The following text is an account of a fictional academic research project set in the near future. It describes the schools on Isla Espiritu Santo, off southern California, and how a policy that required adolescent males to be nude both in school and out was implemented, from the very beginning to the current moment of writing (late 2027).

As such, it is a parody of an academic project. This series begins with a historical essay, and then moves to testimonies from boys, girls, teachers, parents, and members of the community. It will include a representative photographic collection with the full consent and awareness of those who are shown. Tags include: young, old, intergenerational, bi, gay, cfnm, cmnm, and gay incest. Although it depicts mandated behavior in some instances, there is no domination (Dom) in the usual sense of the term. If you enjoy this, you may contact the author at GavinRower2@protonmail.com The full series has already been written, and will continue to be posted.

Will you join your fellow authors and readers to support Nifty? To contribute discreetly to the continuing operations of the Nifty Erotic Stories Archive website using a credit card or other methods of donation, go to Nifty.

ALLEN

Introduction: Allen (b. 1955) is well-beloved by everyone on island. He has lived on the island since he purchased on of the first available condominium homes in 1991. He was one of the original faculty of the public high school, where he taught mathematics until his retirement 2019. Since 2007 he has also been Director of the Town-School Pool, a cooperative venture between the Town government, the Town corporation, and the school district. He also volunteers with the regional middle and secondary athletic conference to schedule swim meets, cross-country meets, and track meets, and referees at a number of them, less than previous years because prefers not to drive more than fifty miles now.

Allen was divorced forty years ago, just before his move to the island in 1990. He is astonishingly healthy and active for his age and cohort, the very picture of a tall Scandinavian American from Minnesota who moved to California decades ago.

Allen's continued involvement with the community was vital to him during the social isolation of the pandemic years 2020-2022. For many boys and girls who have grown up on island, Allen is their honorary grandfather. Since the pool has been a town social as well as athletic center, Allen's weekly open Zoom meetings became a local favorite during the pandemic, and continued for a while even after the vaccines were available. After a Korean American boy called him halabeoji (pronounced Hal-uh-bow-ji) or "grandfather" years ago, many are accustomed to call him that, even adults. Allen probably knows every boy and girl on island by name, and can remember many who grew up there and what latter has happened to them.

Allen has had a number of young men live with him over the years, including a number of island boys. He neither expect nor intended any of those relationships to become permanent, and always sought the consent of the boys' parents, and received it. He has mentored many more island boys both before and after the policy requiring adolescent male nudity. After the policy was adopted, he reached out to many swimmers and runners since they were nude in public outside the school so often. He has told them many stories of when he swam nude as a boy, teenager, and even college athlete in Minnesota until about 1975, and how swimming nude was normal and simply expected for boys.

Allen approved the publication of this conversation in its entirety; however it has been edited for clarity and length.

When you first heard about requiring adolescent male nudity, what did you think? Did you think it would possibly work, or even happen?

Lucas and I go way back; I knew him in the 1990s when he was teaching at a private school on the mainland. He first spoke about this when we were having lunch together towards the end of 2021, even before a vaccine was announced--carefully distanced, of course. I encouraged him, and told him about the time when boys regularly swam nude in schools in the upper middle west. He was surprised, he didn't know any of it, but when he remembered the Scandinavian and Finnish populations there, it made sense.

Did I think it would work? It seemed worth a try, at least, and I thought it was likely to succeed. Did I think it could happen? I was not optimistic, but I thought it was important to try, so I helped Lucas wherever I could to make it happen.

What kind of help did he ask for?

We both thought it would be best if I were not on his committee at the Academy, especially since I don't have a role there. The change required a lot of formal and informal cooperation from the town, and I helped more with the informal. As for the town, I had a lot of private conversations with Council members, Public Safety, and others about nude boys and what the challenges would be. I went over various regulations and ordinances to see whether a nude boy would implicitly violate any of them, and found very little that needed to be changed.

