I was about 8 years old, had closed my bedroom door and locked it. I took off my clothes, grabbed a book, and I remember sitting on an enormous red bean bag. It was cold and I recoiled at first, then it warmed as I sat there, blissfully reading in the buff. Then came the knock at the door. It was my grandmother, who must have heard the door being locked and had naturally become suspicious. (Now that I'm a parent, I can't say I blame her.) "Are you naked in there?" the query came through the door. It would be another 30 years before I would be able to reply, "Yes, is that a problem," so instead I replied with a very dubious "No." Well, my grandmother either knew or had been briefed on where my parents kept the screwdriver, so she unlocked the door and opened it, to my horror. To her credit, she wasn't upset, she just asked me to get dressed, which I obligingly did.

Later that evening when my parents returned home from work, we four had the dreaded "conversation." My grandmother told my parents that I had locked myself, naked, in my room.

"Well, what was he doing in there?" they asked grandmother.
"He was reading a book, and he was naked" she replied.
"Fantastic!" my mother exclaimed, "we've been trying to get him more interested in reading. If that's what it takes, we don't care," Mom said.

And another naturist is born. God bless my progressive parents.

From that point on, I extended my fondness of being naked to other activities besides reading (much to my parents' chagrin), including skinny dipping, as we were in those days avid sailors on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, and there were many such opportunities. I remember walking naked down one of those sandy beaches next to my (clad) father when I must have been about 10 years old. I loved the feeling of the wind and the water on my body, and I grew to loath the heavy dampness of a swimsuit.

In high school I had a few opportunities to skinny dip with friends, either at parties or on the Bay or whilst swimming at a lake, but I began to enjoy being naked with much greater regularity once I made it to university.

My sophomore year I lived in my own studio apartment off campus, and when I was there, I was nude. I would walk home from class for lunch, strip off, have a sandwich, then begrudgingly dress for the remainder of the day. When I got back, I couldn't wait to liberate myself once again.

Fast forward a few years, and my wife (then girlfriend) and I are on a cruise in the Eastern Caribbean. One of the ports of call is St. Martin/Maarten. One of the excursions offered was a trip to Orient Beach. So we went and enjoyed ourselves immensely. We saw the rest of our friends walking down the beach fully clothed, and at least I felt kind of bad for them -- missing out on this experience.

A few more years later, after we had married, we bought a house that has a swimming pool in the yard. I had also begun to look online for resources for other people who liked to be nude. (At that time I didn't consider the label nudist or naturist.) I found AANR, joined, and through AANR, found Avalon Resort in West Virginia. I was nervous about my first true social nudism experience, but I really wanted to be naked outside in nature. I asked her to come with me, but our daughter was very young at that time, so she stayed behind and let me go on my own.

Just like everyone else says, I was self-conscious for a nanosecond, then began to fully enjoy the experience. I hiked some of the trails, I swam in the outdoor pool, I met some very nice, warm, welcoming people, and I loved it.

My wife has been to Avalon with me for camping exactly once, to make sure the place was legit, and hasn't come back with me since. It's just not her thing. But the wonderful thing about our relationship is that we love each other for who we are. And neither of us knew how much I would embrace naturism when we first met, so for her to be so accepting of me considering that change, is even more indicative of the strength of our bond, and something I appreciate dearly. I do wish she would come with me more often, as it would be much more enjoyable for me to have her with me, but I also understand that she is not as enthusiastic about it as I am. So she will make plans with her friends when our daughter stays with my parents, and I go to my "happy place."