is to post bits and pieces of them as time goes on.

The Signs were There

I've done plenty of things in the course of my life that were counter to my nudist tendencies. For example, wearing tighty-whities. I wore them for decades! I guess I just followed my dad's example because he was my male role model. He wore those types of shorts, so all three of us boys in the family did too. When we were little, we slept in pajamas (matching of course), all made by mom every year for Christmas. I don't think we wore just pajamas either--I'm sure our tighty-whities were underneath. I remember getting into bed and removing my bottoms lots and lots of times. When I became a little older the jammies stopped and I wore just the tighty-whities. Same deal though--I'd get under the covers and off they came. I think I was admonished at least once for it by one of my parents (although I'm not sure how they even knew). I don't know why, maybe it was comfort, maybe it was just adolescent fondling. Either way, I have apparently had a fondness for, or tendency toward sleeping nude a long time before I recognized it. A long time. Oddly enough, it was only a few years ago now that I finally switched out of--and away from--those binding little tighty-whities. I wonder why it took so long! I'm so embarrassed.

Like anyone's life, mine has had a lot of chapters. Through some (more like many) of those chapters I was not in complete control of my life's decisions. Like the military for instance. When I was in the Air Force, the last thing I wanted was to be surprised in the middle of the night by some fucking fire drill or something, and find myself standing there naked, trying to blink the sleep away. The whole idea of being suddenly thrust into the harsh military way of life was hard enough without the people around me razzing me because I slept naked. Little by little, I sort of pushed it out of my mind for a long time.

As an adult out on my own, I became aware of the fact that I could do anything I wanted, and one of those things was sleeping naked. It was so nice to not have to worry about covering my ass before crawling out of bed to pee. Now I could wander the whole house that way any time I wanted to! It felt different than before when I was younger. It felt more naughty when I was younger, but not nearly as much any more.

There were some places I've lived that afforded more freedom than others. At one point in my adult life I rented a teeny house, and it had a matching teeny garage that someone had attached to the house at some point. It also had a fenced back yard with quite a few smallish trees around the perimeter. While it was by no means private, it was private enough that I was able to wander around out there after dark on nights without too much moon. I know, I know--that's not much, but during the summer months it was nice to have that as an option. One place I lived in had an indoor privacy thing going on during winter that was in my favor. The place had single-pane windows on it, so I put thick, translucent plastic over the windows. I had to put them on the inside with thumbtacks because the outside of the whole complex of duplexes were made from stucco. What I liked about those "cataract" window coverings was that I could leave all my curtains wide open throughout the house to let maximum light in, all the while spending as much time as I could while nude. Even the slider in the dining room was covered. I could stand right up near the window and nobody could see me. Being nude in summer is always easier, but that setup was pretty cool for a winter thing!

It sure is nice to finally live with no restrictions. Why did it take so long?

Friday Funny

Funny things aren't always just comics and jokes you know... sometimes they're just "WTF" moments like this one, taken from the pages of an old nudist magazine.

Throwback Thursday?

When I first had the idea or notion to create this blog I asked myself, "Why?" I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it, or where I hoped it would carry me. Being a nudist, I had several interests I considered sharing, and one of them is vintage nudism. I have a few old nudism magazines myself, and I wanted to share the little tidbits there are on those pages. The old ads, the stories, the pictures--all are interesting to me. These are one of the things I wanted to share.

What if I started posting a "Throwback Thursday" every week? One of my hobbies is photography, and my favorite type of photography is black & white. What better way to combine my interests than vintage nudism black & white pictures?

As with all picture postings in blogs, click them for full-size.

Scenes from the Shop

I like my shop. It's big, it's heated, and it's got everything I need in it. I love to work naked when I'm out there if the temps are in my favor. I don't like that I have to walk to the shop dressed before I can disrobe, but that may change soon. We have plans.

I shot a few little videos last summer when I was out there working. Here's one of them. Sparks? Who cares about sparks!

Friday Funny

The weekly recap of nudist activity around our household:

It's been a very snowy week around here, and I missed a few days of work because of it. I brought my work laptop home so I could work from home (naked of course), but it didn't quite work out. Two hours into my work session I ran out of battery because I forgot the power supply and had to shut it down. The nudity ended an hour or so after that when I got chilled. Oh well. I suggested more than once that we should go out and plop down in the snow (naked of course) for snow angels, but Brenda nixed that idea. We play Wii bowling a lot, and I did that a few times in the nude this week. Winter tends to curtail nudist activities, but at least we're nearing spring.