I made sure any regulations at the pool that prohibited nudity were quietly withdrawn, but strengthened some ideas about seating and hours, so that anyone who might not be comfortable around nude boys could have space in an area to be set apart with a few subtle design changes, and that especially at first the times when nude boys would use the pool for practice would not coincide with senior adult swim or water exercises. The pool is designed in a sort of double inverted L-shape, two eight-lane fifty-meter pools with a deeper diving section in one small "L" and a shallower area for children or handicapped 1 foot to 4 feet deep, with a walkway for lifeguards between the two "L-s" --so it was easy to keep people apart, especially early in the morning.

Attitudes towards nude boys were another issue, and one that turned out not to be as important or difficult as anyone originally supposed. It turned out that older pool users and town residents usually could care less about nude boys. The pandemic time had changed so many families' expectations that parents of small children turned out not be so worried about the impact of seeing nude boys as we anticipated.

What about concerns with ethnic groups on island, including Latinos and African Americans?

The island has a self-selecting population. Anyone who lives out here is willing to put up with some geographic isolation and small-town insularity, and the price of housing guarantees that everyone here will be middle-class at least, and some are well-off but keen not to show it. Those here, especially for a long-time, love the social familiarity and inclusiveness, so different from so much of the Coast. So we're not talking about groups with usual assumptions: all these people are enough well-off and well-organized to make living here possible and enjoyable.

Those concerns turned out to be largely misplaced. The Academy and then public school groups that implement the change to male nudity addressed those concerns openly: stereotypes of malevolent and overly highly-sexed minorities in some cases, or unduly traditional or even homophobic stereotypes in other cases. Everyone wanted the best for their young people, male and female, and that guided thinking across the board. The pessimistic divisiveness of the pre-pandemic years changed to a willingness to try something new, because the sexting abuse through social media had become such a problem.

When you spoke about your experiences as a boy and teenager with public nude swimming, was that helpful, or merely anecdotal?

My memories were different things for different people. For anyone born before 1970, it was a reminder of something that many had forgotten. For those born later, it was complete news, and they found that old social custom far-fetched until I showed them photographs and newspaper clippings from that time. A few other websites and media sites were helpful. I don't know whether anything I said changed minds, but at least it was informative.

Please share those memories with me and our readers.

(Allen looked at the clock.) How long do you have? (Laughed.) Seriously, this could go on a bit, and you also asked me to talk about how we implemented this change with the local middle and secondary athletic conference, and I have a couple of other things to say, too.

I grew up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and went to college St. Cloud State in Minnesota. My four brothers and I learned how to swim first at the local YMCA starting when each of us was four years old, and then in school, because the district had several indoor and one outdoor pools. I always loved swimming, and it was one reason that I wanted to become a teacher, though I wound up teaching math because there was such a need for math teachers, and I could still coach on the side.

In Oshkosh boys always swam nude, from the beginning. Just how it was, nobody explained it, and nobody wondered why we didn't wear suits--and the suits then were not very good, not like the beautifully-designed Speedos or Nikes now. We didn't swim with girls, of course, and the girls didn't swim much. It was all very unequal, but that was also just how things were before Title IX. The girls were supposed to "protected" from the boys, but I never saw much protection.

At both the Y and the school, we swam meets nude in front of mixed crowds of parents, family, friends, schools, and so on. No one took so many photographs then, so in the yearbook or newspapers the photographs were always cropped from the waist up, or in the water where, only head and shoulders. I remember talking to people at the side of the pool area after a meet though, maybe even a local journalist, completely nude and no one thought anything about it. When we had a substitute teacher for swimming, it might be a woman, and if so she just went on with things.

One year in high school we had an assistant coach from the college, a girl, and she coached us just like a man would, tougher in fact. I remember once she chewed out a bunch of us, lined up at the side of the pool, for not working hard enough. One of those boys got an erection right in front of her. She was tough, but we loved her.

Female coaches and teachers were always clothed, of course. The girls, when they swam, swam with awful one-piece suits and caps for their hair. All the boys hair was really short, and if a boy wanted long hair--it was the 1960s--that was just tough.

