I’m not the sort of person that I would have imagined in a nudist camp. I’m somewhat shy in 3D. Though I can be sociable (and enjoy it), and I can simulate being an extrovert for interviews, it exhausts me, and I have to recoup with quiet time, like a little kid. My shyness can suddenly come up at odd times, for example calling an acquaintance and I bless email for making those kinds of interactions a thousand times easier. I’m not a sun bather, and I’m not an exhibitionist. I like an art exhibit a lot better than a party. I like to walk and listen to music and I smile at passers-by because I’m looking at everything there is to see and I see much to smile at. So it would never occur to me to go somewhere and sit around naked with other people sitting around naked. I mean what for?
But I did so one winter in the 80’s.
It was when I was young and unfortunately married. My ex took pleasure in coercing me into doing unpleasant things and one of them was this nudist camp, which, after much protest, I finally agreed to visit.
His pleasure was short-lived because, as it turned out, much to my surprise, I liked it there.
The nc was a private members’ facility that included cabins, a main building, and pond in the country northwest of Toronto. The drive itself, once I got out of the city, made me breathe deeply. I drove straight up one of Toronto’s main streets until north of Highway 7 it turned into dirt, and then at the blue silos I turned left onto another dirt road lined with trees on either side, which in spring formed a canopy. The nc itself was a family centred place with winter and summer facilities. Most of the people I met had kids. Some of the people were old, some were young. They spoke English and French. They had various occupations. I can’t remember now what they said about why they joined the nc or even if I asked. I just remember people relaxing, swimming, reading the newspaper, having a picnic outside when the weather got warmer.
These are the things I liked about it: I could swim in the nude (in daylight, in winter, in an indoor swimming pool surrounded by huge windows that looked out on the snow and as the snow melted onto the coming of spring); I discovered a surprising thing about the human body.
What I learned, when I was able to bring my eyes up from my toes and get used to looking around, is that all bodies are attractive and none are perfect. Clothes hide that truth. Once clothes are removed, so are perceptions that are conditioned by the fashion industry and media. Every body has its bumps, its lumps, its unevenness, its surprises which make it interesting. Young and old, thin and fat, every body is a thing of beauty.
It was a lesson I never forgot even though when spring came and my ex realized that I was enjoying myself, he decided that he didn’t like the nudist camp after all. Our marriage ended within a year or so. I think that discovering the beauty of the human body in all its forms had something to do with that, for it was in realizing that I, too, must be deserving of something better in this life that I got my freedom and went out to find it.
Good for you!
I experienced nudism at an indoor waterpark in Europe. To my surprise, after 6 p.m., some of the patrons started going down the waterslides in the nude. At 6:30, everyone was doing it. It’s faster in the nude.
Nowadays, if you travel north of highway 7. you will still be in the suburban ashphalt jungle. I don’t know how to spell asphalt.
SD (a skinny guy who has voted NDP)
I know what you mean. The blue silos lasted long after the road was paved and suburbs built up to highway 9, but even the silos are gone now.
i am all about the details. did you all have big coats you put on for walking outside and then took off when entering buildings? did you pay to live there and then go to outside jobs? or was there an economy within the camp? i am interested in logistics, here…
It’s very liberating being among people who are relaxed about their bodies. Germans are very laissez-faire about nudity and have very little body shame, so you see all shapes and sizes and various degrees of undressedness at the local pool. I think it’s great, but I imagine that an actual nudist camp would take it to another level.
I’ll do my best to answer–it was a long time ago but here goes. Families paid a membership fee. There was a change room (separated by gender) to leave your clothes. In winter only the main building was open and you went into it through the change room. When the weather turned warm, people went nude outside where there was an outdoor swimming facility and grassy areas. The cabins were owned by individual families. I don’t remember how that worked in terms of the entire property. They were used like cottages. Some people had retired and I think lived there full time but I’m not sure. Other people came up on weekends, holidays etc.
Interestingly, you didn’t see too many adolescents there. Kids, adults, old people. Teenagers not so much.
This is not something I’d expect to read here, and also something that I would fully expect to see here. For when you took this risk, you left your eyes and heart wide open. And that seems just like you.
Fascinating. I am way too body-shy to ever follow your lead, but your experience was so positive… although I suspect that has a whole lot to do with you and not so much to do with the NC. Have you read David Sedaris’s account of his own nudist stay? Yes, characteristically hilarious, but also very touching.
I think that if I was an adolescent in a nudist camp I would die a thousand deaths of shame and embarassment. But I know what you mean about the open-ness and honesty of it, and the enjoyment of just being who you are free of defences.
i’ve been thinking about this, since my recent experiments in nudism with a potty training child. i think i’d get tried of seeing little boys playing with their p-nises.
Thanks Di. I haven’t read it–I’ll look for it. I’m not very body shy, but even so I don’t think I’d ever have done it under other circumstances & I haven’t been back. But I’m glad for the experience.
Pete I think that’s exactly why there were so few adolescents. It’s such a vulnerable time.
That’s funny Emily and serious. I don’t recall seeing any little boys doing that but at the time I went, which was mainly in the winter, there were just a few families and there might not have happened to be any little boys at just that age.
Oh my! Well, good on you for doing something outside your comfort zone and finding a beautiful message in it. Ya boo sucks to your ex. It’s something I would find difficult to do, but I guess the pressure is eased when everyone around you is doing it and treating it as perfectly normal.
I was in my 20’s then and had no idea how young I was! It was a good age for that kind of lesson.