CompuServe Messages

good story! We should get together I've got so many travel stories I could probably fill a book! I'd love to hear more about your time in Germany. How long did you live there? Etc. Here's another anecdote about one of my first German "park" experiences. In the summer of '82, following a 1 month working holiday on a farm in Switzerland, I decided to visit my old friend Klaus in Karlsruhe, Germany. We went to one of the lakeside parks by the Rhein where all the local kids went in the summer. Only difference, everybody was naked. What a sight! Hundreds of people of all ages, although most were teens, doing what you'd see in most such places: playing games, swimming, sailboarding, picnicing, sunbathing. This was no big orgy, like less enlightened might imagine. I'd known Klaus for at least 6 years because we'd done a few school exchanges where we'd stayed at each others houses for 2 weeks at a time, alternately in England and in Germany. Plus, we'd shared a few vacations into our college years. Anyway, he had a younger sister who I hadn't seen since she was 13. She was now 16 (I was 19) and had grown into quite a beautiful young woman. When I arrived at the park she was running around with her friends, the picture of innocence, as nature intended (naked). We strolled over to say hello but Klaus and I still had all my clothes on. She became extremely embarrassed, mumbled a greeting and quickly hurried off. Later, when I had shed my clothes she came over to say goodbye and now she had all her clothes on and I didn't. I think she was still embarrassed, although I was quite comfortable by now. Unfortunately, we never had a chance to talk about it. I suppose the psychological point was that she could be totally innocent in her nakedness with friends and with strangers, but not with an old friend of the family who had not known her in that "state". This is probably quite normal, but I'm no psych major. I hope you enjoyed my story.