I don't remember that anybody thought that a bunch of nude junior-high- or high-school boys was a particularly sexual sight. Boys then were not sexualized the way men have become since. I don't even remember very much homophobic taunting because it was just unthinkable that you could know anyone who might be queer, as we said then. I know now that there were a fair number of gay boys there, unaware or suppressing their own inclinations, most of whom really liked swimming nude. We were always all nude in the communal showers, too, after gym class --you had to take a shower after gym, or else. The gym teacher actually stood in the locker room and checked.

I remember teachers and coaches taking showers with us, and nobody thought anything was wrong about that, or even could be. Seeing an adult man nude was an education for some boys, though. My own dad would swim nude often at our family's place on a lake in northern Michigan, so I had seen him and my uncles nude. All the boys and men swam nude up there, although we did have a special "boy's beach" that was a place to get into the very cold water, but no beach, just big, smooth rocks.

I don't think I even owned a swim suit until maybe 12^th grade, and in college, although in college we could still swim nude at hours set aside for me. I think that stopped about the time I graduated in 1976, and when I coached swimming in high school back there or here in California, we always wore suits, but at least they were better made than they used to be. I still loved to go to the nude beaches when I could, and there used to be more of them.

People now don't believe that boys swimming nude was normal back then, but it was, at least in Wisconsin and Minnesota, probably Michigan, too.

We were raised then to be obedient and to do as we were told. For most of us, that worked out well.

Do you think telling your story made a difference when the policy requiring adolescent male nudity were implemented?

How can I really know? I do think it stopped anyone from thinking, "in the good old days, boys and girls behaved and the boys always wore clothes, so why change now?" In the real good old days, attitudes were different. Times change. We had no social media, sexting, fake videos and images, thank god. I think I grew up in a much better time and place than many young people have now. They're really been victimized by all that technology, and they don't realize it. In those old, very different times and places, boy's nudity was normal in certain places, like pools and swimming holes. Of course, up there no one is nude in the winter! I sure don't miss winter.

Anyway, these are just stories from an old man, except that boys do like to hear that I swam nude when I was a boy, and that I always liked being nude. Still do. I have lived nude at home for years. My neighbors all know, they don't care, but I'm carefully not to make myself too noticeable. No one wants to see an old guy nude. Even when I wasn't so old; I came to the island when I was 35, and started to live nude at home back then. I really always liked the nude beach, and I still go down there sometimes --so much easier, you used to have to drive miles and park and walk back at low tide. That was fun, though, and made it special, because the island beach is so beautiful, but was really hard to get to. Anyone there really wanted to be there.

What was dealing with the athletic conference like when island boys began to swim and compete nude in 2022 and 2023?

The first season, 2022-2023, I had to backtrack some, because the schedule had already been set up when the Lucas announced new policy in early June. By the time I talked with coaches from the other schools, word had gone around.

The summer schedule was the toughest, because the first summer meet was scheduled for July 1. The summer meets are strictly optional, and teams don't have to have consistent rosters, and they don't count on any official records. The meets are mostly to keep the boys and girls in shape and give them something to do during the summer; the officiating is much more informal. Only six towns or schools compete, so I could call every one of the other coaches, and talk about this. Men were more skeptical than women. They asked, "are the boys really going to do this?" I told them that it was going down right then, by July 1 a done deal for the boys, and the girls and families were already getting used to it. All but one town said basically, if they show up nude, we won't object, but if it becomes a problem, they will have to wear something. One town said, No way, so we didn't go to the meet that they host, but we did compete against them elsewhere. Those boys and their parents didn't have a problem, it was someone else, probably a town supervisor or coach.

The first meet was interesting--I had a mixed group that time, five boys from the Academy, seven from the high school, barely enough to make all the events. Five boys were swimming nude. At first the atmosphere at the pool was tentative, but within ten minutes it became just another meet. The public crowd was sparse--just before the Independence holiday, and all knew what was going to happen. The other boys competing could care less, that was for sure, and several of the Academy boys actually did very well. It was what they call a non-event, I guess.

