I was an undergraduate on industrial placement back in the cold North East for my sins I was given an office tucked out the way from everyone searching through the draws in my engineers 1950’s sheet metal desk I happened to stumbled upon rather well preserved A5 size copy of H&E (July 1971 and how sad yes I still have it).Flipping through the pages of black and white text and pictures I discovered a new world that a young lad of 19 had never realised existed.

Looking back as a child I do remember mum and dad walking through what must have been a naturist beach possibly Fraisthorpe and thinking why are those families dancing around naked and why weren’t we it just looked such fun; oh what a sheltered upbringing.

Anyway back to the story after reading H&E cover to cover I realised that to my amazement there we clubs dotted about all over England catering for the naturist in all of us; I just had to find out more. Most clubs at the time seemed to be affiliated to Central Council for British Naturism(CCBN) so I signed up (1983) got some great advice on joining a local club that being Greenacres in County Durham; as any single knows this isn’t always an easy thing but thanks to Margaret and Derek Denny my regional representatives I was welcomed into visit the club. My first visit was petrifying as I’m sure many will confirm, I didn't know where to look, but after a few cups of tea and dutch courage and a game of minten, I thoroughly enjoyed the day – one of those life changing experiences; and to cap it all I passed my interview and I was handed a set of keys to the club gates.

I hope this story rings a bell with a few memebers 🙂