Dear DOMAI
I've been a nudist all my life, although when I was a child growing up on the farm, I didn't know it had a name. I enjoyed walking into the woods and taking off all my clothes as I explored. Nothing felt better than a swim in the small river that was the goal of my explorations.
Skip forward several years to college, when a group of us would go on a nightly run, followed by a trip to a secluded lake for a late night bonfire and skinny-dip. This lake became a regular stop-over on weekends too, although there was no daytime skinny-dipping due to the large number of families in attendance.
My first "DOMAI moment" was on a hot Sunday afternoon when a small group of college students arrived and sat around the edge of the beach, drinking beer. One of the girls pulled off her t-shirt and sat there wearing only a pair of cutoff jeans. She seemed so natural about it that everyone just glanced at her and went on with their activities. There was no sexual context associated with her action, just another college kid taking off a shirt because it was hot.
I was a regular feature at that beach for over a year, showing up after work every day, chopping wood and building a fire for the nightly swimmers. Over the course of the year, I met many skinny-dippers and found other places for daytime sunbathing and swimming activities.
I became part of a group that frequented a sink hole (limestone spring) in a National Forest. The group grew to over a hundred regulars who were there every weekend. Occasionally a gawker would show up to see the naked people.
On one occasion, a man drove up to the opposite side of the spring and put a towel on the hood of his car, and sat there with a pair of binoculars, watching as we sat around talking. A little later, we noticed him creeping closer and closer through the trees until he was hiding behind a large pine tree at the edge of our clearing and occasionally sneaking a quick look around the tree.
My wife quietly walked over to stand about 10 feet from his tree and the next time he looked, he was face to face with 5'7" of naked southern belle, with hands on hips, saying in her best drawl "If you wanna see better, come on over and sit with us". He was so shocked, he dropped his binoculars, ran to his car, and pulled off so fast the towel on the hood was suspended in air as he backed out and crashed down the dirt road in reverse.
I went on to become a card carrying nudist and a photographer who has seen thousands of nude women, and yet these incidents still remind me years later that the body of a woman can be sexual or innocent depending on the situation and the mindset of the people involved.
Dan
USAnudist.com
I just finished reading a very delightful book, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith [also a movie], generally a retelling of Jane Austen's Price and Prejudice. Ms. Smith is more well known (in the Unites States, at least) as the author of the book 101 Dalmatians, the inspiration for the Walt Disney movies. The main character and narrator of this book is a bright young lady, around 18 years old, whose family lives in an English castle in the time immediately after World War II, and she has this experience, as appropriate a tribute to the innocence and naturalness of nudity as any:
While I was hanging my bathing-suit out of the bedroom window, I had a sudden longing to lie in the sun with nothing on. I never felt it before… but the more I thought of it, the more I fancied it. … It felt most peculiar crawling naked up the cold, rough stone steps—exciting in some mysterious way I couldn't explain to myself. Coming out at the top was glorious, warmth and light fell round me like a great cape. …
What a difference there is between wearing even the skimpiest bathing-suit and wearing nothing! After a few minutes I seemed to live in every inch of my body as fully as I usually do in my head and my hands and my heart. I had the fascinating feeling that I could think as easily with my limbs as with my brain… The warmth of the sun felt like enormous hands pressing gently on me, the flutter of the air like delicate fingers. …Anyway, it was thrilling.
I thought you may find this quote of use on your web site somewhere. Thank you for all your good work bringing more beauty into our world.
Matthew B
Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