Happy Friday!

Winter Shut-ins

These are trying times for nudists clamoring to get out of the house. Last night dumped about 10 inches of snow on us, so we’re a long way from enjoying any outside activities in the nude! I suggested we go out and do snow angels this morning, but Brenda wasn’t too keen on that idea. She keeps reminding me that, although it’s very serene and beautiful to look at, underneath there are probably dog turds just waiting to be discovered. We are also without our cable internet (and related TV of course), so there’s a more enhanced feeling of isolation and relaxation with the snowfall than there might usually be.

Instead, I spent some time editing some small movies I had on my phone. Two of them are stop-action videos, and they are my favorite. Especially the one I’m posting here. It’s the worst resolution of all I have because it was captured on my old iPad 3. I was gearing up to move from my shabby little rental duplex to the house I had just bought a couple years ago, and decided to have some fun and record myself emptying a cupboard. I’m glad I did. It’s kinda fun to watch!

Friday Funny

Happy Friday! Keep smiling!

My First Clothing Optional Abode

After I left my first marriage in 2005, I moved into an apartment that was not too far away (my teenage daughter was still at living there at home with her mother.) It was a good-sized place 1200 sq ft, with two floors, two bedrooms, and a single-car garage attached through the kitchen.

It was at this place I was able to really embrace nudity.

I spent as much time as I possibly could wearing no clothes. I loved it! It was a place with lots of space to wander around, and I was enjoying it to the fullest. My daily routine started from sleeping nude, and when I woke I made my coffee, my lunch, then sat around drinking coffee and blogging--all while bare. It was with great reluctance that I'd have to get dressed to go to work. Hell, I didn't want to get dressed for any reason. When I came home from work what's the first thing I usually did? Yep, strip the clothes off. I became more of a shut-in because I enjoyed the feeling of freedom so much. It also held a small bit of naughtiness too. It was during this time I became friends with my wood stove.

Yes, my rented apartment had a free-standing wood stove in the living room. Luckily, I was able to get high-quality, thick, solid oak pallets for firewood at work. I would bring home a huge stack of them, and stack them neatly in the garage. Remember when I said I spent every moment I could in the nude? I wasn't lying. I would go out into the garage and would spend time tearing all those pallets apart and cutting them up into stove-sized pieces--all while only wearing shoes of some kind. If I didn't have firewood to burn, I didn't care--I still kept the baseboard heat cranked up nicely. Baseboard heat is more expensive than wood heat of course, but it's really close to wood stove heat. They both heat slowly but thoroughly. My comfort while naked was paramount. The floor in my apartment was actually a poured concrete slab under the carpet, and when it got warm it stayed warm pretty well. The chimney effect also warmed the upstairs even warmer of course, and that was okay by me. That's where my computer was, and I spent a lot of time there.

When I wasn't upstairs on the computer, I was out in the garage working on something. During my time there I did a complete makeover on my Harley, and as much time as possible was spent naked while doing it:

That picture makes the garage look only about 6-feet wide, but that actually wasn't the case. Here's another picture looking the other direction toward the kitchen door. I had a lot of stuff packed into it, but it was usable:

Looks like I was a little behind on the pallet butchery doesn't it? There was a good reason for that. When I took that upper picture it was about 85° outside, and because I lived in a populated area I had only two choices: Get dressed so I could roll the door up and enjoy the breeze, or stay naked and slightly overheated. It was really a tough choice, but bare skin won out that particular day.

I still like to work naked, but I have a lot more space to do it in now. More on that later.

My First Adult Nudist Experience

(I didn't mean "adult" as in nasty... I meant as a grown-up)

I really don't know for sure that this was my first nudist experience. After all, the level of nudism that makes an "experience" varies widely (along with my memory) but here goes:

It was the early in the summer of 1980, and I was getting close to completing my 6-year stint in the Air Force. I shared a small house with a married couple in Spring Lake, North Carolina. I liked to take jaunts every now and then just to get away and let my roommates have the house to themselves. One day I decided I was going to go spend the weekend over on the coast. I had no idea where I would go, but I was pretty sure I could find something that looked good. I was also driving a full-size station wagon, so I could stop and sleep anywhere.

