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ELLEgirl
I am surrounded by naked people. I'm in a restaurant at Cypress Cove Nudist Resort & Spa in central Florida to meet in-the-buff Jessica Harpin, 18, for breakfast. There are lots of windows, and morning sunlight hits the towel-covered chairs where diners sit. I'm wearing shorts and a tank top; the rules allow clothes in the restaurant. Almost everyone else, however, is nude.
I meet Mildred, Jessica's mom, a cute blonde with a friendly laugh, and Gilbert, Jessica's dad, a white-haired man in a Cypress Cove hat (and nothing else). Carolyn Hawkins, a representative from the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR) is also here (the only other one clothed, in a pink caftan)—she's in her 60s and really energetic, with a sun-worshipping, hippie vibe—along with Doug, 19, a friend of Jessica's, who's wiry, tan and athletic. We chat about my flight while I silently freak out. After all, this is the first time I've eaten eggs and toast in the presence of boobs and, um, sausage.
Jessica has been coming to this resort with her parents since she was about seven years old. "Our philosophy is 'Nude when possible, clothed when practical,'" says Mildred. The whole family is great at being natural while naked (they've had plenty of practice). "We go naked at home," says Jessica. "The curtains are closed because our neighbors aren't naturists—but they don't have a problem with it."
Jessica has glasses and freckles (on her face, shoulders and breasts), long brown hair and great posture; plus, she never makes any moves to cover her nudity, which is impressive. "Naturism opens you up," says Jessica. "It helps you learn to be comfortable with yourself."
After breakfast, we hit the pool. The rules say no clothes in the pool area, so I go back to my room, strip, wrap a towel around my waist and step into the sun, feeling like I've forgotten something. (Oh, right—my clothes!)
I am awkward for the first couple of minutes outside, but we're sitting, so significant parts are not on display. When I first saw Doug at breakfast, he was introduced as Jessica's "friend," and I nosily wonder whether they're romantically involved. She tells me that they just met a couple of weeks ago, and that they've got to talk about the boyfriend thing.
I'm amazed that Jessica invited Doug to a nudist resort with her parents. (She didn't even talk to her friends about her family being nudists until last year. "They were totally fine with it, though," she says. "Now I wish I'd told them sooner.") I'm even more amazed that he came, and I mentally appoint him mad points, even though he participated in a nude triathlon a couple of years back. So today isn't his absolute public-nudity debut. I tell Jessica I think he's "pretty ballsy" (sorry). I mean, what do you say? "Come see my parents and we'll all hang out naked"?
Actually, Jessica's parents are really welcoming and cool. Jessica's dad's father is a naturist, and the lifestyle came pretty easily to her mom, Mildred, too. "I grew up in the Florida Keys, so we went skinny-dipping a lot," she says. "Being a naturist just felt, well, natural." She, like Jessica, appreciates getting to know people for their minds and not their appearances. Without clothes, she says, "You can talk to anyone—from a construction worker to the wealthiest person in the world—without judging them physically."
Doug joins us at the pool, and his level of comfort, which seems high, helps me feel like this whole day is no big deal. Middle-aged couples watch their young kids jump and splash in the water. Around the pool area, there's a salon, a fitness center and Cheeks (no joke), the grill where people get snacks. Doug, Jessica and I chat for a while, and by the time we head inside, I'm starting to feel less like an alien.
We play pool in the game room, which has a few video games, plus a Ping-Pong table. On the wall, there are plaques from previous years' billiard tournaments. Two 50ish guys sit at round tables—they're nude, but they're on top of towels spread over folding chairs. One of them asks Jessica about college (she's going to Florida Gulf Coast University in the fall). I wrap my towel around my waist, because the conversation is too close-range for comfort. Jessica beats me handily at eight-ball.
The whole naked-middle-aged-men-talking-to-naked-teenage-girls thing skeeves me out a bit initially, but Jessica says, the resort is "not sexual, it's family-oriented." She only knows about one "gawker" who came to the campground when she was 11 or 12: "He was standing around the kids and looking at them—that's not right." She says that AANR put a watch out through the whole organization and banned him from all the clubs: "They're strict about things like that."
We walk back out to the pool, and Jessica tells me about attending camp. I'm curious: What was it like for her at a co-ed naturist camp when she was 11 or 12? "I mean, there were still crushes," she says. "It's just a regular camp, but you're nude, that's all." I found myself wondering what happened if the boys ever got, well, erections. Luckily, as AANR rep Carolyn pointed out, there are towels on hand for sitting, and they provide good coverage when needed.
Jessica's very poised, very certain about her opinion of nudism, which is competlely positive. She says, "A lot of kids end up not wanting to take their clothes off anymore once they hit puberty. That never really happened to me." Interestingly, I haven't seen any teenage girls at the resort besides Jessica. As for that other puberty question that arises once a month, I note that the all-nude pool area has rules that state, "Shorts on women are occasional necessities that we understand and accept."
Jessica says nudism got her through the awkward years, in some ways. She doesn't have body issues, she says, because "there are people of all sizes here...you look at [someone's] mind, and talk to their face." She adds that nudism is a good equalizer because "nobody has clothes to show how rich they are. I'm more comfortable in the nude than when I'm wearing clothes." And because she's seen guys naked since she was little, she's less curious. "I want to be a virgin until I get married," she says. "Naturism has helped me with that."
"Some people my age would feel strange being naked or being around other nude people," she continues. But Jessica's friend Rebecca might visit Cypress Cove sometime soon. "Her parents are cool with it," says Jessica. "She's really outgoing, and she's talking like she wants to come."
Until about four in the afternoon, we sit around the table at the pool, chatting with two of the Harpins' longtime friends from the resort, Suzie and Bill. When it starts to rain, we go back to our rooms in Gilbert and Mildred's rented golf cart. The adults sit at the front while Jessica and I squeeze in back. Doug hangs off the back of the cart, first standing in front of me but then moving over to swing in the breeze in front of Jessica. (Doug's embracing this naked stuff pretty quickly. Shock.) Evening activities for our little posse, which include bar trivia and the Revenge of the Nerds dance (where I spot the only other teen girl I've seen this weekend), are clothed. Jessica seems psyched to wear her peasant skirt, like being dressed makes the evening somehow more formal.
I can't say I'm a convert to nudism. I can tell from how excited I was when Jessica told me that we'd be dressed at the dance. But I heartily endorse how good it feels to go skinny-dipping. I also think of the classic advice people give you when you're about to give a speech: If you imagine everyone naked, you'll relax. Because everybody at Cypress Cove was nude, I felt much more comfortable talking to strangers than I normally do. That was totally unexpected.
Meanwhile, Carolyn tells me at the end of the day that I'm the first writer to come to Cypress Cove and actually get naked in order to report the story. I'd be lying if I said I'm not proud of that.
September 2005
www.ellegirl.com
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