Handyman tale
I was asked to repair and plaster the ceiling of a vacant condominium. Know it would be a dusty mess, with the shower out of commission and no way to clean up, I took two sets of work clothes. In the event, I was so dusty I didn't want to change inside the unit, so I headed out to change in the back of my truck before returning to clean the place up.
Along the second-floor terrace, I passed a fellow from a nearby unit, out to check his mailbox, who struck up a conversation, curious about the the vacant unit I was working in. He was in an unbelted bathrobe, which he made an indifferent attempt to keep closed while he thumbed through his mail. I was in a headscarf, resiprator around my neck, spectacularly dusty workclothes, carrying my shoes so as not to track the floor.
I suppose not feeling quite dressed enough to remain on the terrace, he invited me in. I told him I'd spread dust everywhere I went until I took a shower, but that a shower would be nice. One step inside his door, I stopped and made the neatest pile I could of my clothes. Since I never wear more than one layer, when my pants came off I was naked. He walked me to the bathroom and lent me a towel.
Once I was showered, I had to decide whether to wear the towel back to the front room; I just kept it with me, and emerged toweling off my hair. My host, still in his robe, offered me a glass of ice water, made one for himself, and invited me onto the deck to sit. With waist-high privacy, I realized I didn't have to dress to walk out into the sun. He folded his robe over the back of his chair, I sat on my towel, and we had a nice chat until it was time for me put on my clean clothes and go finish my job.
Very cool experience, thanks for sharing it. There does seem to be a more relaxed attitude about nudity with a larger fraction of the population in Hawai'i, especially the Big Island. But it was great how you judged the situation so you could stay comfortablynaked. Wouldn't it be fun if it was the norm?
It's easier in Hawaii to know how comfortable someone is with nudity.
With people often wearing minimal clothes, it can be pretty obvious whether someone has bothered with underwear. And with no real need to enclose everything inside insulated walls, many people's living spaces show their lack of concern with physical privacy. Our place is certainly like that - the bedroom is half screen, the shower is outside, and clothes are stored on pegs by the back door and on hangers in the laundry area - not inside the bedroom.
I was asked to do a day's worth of maintenance chores at a remote one-room caretaker's cottage. I knew from her other spaces that the client was, if not a nudist, at least undisturbed by nudity. I had brought only my tools and the jeans I was wearing, and needed as part of the work to hose down and scrub the outdoor porch/kitchen/dining room. Not wanting to work the rest of the day in wet jeans, I thought to take them off, and would have just done so, except that my client had a college-aged traveler staying with her as a houseguest. So I asked, quietly, if it would be OK to undress for the wet work; with a sort of mischievous smile she said yes. So I folded my jeans aside and did the wet part of the job while the client and her guest continued their conversation nearby. I stayed naked until I was dry, then pulled the jeans back on.
Later, the client told me her visitor was traveling to broaden her horizons, and that my nudity had been part of that - she was surprised but not disturbed to see that it was possible to be so casual and practical about when, and when not, to wear clothes.
You remind me of a time I watched a pool attendant clean the pool in our resort. Part of the work involved him wading in a very shallow part of the pool - a sitting ledge. He kept on rolling the legs of his shorts up to keep them dry. I remarked that there was a much easier way to keep them dry, to do what you did and simply remove them. He was in a nudist resort, surrounded by naked guests. And it was in Charco del Palo, a completely clothes optional village.
What a great experience. Isn't it wonderful we in the western world can be what and who we are without being tortured, sent to prison or even killed for being nudists. We may have laws in North America that makes nudism illegal but we are not severely punishedallowing uscontinue to have our freedom living how we wish.It's great that most of us in our western culture have a degree of tolerance so that we can have experiences like Another Handyman tale.
I'm off to a place for Christmas where I did a lot of handyman jobs naked earlier in the year. I got very dusty or dirty on some of them. My hosts just hosed me down on their driveway. Well we didn't want to risk blocking the shower outlet or that would have been another job to do. Did I say I only offer to do handyman jobs in the nude? And it is a nudist guest house.