Bare Poetry

I've said before that I have multiple blogs, and one of those blogs just happens to be all poems and limericks. Several of those rhymes revolve around my favorite theme like this one does. I'll post those here every now and then. Here's one:

The Other "N" Word
by Rick Williams

I love the feel of nakedness
and don't care who I tell.
I'll announce it to the world
and everyone else as well!

I wear t-shirts every day to work;
many with "Nudestock" themes.
They're my subtle way of saying,
"There's a nudist on your team!"

At first it was a common thing;
people would always wonder:
"Why would anyone want to see

what's usually hidden under?"

It isn't just about what you see
when you're only wearing shoes;
it's also about how you feel--
it helps you kick the blues!

Bodies differ so very much--
there are really no two the same;
so why should less than perfect ones
be made fun of and/or shamed?

I've had many experiences
of nudism over the years,
but never thought to share them;
perhaps acceptance fears?

Nobody wants to be ridiculed
about things they think or do.
Maybe I thought I'd be seen as odd
and taunting would ensue.

I'd like to think that everyone
is born a nudist at their core;
but alas, most kids are taught
to have those thoughts no more.

Instead, be sure to make it known
that you're a nudist too!
Share those thoughts with those you know--
I'll bet that some will envy you!

Nudism in Advertising: Wartime Style

I almost didn't post this because I don't want my blog to be about sexuality. Sexuality is a whole different subject today than it used to be. No, I don't want controversy, bashing, or anything negative to come from my blog posts. It's all about fun and nudity! I have quite a few old advertisements I have collected with something to do with nudity. It's entertaining to see how ads have transitioned since the early days.

In the early 20th century, product advertising was rife with suggestive content. After all, it's been known for decades that sex sells. Lots of companies had those kinds of ads, even the good ol' Ivory Soap company. These ads were different though--they were male bodies, and lots of them. It was all about the camaraderie within the armed forces. This was wartime, and it was a time when the whole country rallied behind the fighting men of the military. Who was the target audience though? Men? Women? G.I.'s?

Not to be outdone, the folks at Cannon Towel company probably took a look at those ads and said, "Hey, look at those guys--they don't even look happy! Let's take our product advertising a level further!" They definitely added some fun, but maybe a bit too much fun? Don't you get the impression that, instead of towels, they're selling fun? When is the last time you saw anyone's butt crack in an advertisement? Coppertone?

I guess they were doing their best to lighten the mood of war.

This one is even more odd because it features natives standing there with blank looks on their faces, wondering what kind of root these guys have been mashing and smoking. It looks comical enough to have sprung from the pages of MAD Magazine...

Ditto, this one... "Hurry up guys, it's almost time for the show!" Check out the guy in the background, probably keeping any eye out for officers.

For the folks fighting in the colder north, they include an ad for them, too. They carried the towel fun indoors. This one almost looks anti-nudist, doesn't it? "Put yer damn clothes on, and do it now!" This one is apparently describing how hard it is to bathe in the northern climates...

Lighter things

I love this cartoon--it's our last name! Unfortunately, I'm not a lawyer or I'd be able to afford a home with more privacy...

The "Non" Fremont Solstice Parade 2020

Thanks to the Covid19 pandemic, cultural events we are used to attending are largely not happening this year. Millions of people around the world have been shut-ins for much of the first quarter of the year, and not being able to attend favorite cultural events has tended to compound that feeling of isolation for a lot of people. Having to stay away from group gatherings is unfortunate and hard to deal with, but it's necessary. Sports events, restaurants, concerts--even parks--have had to shut down. Add to that growing list the famous Fremont Solstice Parade in Seattle, one of the originals. This marks the 31st year it's been going on, and yet--it's not quite going on...

It's gone "virtual" this year. The annual Fremont Solstice Parade has always happened, rain or shine, but will not be happening this year. Their website states that this year's event, "...will be a compilation program of prerecorded content made of historical archives, ensembles, art, personal testimonies..." among other things. Isn't that weird? A virtual parade. I never thought I'd see the day. Even our beloved painted naked bicycle riders have to be reruns this year.

