Box 21, Folder 20, Document 25

Box 21, Folder 20, Document 25

| 4 Mother Speaks |
of Nudism

By

Reth Kerk

®

TROPICANA NUDIST SOCIETY
Post Office Box 1/8
Chicago, lilinois 60690

THE AMERICAN SUNBATHING
ASSOCIATION, INC.

Mays Landing, New Jersey

a) Printed in U.S.A. by A.S.A.
Bees oi ea at


A Mother Speaks of Nedism

By
Rath Kirk

Secretary of Fraternity Snoqualmie Club

I think that as a rule the husband first becomes
interested in nudism. The wife generally holds back
a little and sometimes quite a bit. It is easier for
the male to throw off his co-called modesty, and
shyness. He is a little more used to seeing others
of his own sex in the nude — in sports, on the job,
ete. I think that women are reared more guardedly
and instilled much more with the idea of the shame
of exposing the nude body. We have so many in-

hibitions and complexes to get rid of. Both men and
women.

Nudism usually starts at home. First the hus-
band grows lax in dress — he runs around in shorts
for a while before dressing — or from bath to bed-
room with nothing on — or maybe he sits and reads
the paper a while that way. The children start to

copy him — they just naturally like to go nude
anyway. You fuss at your husband for setting the
example — it just isn’t decent to let the children

see you that way; you fuss at the children to put
their clothes on. He likes the freedom of movement
without clothes and knows the children do too, and
tells you to let them alone and let them enjoy them-
selves. He coaxes you to try it. But you are horrified
— the children will lose respect for their mother if
they see her running around like that. And besides,
what would the neighbors think? But after a while
you catch yourself going from the bathroom to the
bedroom quickly to get something you forgot or you
dash to answer the telephone in the nude and one of
the children catches you. And the child doesn’t seem
to be horrified at all — you are the one horrified and
ashamed of your nude body. But still — you don’t
think it is right for decent people to act that way —
the body is sinful and shameful and should be kept
covered so as not to excite thoughts or give the chil-
dren “ideas.”

Then one night your husband brings home a nudist
magazine he has seen on the news stand. You refuse
to look at it. That filthy thing — imagine bringing
that into the home where the children might see those
nasty pictures. You are indignant at the whole raatter
and refuse to have anything to do with it. Your hus-
band reads the articles and tells you about one or two






of them. About what a nudist camp is and the activi-
ties that go on there. How healthy it is for children —
the outdoor living. Out of curiosity, one day when
you are alone, you pick up the magazine and leaf
through the pages. You see the posed pictures of the
beautiful girls. You don’t like them. Then after a
while you look at the articles and glance through two
or three of them. They do sound interesting, yes, but
— you wonder what kind of people are those nudists,
anyway. Sunworshippers? Exhibitionists? Fanatics
of some sort? Some kind of religious cult? Why do
they have to take all their clothes off to get the benefit
of the sunlight, why not leave some little thing on to
cover up their nakedness?

Your husband continues to discuss the subject
occasionally. Finally you realize his seriousness and
you sit down with him and discuss the matter of taking
your family to a nudist camp. Your mental attitude
has to go through quite a change. In order for you
to make your first visit to a nudist camp a lot of the
inhibitions and complexes you have carefully nurtured
all these years have to be cast out; the false modesty
you have been taught; the shame complex; the idea
that you have a body that is sinful and shameful and
it is obscene to show certain parts of it in public —
especially in front of the opposite sex. Most of us
have been brought up very strict morally, and nudism
seems to be absolutely against everything we have
been taught as a child. And then there are the chil-
dren — supposing they told the neighbors — or their
school chums — or Aunt Sally or Uncle Fred — what
would you do?

And there is also a very personal fear — your
figure isn’t as pretty as those girls in the magazines.
Supposing you went there and your husband saw
someone prettier than you. Or perhaps you have a
surgical scar — it would look so awful. And besides
you would lose all your femininity and allure for your
husband. You know the old saying, “Familiarity breeds
contempt.”

Your husband can see the benefits to be gained
for his family. And as he becomes more insistent,
you finally give in and say, well, all right, just this
once. He writes to the local club, whose name and
address is in the magazine, and finds out where their
camp is and gets permission to visit. You pack a pic-
nie lunch, load the children into the car and are on
your way. You have varied feelings of fear, curiosity
and bravado. You don’t know what to expect. Is it
really a place to take your children? What will they
see there? You round a bend in the read, go through
a gate, and suddenly you are there. You see a nude
tian chepping wood. ‘here is a spirited game of
velley ball going an. People down by the pool — chil-
dren running back and forth, playing, swinging on the
swings and hardly anyone even turns his head as you
drive in. You sit in the car a minute, taking it all in.
Before you can make up your mind to get out of the
car you are greeted cordially by one of the members
and invited to get out and walk around the camp and
see what is there. You are taken here and there and
introduced to some of the members. Without appar-
ently looking, you see all kinds of people: short, tall,
slim, stout, all sorts of figures, both male and female,
some with fine tans and scme white and some pink with
sunburn. You look at the inviting pool, the green
lawn and the sun is warm. The children are tugging
at your hand, begging to go in the pool, and can’t we
take our clothes of. Mommy? And suddenly you feel
so conspicuous with your clothes on and you want to
enjoy the sunshine and fresh air with the relaxed free-
dom these other people seem to have. You go to your
car and disrobe, and the first step has been taken. The
biggest step.

