Years and years ago I bought a book called, “In Nudist Colonies” I’ve had a fascination with nudity all my life. Somehow I never looked for organized places to try it.
One day my husband and I were on vacation at Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks. We went for a long walk and after 45 minutes we saw two people walking toward us. They said hello as they walked by, and after they left my husband asked, “Didn’t you notice anything?” I said, “No and he said, “They didn’t have any clothes on!” I am not an observant person. We kept on walking and I saw two more people walking toward us, and they were carrying their clothes. Then we saw someone running out of the water. I thought they were shy, but they went over to their clothes, picked them up and started walking. I don’t think this was a sanctioned nude beach but we decided to try it. We went in the water and just loved it. My husband said in the ocean he felt like a thousand fingers were massaging him.
In 1981 we went on a windjammer cruise in the Caribbean. Six of us decided to go to the nude beach in St Martin. We rented a car and drove to Club Orient. This is when it was just getting started. There were no rental units, but the beach was wonderful. We were there a few hours and when we went back to the ship, I told my husband, “As soon as we can, I need to find a place where we can be nude.”
After checking around several places, I got a brochure from AANR (which was then The American Sunbathing Association), When I saw White Thorn Lodge I said, “Here it is!” We wrote to them and they welcomed us to visit. At that time WTL was open to couples only.
When we got here, Kay registered us and there was a man on a tractor nude except for his straw hat and shoes. We parked and wondered, “What do we do now? Do we take our clothes off here, is there a changing room or what?” I always think of the Peter Sellers movie, “A Shot in the Dark” and him walking around with a guitar in front of him. There was a changing room in that movie, where you left your clothes. Pretty soon another car came along. The people were barely parked when they got out of the car and threw their clothes off. So that problem was solved. We took our clothes off and headed down toward the pool. We settled in and then I wondered, “Do you put sun tan lotion on your body in public, do you start putting it all over your body, or what?” A member who was at the pool was there and he began slathering lotion all over, so another problem solved. Next I’m wondering, “How do you lay out on your towel in the sun?” He answered that problem too as he just spread his legs and arms out every which way. After that we just relaxed and spent the rest of the day enjoying ourselves and we fell in love with the place. We didn’t join, but we visited several times that summer.
Several years later, my husband and I divorced. I called to find out about joining. In 1985 they didn’t want single men, so I didn’t know if I (a single woman) would be welcome. When I called, the gentleman who answered said, “Oh, yes!” and that was that. I started coming on a regular basis and enjoyed it being single as much as I did before.
Editor’s Note: Presently ALL singles are welcome to join, after completing a Probationary year.