While I enjoy the hell out of this parade, I've only actually attended one time, even though it's only 45 minutes away from my home. My daughter and I went in 2008 and had a great time. I was fairly new to the camera I was carrying that day, and I found out too late that I had a bit to learn with regard to its camera settings, but I did get a few lucky shots here and there.

Here's an odd story: Several years after we attended I happened across someone else's 2008 Solstice Parade album on the web, and I started looking through their work. Imagine my surprise when I found a picture of me there! You can't see Sarah, but there I am in the back wearing the yellow shirt. That's not all though--When I went back through my own pictures, there was the opposite of the same shot! I'm assuming it was likely the guy in the kilt, but still--what are the odds? By the way everything is lined up it looks like the other shot comes after the gal take about 3 or 4 more steps.

Here are a few more of my not-too-crappy shots to give a little taste of this great event:

You can see how the parade brings out the lucky locals too!

Check out the elaborate head-wrapping gargoyle hat this guy came up with:

Nudism and Photography

Many places nudists go--especially nudist parks--we see signs warning us, "No Photography." It only makes sense. Imagine this: you're sitting there at your favorite nudist park or nude beach in your favorite chaise lounge, relaxing and sipping a beverage. As you sweep the area your eyes lock on someone with a camera facing your direction. Who are they shooting at? What are they shooting? Why are they shooting?

I find the "No Photography" rule to be necessary and frustrating both. I have had photography as a hobby for decades, well before digital existed. I've had photo blogs and non-photo blogs, and they all included pictures of mine. I've had fun posting my pictures on photo websites like Flickr and Smugmug for many years. It just becomes automatic--whenever I knew I was going somewhere new or potentially interesting I was always sure to have my camera batteries charged and ready. Photography ended up becoming associated with interesting places and people, so to have a nudist blog and not be able to combine my photography hobby with it is truly frustrating sometimes.

Things were a little less restrictive in the past, and ads like this one were common in nudist magazines. Nowadays, you need good, advance coordination and approval to pull off walking around with a camera hanging in plain view.
Now, with cell phones as ubiquitous as they are, everyone has the potential to be a photographer. The trouble with non-photographers taking pictures is that they generally don't have the same consideration for their subjects as a seasoned veteran. People that have been in photography long enough know that you don't just take pictures of someone without them knowing. There are permissions, permits, and model releases to be taken care of first!

Oh good, they're all asleep!

I don't care too much though. What would it be like if we didn't have that rule? Nudist parks would likely not have the family atmosphere they have now. People would generally not include their children with them. Could the actions of a few "bad apples" ruin the public's perception of nudism? Sure. Nudism would become more hidden from the public eye so-to-speak. It could no longer be touted as "family friendly" environment if there was always a risk of someone offending someone else with use of a camera.

I love pictures of nudity. I don't mean just pictures of naked people--those are all over the internet. I love candid pictures of people enjoying themselves in ordinary ways--all while nude. I am always on the lookout for good, usable pictures from the internet, but man--you find one good picture in thousands if you're lucky. I currently have a lot of great pictures I intend to scatter among my blog posts as I go, but it would be more of a personal story if the pictures are from our own experiences. We will have more of our own... just give it time.

It's good that cameras have gotten smaller and less obtrusive. It makes taking candid shots with our significant others nicely spontaneous! We should all consider ourselves lucky because it really wasn't all that long ago that cameras were all film. Developing the pictures from the film cost money, and you had to wait to get your pictures back, hoping at least some of them came out. The Polaroid cameras were pretty popular because they would yield results right on the spot. They were the first "personal" cameras. It wasn't long ago either that only black & white existed. In a time when quality pictures really only came from a pricey cameras that were all big and bulky, at least Kodak made cameras cheaply for the average folks. It just took a while for them to become really mainstream.

Get out there and start shooting. I'm all for everyone taking pictures any time you can... just make sure you ask beforehand!

Juxtaposition

Sometimes I notice things that other people may not notice. (Of course, to be fair I also miss things everyone else notices.) Recently, I was going through a huge pile of pictures on my computer and ran across the color one below thinking, "Hmm, this picture looks oddly similar to that other one."