The boys' conference meets starting in November were a little tougher. Two schools said they had rules that swimmers had to be appropriately clothed, which I think was originally intended to deal with topless girls, not nude boys. One of those schools was willing to change their rule, but the other school, in a more conservative suburban community, would not change, so when they hosted a meet, we just took a "bye" and forfeited. The other schools also expected an uproar and required our boys to wear suits if the situation deteriorated, but again that never happened. Twice there was some whistling and a few cat-calls, but we all ignored that. I know several of the boys had unpleasant encounters with other swimmers who basically accused them of being "fags," to use their word, and our boys kept their cool and challenged them to strip right there, if they were going to be so judgmental. We encountered very little push-back, and by the end of the season it was just a new normal. Nothing very challenging.

I will say that the rides in the vans to the meets were tense at first, and the rides back a little rowdy. The boys were het up, if they weren't exhausted. I understand some things went on in the far back seats, but I didn't ask, and no one told me.

The regional that year was something else. A regional combines two or three local conferences, and this one always includes 17 schools, and it happens in later March. That year it was at the school about the furthest away, and we did not have the budget for the boys to stay overnight up there, so it was a very early morning. They had never experienced nude swimmers up there, and the regional management group was not enthusiastic about our boys swimming nude. They agreed to allow it if the boys would wrap towels around themselves when they weren't swimming but sitting in their section of the team bleachers. The boys could to the start area, stretch out, go up on the blocks, swim the event, and return to their seats, but any other time they had to have those towels. We also had to bring suits in case there was an uproar; didn't happen, of course.

We had an incident three years later, though. You know that boy Cy, who is such a hard-working swimmer with a great future. His best friend Jason wanted to cheer him on at the regional, which that year was held in a school that had always been very cooperative with our nude boys, the third year that all of them were swimming nude. Cy and Jason were in 9^th grade, but Cy was already on college scouts' radar. Jason rode with us in the vans--we had the room, and Jason had been a swimmer until just that year, so we knew him well. He had switched to cross-country, where he has become a real leader. Jason was nude--he had been living nude since before he was in the 7^th grade, and did not even think about clothes.

Jason entered the pool area with the team, and remained in the team seats on the bleachers, cheering on Cy even in his warm-ups, very noticeably, that's just how Jason is. Someone at the event officiating table noticed this, remembered Jason, and saw that he wasn't on the roster. Fortunately, I didn't have to deal with them; they told the coach that Jason would have to be in the spectators' section if he's not listed as a team member, and he would have to be clothed, because they would only let swimmers be nude, not spectators. Jason didn't bring any clothes, and simply wrapping up in a towel or two would not satisfy that official. Someone from the host school tried to intervene, and was promptly told: This was a regional event, not a school event, and he was out of order.

As it happened, one of our boys had to miss the meet because he was ill at home. The coach substituted Jason's name for that boy, a snap decision that came as a big surprise to Jason, who is a very capable swimmer. He is certified and has worked for me as a life guard. But he had not practiced with the team, let alone for regionals. Coach had to put him into a relay, second string, so maybe the third and anchor could make up time. When Cy heard this, he just grinned. Jason stepped up, and out of nowhere delivered his personal best, and we won that relay, came in 2^nd in the meet. The relay swimmers from the other schools all knew what had happened, and they mobbed our boys and Jason after the event--officials had to call for order.

The next year, several swimmers from other schools asked to swim nude, and were given permission, and this year more swimmers are nude, and another team is now all-nude. I have to give some credit to Jason: he was utterly fearless and showed them. What a kid.

Has it been different scheduling track or cross-country meets?

Yes, there's a very different psychology at work in cross-country and track. Cross-country nude is not such a big deal. People, whether random passers-by or spectators, see a boy run past, and then disappear from view. They're only really together before and after the race. Track meets are organized chaos, you know, different events going on at the same time. Cross-country organizers and track organizers are much more lenient about the precise requirements: if you show up properly register and can wear a racing chip, for example, you're in. These are also events with event less spectators than swimming. A few made a fuss about nude boys competing, but for the most part it was not controversial.