I had never been to the coast of North Carolina before, and I really had no idea what to expect or where to go. A little exploration got me to what seemed to be a good area, but I couldn't actually see the beach because the ocean was blocked by a huge sand levee or dune. It must have been about 25-feet high and went a long way in either direction. The street that paralleled it had lots of little roads about every half-block or so that turned toward and dead-ended at the bottom of the massive dune. It kind of had the look of a suburb with long driveways but no houses. Each of the little sand roads were basically packed sand about a hundred feet long. The whole area was filled with tall grasses that afforded a good degree of privacy. It was one of these "driveways" that I turned into and drove to the bottom of the dune, still unsure of where I was or how close I was to the ocean at this point. Because of the huge wall of sand, you couldn't see it or hear it. I got out of my car and climbed up the sand dune to see where I was, and was pleased to see that I was staring out at the Atlantic ocean! The actual beach on the ocean side of the wall was very flat and boring, and maybe about 100 yards or so to the water's edge. As I looked back and forth, I saw a small number of people here and there in the distance, but none close by. I walked up to the water's edge, noting how clean and uncluttered the sand was. Unlike other beaches I have been to, the area was fairly devoid of seashells--the only ones I saw being those of small scallops.

On my way back to the car, I stopped on top of the dune and surveyed the inland area.  The top of the dune was somewhat flat, so people had obviously walked on it. There was only one house visible, and it was quite a ways away. All the little roads that dead-ended at the dune looked about the same but there were some that had taller grasses than others, so from my vantage point I chose a better spot a little farther up. Besides putting me at a slightly farther distance from the house that was visible, it also afforded me a lot more privacy because the grasses were taller and thicker. I moved the car to the new spot and backed it all the way in, parking it at an angle. That blocked me from anyone that may being going by, as well as allowing me access to the back and right side of the car. At this point I was about 30 or 40 feet from the base of the dune, and had effectively made myself a nice cozy, private area. It was walled off by my car to the west, tall grasses on the sides, and the windbreak dune to the east. My idea of camping was simple: I had my cooler filled with food and drink, a folding lounge chair, and a sleeping bag. My station wagon was a full-size model with a huge amount of space to sleep in the back when you folded everything down. There was a campfire circle there, but no wood to burn, so I didn't worry about it. It was hot anyway--no need for a fire. It was nearing midday and the sun was pretty high so I set up my lounge chair, oiled myself up with suntan lotion, kicked off my flip-flops, and stretched out.

After lying there for a while and half dozing I started to feel a little restless and daring. I unfastened the top button of my already loose-fitting shorts and walked around the area a little, testing how low they rode on my hips. Actually, it was more too see how far I could go and have them actually stay up. Being barefoot enhanced the feeling, making the looser than normal shorts feel like all I had on was a loincloth or something. Feeling more naughty by the minute I decided to walk out to the street. I loved the naughty feeling when they fell down a couple times as I walked. By the time I got to the street I had taken them off and was walking completely naked, enjoying the feeling of the sun on my body. I had never bared myself so completely to the sun and breezes. I had been naked in the sun before, but I had never been anywhere where I could actually walk carefree like this. I was totally into the moment, savoring every sensation of this naughty, new experience. It was amazing! The sun was hot, but the breezes were pretty constant, so I never really got too overheated. Before turning around and heading back to the car I played exhibitionist, enjoying the naughty feeling of being completely naked and standing in the middle of the empty street. I walked back to the car naked and dropped my shorts onto my lounge chair. I wouldn't be needing those any more. I was enjoying the feeling of walking barefoot and naked up and down my driveway road, pausing to linger at the street end as if I was daring someone to catch me bare. After enjoying the slow walking back and forth for a while I was getting more comfortable with the area, but yet somewhat bored at the same time.

Then I was struck with the idea of going naked up the dune.

The more I thought about it the better it sounded.  I guess there was an element of danger that appealed to the exhibitionist in me. I looked around and started inching up the dune, cautiously scanning the area for anyone. After only a few steps I chickened out and went back down. After all, anyone could come down the street or up over the wall and see me right? Occasionally a car would drive down the street, so that was another possibility. I concluded that I wasn't quite ready. I contented myself with lying down naked on the lounge chair for some sun. I pretty much stayed naked as the day wore on, lying in the sun and listening to music. It was such a liberating feeling! I had to alternate between sun and shade (which there wasn't much of) and keep myself covered with suntan lotion to keep my tender areas from getting too much sun. I would also take breaks and go for dips in the ocean to cool off, each time donning shorts of course. I was in heaven. At one point I was lying on my lounge chair when a strong wind came up and totally covered me with sand from head to toe. Luckily, my eyes were closed, but because I was covered in suntan lotion the sand stuck. I was glad my car was closed at the time or it would have probably been filled by flying sand.

