Celebrating three decades of 'bare-y' good times

THE time was 2pm, the sun was scorching and a retiree named Dewey Butts III was revelling in his version of heaven: a swimming pool crowded with dozens of men and women — every last one of them naked, himself included.

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Here at the Avalon Resort, a self-styled “clothing-optional” retreat two hours west of DC, the dress code requires no type of dress (or shirt or pants) at all.

The 250 rolling acres that include streets with names like “Bare Buns Boulevard,” freedom means moseying about in nothing more than gobs of sunscreen and embracing a lifestyle that dates back nearly 100 years in the US and longer in Europe.

Not to worry if you're feeling a tad self-conscious, say Avalon’s members, largely an older crowd that includes people like the ever-sunny Linda Keesee, 74, a retired naval intelligence officer who bought a condo at the resort years ago with her husband, Bill, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who died in 2022.

On her kitchen wall is a framed photo of a happy moment - Bill at their outdoor grill, his middle-aged body covered only by a red apron. A second photo, this one on a side table, also captures Bill at the grill, this time without the apron.

The resort draws patrons from various backgrounds and professions, as well as parents with children, willing to pay an annual year-round membership fee of as much as $800 (R14 000) (raising kids to accept nudity as natural and to not equate it with sex is a mainstay of the nudist ethos).