A little digging through my files and viola! (pronounce 'wha-la')

I posted the black and white version some time ago as a funny picture, pondering, "I wonder what was going on?"

Blatant plagiarism or "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?" Probably just a case of, "Why reinvent the wheel?"

 

Here's another interesting one. I first spotted the picture with the elephant in it. (Who wouldn't?) I love black and white photography, and I admired the composition. I was mentally applauding whoever set up the photo shoot for their originality. Then, sometime later I came across the one without the elephant.

"Hey, what the hell?"

That made me examine them more closely, and that's when I saw the obvious bad Photoshop job someone did of pasting the elephant in. You can see the ground in front of it suddenly change. What I found interesting is, the original one without the elephant is almost impossible to find on the internet, whereas the elephant version is absolutely everywhere.

Fortuitous Funny

Happy Friday!

Haircuts

One of the things I got to experience during the "shut-in of 2020" was overgrown hair. Everyone that didn't have some connection to a person that could cut hair was slowly turning into a Wookie. Nobody was immune. Brenda has a nice cutting outfit for grooming our dog, Ruby, and while she is really good at clipping her, she hadn't had any experience with people other than 1-length buzz cuts.

One day while I was in the other room working she sat down and watched a couple hours of YouTube vids and got a crash course in hair maintenance. In retrospect, I was sorry I still had clothes on when it was all over. I was covered with hair. I thought she did great job though!

Before:

  



After:

  

Current Events and Temps

When I began this blog last year I really didn't know what I had in mind for it. After letting it run a while, my postings slowed to a crawl, finally stopping. It was under a slightly different name then, called Preferably Undisguised. When I started a new blog and reloaded the old posts it wouldn't let me have the same name so I chose this one.

This has been the strangest year of my life I think--probably most everyone's life. The Covid19 virus has tossed a huge wrench into the world machine, and almost everything broke down in short order. My employer was proactive right from the start and took steps to keep everyone safe. Per their directive, we all had to start working from home. Although I started reluctantly, it didn't take long for me to embrace it. It's cool being able to stay nude all day if I want! Here are a couple shots that show me hard at work from my home office location in Brenda's sewing room, naturally undisguised.

I've always been kinda warm-blooded. I hate cold. Well, there was a point somewhere in the last couple weeks where our temps here were a lot warmer. Obviously, warmer temps make the house warmer, and that was fine by me. I usually have it at 72° or 73° in the house, even when we're naked. That kind of temperature range is too warm for most people, but it's perfect for me. When I'm working nude at a desk I need a couple additional degrees to stay comfortable. Last week I decided that my minimum comfortable temperature to sit naked at the desk for 8 hours is 75°. A couple more degrees would be fine too. I'm sure I'll get my chance to experience that this summer. As most nudists would tell you, when you're working nude and you get cold, just throw on a t-shirt!

We have a nude household, and we are both introverts. That means that we are super-happy to spend our days staying home in various stages of undress. When the lockdown orders came from the government we were all too happy to comply. To us, that meant that there was now little or no chance of anyone surprising us with a drop-in visit! As I said, we are almost always naked to some degree, and that changes from minute to minute. Brenda stopped taking her hormone therapy a while back, so she is prone to lots of hot flashes. She is always talking about how she is one of the lucky women in the country because when a hot flash hits, she just peels instantly. It's not unusual to see her appearance change several times in an hour's time. Depending on weather, temperature, or even just how we feel, it's not unusual to see either of us wearing only socks.

Fortuitous Funny

If only...

Working Outdoors

I recently blogged about nudists wearing only a t-shirt. This time I want to talk about footwear. Specifically, working footwear. There are many times when having the right footwear is key.

As much as I love life in the nude, my being nude tends to cause laziness. Why? Two reasons mainly:

1. The desire to stay naked clashes with outdoor work that needs to be done where I can't be nude (privacy concerns, etc)
2. Not having the right footwear ("I'm barefooted and clean--I'm in relaxation mode!")