When daylight fades, dusk creates a sort of crossover point where someone with tanned skin becomes almost invisible. As the sun waned I found myself getting bolder and more naughty. I checked my naked self out in the car's side mirror, and decided I was only slightly less visible than someone with white shorts on because my midsection hadn't ever gotten much sun before that day. Even though it did have some color from the day's activities it was still pretty visible. I shrugged and decided to go for it anyway-- I was feeling pretty naughty and daring. I inched my way up the dune naked, cautiously looking around as I did so, and when I got to the top I peered over, making sure everything was okay. The beach was empty. I stood up on top of the dune bare to the world! I walked to the water's edge and carefully placed my glasses out of reach of the lapping waves. I remember a feeling of apprehension when I took them off because I'm half blind without them. It was a really weird feeling--one of vulnerability. It was one thing to be out on a flat, empty beach naked, but to do it and not be able to see if anyone came near was oddly unsettling. I put them back on and took another look around. I went in for a quick dip and hurried back to grab my glasses, worried that someone might be coming. "Relax," I told myself, "it was only like 10 seconds ago you took your glasses off." I took a reassuring look around, and again went back to the water, staying a bit longer this time. Why is it that water always seems to feel warmer at dusk? It felt heavenly! That was the first time in my life I had ever gone skinny-dipping, and the experience of that moment is almost as fresh in my mind as the day it happened. When I came out of the water it occurred to me that I had forgotten a towel, so even if somebody had showed up I wouldn't have been able to cover myself anyway. Dripping wet and naked, I made my way back to the dune. It was getting darker now, and if anyone would have come near they probably wouldn't have seen me anyway. Because I walked back to the campsite totally wet, I tried to walk carefully to avoid getting too much sand on me, but as careful as I tried to be I slipped and fell backward on the way down the dune and covered my whole backside with sand.

I found (and still find) that being naked is a hard thing to stop doing--especially when you're doing it outside. Just because the sun went down didn't mean I felt like getting dressed. The temperature was still comfortably warm. The only difference was the increase in bug activity. During the day I never saw an insect at all, but when the sun went down they really came out. I didn't think they were biters but I didn't want to take a chance. I came with my bug repellent. Like applying suntan lotion, being naked and having no clothes to get in the way makes it very easy to slather yourself. I climbed back up and sat on the top of the dune facing the ocean. I sat there for quite a while, getting high and staring at the ocean, the stars and even watched as a small moon rose in the darkening sky. I was in total ecstasy. The sounds of frogs and crickets were in abundance behind me, providing natural symphonies for me to enjoy.

As it neared time to go to bed, I knew one last trip to the water was in order. I had been covered suntan lotion, sand, and later covered with bug repellent. There was no way I was going to get into my sleeping bag that way. The cool thing about the last trip of the night was the fact that it was late and there was zero chance of being caught by anyone, so I strolled totally carefree this time. I remember thinking that it was like I was the last human on earth and it was all mine! The moon was thin, and although not bright, it was enough to see by. l also remember how amazing the stars looked from out there because of the lack of city lights. This time I took a towel, soap, shampoo, and hair brush with me. I had never bathed in an ocean before and may never again, but it was a great experience. The water felt so inviting in the warm night air. I went out first without my glasses and swam around in the dark, then I went back and got my shampoo. Shampoo doesn't suds up very well in salt water, but it got the job done. I went back ashore, put my glasses on, and brushed my hair. I grabbed the soap and went back into the water for a full body soap-down. After toweling off I made my way back and eased into my sleeping bag.

I woke just as the sun was just starting to lighten the sky. I grabbed some weed and a towel and went up to the top of the dune. It was very early so there was nobody on the street side of the wall. There was somebody walking along the water with their dog way off in the distance, but they were way too far away to worry about. I spread my towel out on the sand and sat down. I remember thinking, "It just doesn't get any better than this." There is something magical about sitting there naked and watching the sun peek and slowly rise from the edge of a placid Atlantic ocean.

I stayed until midday on that Sunday, doing much the same as I had the day before. All too soon, it was then time to go home.

Nudism in 1938

I love vintage movies, but I'm not really a fan of the "old-timey" sounding announcer's voice. I guess adding drama to readings was the norm back then.

This movie is something I found on the internet. I don't like that it's so derogatory to large-sized women. The announcer pokes what he (they?) thought was funny back then. It's not funny now. I love that people come in all sizes!

It's interesting to hear the "public" descriptions of nudists in 1938. The movie both makes fun of nudists and applauds them at the same time.

It's fun to watch for the sake of history. How far we've come, and yet--so far to go!