You have mentored many young people, boys and girls, over the years, and even had some boys living with you from time to time. Did that change when the boys began to be required to live nude?

I have never made any secret of my mentoring or relationships with younger people. I've actually mentored more girls than boys, girls who seem to want an adult male presence in their lives, and whose fathers are often actually or practically absentee. I've always been very transparent about that, and almost always spoken with them in places that are public but not too busy. I keep my clothes on, of course, except when I'm at home. Sometimes a girl simply needs an older man to say to her: you're strong, you're smart, you know what you should do: so do it. Nothing that women or anyone else can't say, but sometimes it helps if it comes from me. I'm not really sure just why.

I have also mentored boys, much in the same way, except they are welcome in my home if his parent or parents know that he is coming to speak with me. In my home, we're both nude, of course, but I don't worry about any accusations, since I have parental consent. Both boys and girls want a listening ear about the same issues that have troubled adolescents since time began: emotions, hopes and fears for the future, relationships, parents, siblings, and sometimes money. I never give them money, of course, but they might be worried because their family has too little, or sometimes is distracted by too much. Sexuality is always a big topic. I don't do sex education, but listen to them and ask them about commitment, long-term relationships, manipulative relationships, and casual encounters. They almost always know what the right thing is, or what the trade-offs or consequences are, they just need to time and attention to sort it out.

Boys have stayed in my home, overnight to months-long, and from ages thirteen to twenty, from the mainland and on island. If a boy is younger than 18, I have to have consent from at least one parent or care-taker. Many times these boys have very conflicted families, or have suffered from an absence of any effective parenting, or are discovering that they are gay, or not cisgender, or non-binary, and even in this day and age, have been rejected by parents and others because they have come out as gay, or their identity or activities have otherwise become known. Three of these boys over the years have been Mormons, from the rather few families now or formerly on island, and they were feeling so ashamed and alienated. I must add that those Mormon boys were amazingly enthusiastic and and had unusual stamina after they got over their shame, and all three were a lot of fun. And yes, their parents gave me their consent.

I give them a safe space, a listening ear, a structured daily routine, and I make sure they get to school, work, or whatever it is they need to do. Sometimes this has given them time to make permanent arrangements to live somewhere else. During the pandemic years I had a number of boys living with me, and that was hard because I really did make them keep themselves away from anyone else in the house for at least a week. I know the required period was 14 days, but that just wasn't tenable, and sometimes I was worried a boy would leave, to his detriment, if I weren't more available. I had Zoom meetings with boys who were in a room upstairs.

From anyone else in the house--have you had more than one boy at a time?

I prefer one boy at a time, for sure, but things ebb and flow. I have had long periods with no boy in the house, and I don't mind that at all, in part because I know that sooner or later one will show up. Sometimes in the middle of the night. I have to get reasonable permission and consent though, within two days, otherwise I skating too close to the edge. I have had as many as four boys. That was when two were already staying for a while, and twins showed up. Truly identical twins, so a new kind of confusion.

Have any of the boys explored sexuality with you?

Yes. I always have consent, sorry to repeat that. Some parents are very happy if a boy learns sexuality from me, because they consider me trustworthy and helpful. I wonder if social awareness and understanding of intergenerational relationships is changing and improving. I don't know, and I always remember that some people completely disapprove of a boy and an older man, especially an underage boy. Like some magic happens the day he turns 18.

I am very careful that the boy sets the agenda, the pace, the tone, and I always stop when he says stop. Sometimes a boy says stop and quarter of an hour later says, let's go further, and I have to take the time to make sure that he really wants to do that. Boys almost always know what they want. Often adults don't want a boy to want what that boy already wants.

If a boy wants to sleep with me, I welcome him. If he chooses not to, that's fine, too. I welcome him as he is, and when it's the right time, he'll move on. I'm still in touch with all of them--no regrets, and no bad feelings.

How do you think this community perceives you? And this?