As time goes on, you find all your fears disspelled.
As for your figure, you find there are some who look
better than you do and some look worse. You have
learned that physical limitations go unnoticed: they
are entirely commonplace. You find that it is the indi-
vidual, the personality that is important. You think
of the different ones, not of their physical defects or
beauty, but of their individuality — the effect that per-
son has had on you. Their body is unimportant. You
find that the moral standard is very high in a nudist
camp. There is no liquor allowed, either on the prem-
ises or in the individual. There are no smutty stories
teld — no over display of affection — folks conduct
themselves the same as on any public beach — only
their conduct is better. You find there is no sex stimu-
lation brought on by lack of clothing of anyone present.
There is almost always a game of some kind going
on — volley ball is the universal nudist sport; there
is usually work to ke done to improve or beautify the
grounds.

Another thing, you find that the freedom of nudism
intensifies the beauly of your martial relations. Your
fears on that score were entirely unfounded.

As for the children — they are so healthy living
in the fresh air and the sunlight this way — learning
new and interesting things about the outdoors. They
co not have the ingrained inhibitions you have had to
overcome. To go without clothes is a perfectly na-
tural thing for them. It is easy for them to understand
that here they can go nude but in town they can’t be-
cnuse everycne doesn’t do it as they do at eamp. And
that is all the explanation they need. They look at
you strangely if you try to bring cut the shame of
showing your body in public. You find in the future
that your nudist life has made the answering of the
children’s questions in regard to growing up and
adulthood and their sexual problems much easier.
They do not have the curiosity about the opposite sex
other children have. They have seen and understand
the differences in the human figure and explaining the
functions of the different parts of the body is simple.
They are easier in their attitudes toward other children.
I do not mean freer — I mean easier. They do not
have the shyness that other children have because of
curiosity. They have a poise, a sureness — an attrac-
tive freshness — a wholesomeness — that comes from
knowing they have a healthy body and a healthy mind,
which is more important. They are not interested in
sneaking down on burlesque row or reading books that
have to be sneaked behind the barn or looking at ob-
scene pictures. The facts of life are known to them and
there is no vicarious thrill in these things. From my
own experience — my fifteen year old boy came home
to me one day and told me that some of the boys in his
class had climbed up on the wall to peek in the win-
dows of the girls’ room so they could see the girls. I
asked him if he did and he said why should he — he
knew what girls looked like. He was disgusted with
such behavior and said of they were all nudists that
sort of thing could not happen. There is no record of
a juvenile delinquent from a nudist family.

As time goes on, you will spend as much time as
you can at the nudist camp because it is an inexpen-
sive outing — the children love it — and it is some-
thing your whole family can take part in. No more
husband going off fishing or golfing or something else,
while you and the children stay home on Sundays.
Now, everyone eagerly goes to the “country” for the
day or the weekend. And that is because you have
found the greatest thing for all — the thing that makes
us nudists for the rest of our lives and makes us wish
we had not wasted so many years accepting it. That
is the freedom — the utter freedom. As I said before,
in order to take the first step, you have already cast
out some inhibitions and old conventionalities. And
you get rid of more and more as you go along. You
remember wondering why nudists have to take every-
thing off — why not leave something on? You have
found out why — because you have overcome the
shame of the body — of certain parts of the body. You
have found that one part is as beautiful as the other
and each has its own natural function to do. There is
nothing to be hidden — no reason for wearing “some
little thing.” Actually, now, you feel it is indecent
and obscenely suggestive to cover parts of the body.
You feel it is wrong for clothes to be worn for the
purpose of concealment. Better that they be worn hbe-
cause of the inclement weather or because of the job
being done or some other such reason. You have
learned the thrill of the sunlight and the air and the
breezes on your nude body — the smoothness with
which your body glides through the rippling water.

You have come to the point where you can hardly
wait for the weekends to come around so you can go
to camp and take off the clothes you have to wear all
week in town because you have learned that the act
of taking off your clothes and cleansing your body in
the clean air includes cleansing your mind of all the
nervous tensions and cares and worries that beset you
daily at home; and you find utter relaxation. Absol-
ute, utterly free rest and relaxation. And you go home
rejuvenated not only in body but in mind. You get the
feeling as you stand by your car and disrobe, that with
your clothes you strip off the ugly, dirty world and here
alene is peace and brotherhood with your fellow man.
Here you find friendly, cordial people, broad of mind,
tolerant, respectful of persons.

This is not something that happens immediately.
For some, the transition to true nudism is quick. For
others it take quite a while. For some, it is easy to
take their clothes off — but not so easy to take their
minds off, so to speak — to take off the false veneer
of conventionalities; to overcome the petty jealousies
and possessiveness between husband and wife; the
lustful thoughts towards others; the false shame of the
body that is evidenced in these things. And when
you do finally reach the understanding of the phil-
osophy of nudism, you find your horizons unlimited, a
great peace of mind, a richness in your enjoyment of
life. You have found that freedom. And you bless
the day you agreed to go to the nudist camp. —

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