Look at it this way: Most nudists we see are in the process of recreating. They are usually relaxing in some way or another. In that situation, barefoot, flipflops, or sandals are obviously best because they're minimal. In that situation, minimal is the key word. If you're wearing something like flipflops on your feet, are you really going to be able to use a shovel efficiently? No, you can't stand on it hard enough to break soil without doing damage to your foot. By design, our feet stick out in front of us, and therefore vulnerable. We are prone to favoring our toes when we're doing work, and we tend to jump back if something threatens our tootsies.

If you're moving, lifting, digging, or whatever--you need the right stuff on your feet: Boots. I'm not talking about cowboy boots, although those would certainly do the job. They just don't quite have the right look when you're wearing nothing but a smile:

Granted, those guys weren't working. One guy was flirting with lady, and the other guy fancies himself a swinger...

Having the right footwear is a necessity when you're working at chores--wearing no clothes is just a bonus! If you're working in plain, ol' dirt or mud, barefoot is the choice. It just adds to that good, nude feeling of being connected to the earth. If you're really working, like using power tools and heavier materials, you need to wear boots like these guys:

You want to see an example of someone that should be wearing foot protection but is obviously running with his brain disconnected? Look at this guy. Even if you're okay with flying object danger, you're still going to end up with chlorophyll-colored feet :

When I mentioned being barefoot in certain conditions, here's one that would not work. Boots required, baby!

Driving Nude

I think driving nude is a thing that started off being fun because it was naughty. I don't remember the first time I had the desire to strip and drive, but I know I've done it many times since. I'm pretty sure it started off from plain ol' boredom. When you have quite a ways to drive and you'd just like the time to pass more quickly, driving nude is a pleasant change of pace. There have been times I've been on a long drive and found myself getting sleepy, and my recipe for making the drive interesting and keeping myself alert again was to just take all my clothes off. It just makes it different.

The longest I've ever driven wearing only my seat belt was probably the time I drove home from Lakewood, California. I slid my shorts off after coming down the Grapevine hill on northbound I-5. Because I got a late start, it was dark by the time I had to stop for gas. I remember the place was closed, but thanks to the current world of 24-hour, unattended gas stations I was able to fill up without getting dressed! That was pretty cool. I did end up getting dressed sometime after that, probably having something to do with getting something to eat...

I've been to Nudestock several times at our local club, Tiger Mountain Family Nudist Park, and at least twice I remember having struggles with getting dressed when it was time to leave. Instead of dealing with it I just drove home nude. After all, I had been naked the entire day--why stop now? Those times, being daylight hours, required a certain amount of discretion when passing certain taller vehicles, and for those times I just draped my shorts over my lap for a few seconds as we passed.

One time while I was married to Sue her family members were all gearing up for their annual camping trip to Lily Lake. Because of the various family members having different schedules and so on, everyone was going at different times and taking different folks along with them. Because I was working all day Friday, everyone else had already gone up, allowing me to drive up alone in my pickup with a canoe hanging out the back. I disrobed just the other side of Enumclaw and drove naked all the way up and over the pass, down the to the lake destination on the other side. I arrived and parked, but still hadn't had any reason to get dressed because I hadn't yet encountered anyone. That was a nice naked drive! I was still naked as I dragged the canoe out of the truck and most of the way down the path to the lake. I wonder what kind of stir I would have caused had I gone all the way to the lake naked!

I spent 10 years as a delivery driver in the 1980's and 90's, and one of my regular routes was an overnighter down to Portland, Oregon. That's not all that far from us here (about 2-3 hours), but because I left the warehouse at 3am I had to deal with darkness, tiredness, and boredom on occasion. One night I got the idea to pull over and strip. It was warm weather and I was in a rural area, so I just got out of the truck and disrobed right there on an on-ramp that led downward, back onto the freeway. It was still dark, so that was no problem. I put my socks and shoes back on (driving comfort) and got into the truck. Continuing onto the freeway, it was at least an hour of fun, comfortable driving in the nude. I finally pulled over and got dressed again when the sky started getting light, knowing my first stop was not far away.

Apparently, in some circles driving with no clothes on is known as carnuding (I guess everything needs a title these days). There's an excellent guide for driving nude here on The Free Range Naturist blog.