At Work And With Adults

When I was about to set out on the journey into employment, after leaving school life at 15, I felt only slightly apprehensive about meeting new people & actual 'workmates'. Due to the upbringing my sister & I had in a 'naturist' home we were always aware that whilst we were basically 'sociable' folk, there would always be some who were very wary of us. Of course I didn't walk straight into my first job and say "Hi I'm Patrick & I would rather be naked when I can be!" but I didn't want to avoid the topic either. As a matter of course my new work colleagues would ask what my parents did for a living & how did I enjoy passing my free time away? They would expect me to have all the usual hobbies of that era, such as train spotting & walking as far as possible! (walking was an adventure method for lads of my age group). What they didn't obviously expect was that I often preferred staying fairly close to my home if not actually inside my home. My sister was also my best friend and she was possibly much better than I was at football, climbing trees & playing wrestling! She was of course the only one I could enjoy indoor hobbies like drawing & game playing with inside our home often naked! No, my new work friends would need careful tactics before I could speak openly about home & hobbies. I didn't see any reason to avoid telling them stuff, but I was wise enough at 15 to be on guard.
After a couple of weeks working, when I began feeling like I was 'fitting in' and being accepted by people I had just got to know, I slowly spoke more openly about my homelife & my days of relaxing. The first time I can recall getting one of those 'odd' looks was when I joined in a conversation about "Lazy Sunday Mornings" that almost everyone had added to. I laughed when one woman said it was always a trouble to actually get up out of bed on Sundays, to get dressed & get actually moving. I just added quietly "We don't mind Sunday in our house although it takes a while to actually get out of bed, we don't worry about putting clothes on and we don't need to worry about having 'Sunday Best Clothes' to keep clean" There was a short silence, then the woman answered me saying, "You don't put clothes on? do you all stay in pyjamas all day?". This was an opportunity to calmly speak the reality of our life without over emphasising anything. I just answered "No we don't wear pyjama's ever, not even at night, we just stay naked & it's much easier that way, mother doesn't worry too much most Sundays, nor dad, they don't worry either about getting dressed sometimes."
The ensuing silence possibly lasted just a few seconds, but it seemed like a full day! Then another workmate spoke in quiet tones, "Oh not bothered wearing clothes eh… the draughts in your house soon find 'bits' to tickle & tease!"
Over the next days it was always a major topic whenever I had time to chat with them, they all had questions about how much time we spent naked in our house, not one voice was raised in disgust. I wasn't all that amazed really, after all these were proper adults, they ought to understand shouldn't they.
At a change of employment some months later I soon realised that not all adults understand. . . or even accept what they have never had to think about, let alone talk about. I met my first almost aggressive response & name calling moment. The cold chill that I felt wasn't a draught or breeze, it was a cold chill of reality, actually knowing that to some people my family didn't seem to be 'normal' at all. I felt frightened at this realization, I felt offended for myself and my family. Work life & adults were to be very different from school life & friends.