I suppose everyone knows. Anyone who wants to know, knows about me, and maybe even the particular boy in question, but no more details than that, of course. I am hardly a predator, and everyone knows that. I'm trying to respond to a real need that comes to me because a needy boy has discovered that he can come to me. Invariably that really means affection more than sex, but when he's comfortable and reassured with affection, a boy often turns to wanting to express that sexually. I really believe it's vital for his growth as a responsible man, and for his self-respect and self-awareness, to be able to express himself sexually and safely. He can rarely do that in a truly reciprocal, loving manner with a boy his age, but he can do that with me.

A boy might well also come to me--not to stay--but to talk about a relationship he's having with another boy who is either more than a year or two older, or younger. Quite a number of boys starting at about 10 years old want a relationship with an older boy, maybe a boy up to about 20 years old. By relationship I mean, love, affection, and often some kind of sex. At a certain age a pre-pubescent boy become fascinating with the sexuality of older boys, and sometimes older boys are particularly open to younger boys because they are working through the same changes from the other side.

These kinds of relationships have been written about in the past, sometimes in English schoolboy novels in which the sexuality was hostile or manipulative, and especially Lord of the Flies, a book that I have always thoroughly disliked. There are other, far gentler versions of similar relationships between young men and boys of differing ages.

Sometimes if such a pair of boys has no safe place for such exploration with each other, I will invite them to my home, where I leave them to whatever it is they want to do. My concern is that such relationships are healthy, safe, and reciprocal, and free from the fear of hostile discovery. I have had only one older boy have serial relationships with younger boys, and I helped him to find appropriate therapy for what was becoming a highly questionable pattern. Usually such a relationship might be singular for such boys, or occur only twice. I have had instances of the younger boy turning up several years later as the older boy, with another younger boy. I have never had any sense of trouble or danger with these boys, and if I overheard a boy being forced to do something he doesn't want to do, I would intervene.

You took Cy to a special, invitational exhibition meet for very talented young swimmers in Columbus, Ohio, a few months ago. How did that go? Did Cy swim nude there?

Yes, he did swim nude. The trip was very educational for him, and really for me as well.

It was scheduled for mid-September. His parents could not go, because both of them are in the midst of their teaching, so they very kindly asked me, and of course paid for my fare and expenses. It was a treat and a privilege to accompany Cy, because he really is getting scouted now by some very serious swimming programs.

He already knew that he would have to travel clothed, and it was still a very warm season of the year, so he would wear his short shorts and crop top and be well within fashion guidelines. Once inside our hotel room, he stripped immediately with a relieved look on his face: I made it this far. In the evening he had located the hotel's rooftop pool and jacuzzi, and used the stairway to slip up there nude, with only a towel. While he was in the jacuzzi relaxing --I was just enjoying a glass and looking out over the city--another couple, young man and woman, came in, swam in the pool briefly and then moved to the jacuzzi. Just after they got in, Cy said to them, "It's all yours, I've been in here long enough," and stepped out, found a pool towel, and dried off, nude of course. They were surprised, but even more I think at his nonchalance as he slung the towel over his shoulder, grinned, and said, "enjoy the pool!" And left--I left after him. The couple played along completely.

The next morning, we went to the Aquatic Pavilion, as they call it, for registration and a general meeting. Cy wore inconspicuous knit shirt and shorts, and after the meeting found the official he had to contact, and made his case for swimming the exhibition event nude. It was to be free and open to the public, though "exhibition of up and coming high school swimmers" draw a pretty small crowd, mostly made of parents or scouts. Cy had submitted a special request, with endorsement of his coach, permission and consent from his parents, another form designating me as the responsible party for the parents, all this paperwork--and learned that a panel of three officials would decide in an hour's time after speaking with him, and with me. In that meeting, they verified all the paperwork again, and spoke via Zoom with the high school coach here and someone from the local athletic conference. Yes, they all swim nude, yes this has been happening for several years, no, it has not been any problem, yes we acknowledge that Cy is making this request, and we support it, yes, we will abide by your decision. (Allen sighed.)

The three officials conferred for a moment, and then asked Cy some follow-up questions that were all variations on, "are you sure, young man?" Then one of officials--rogue, I think--said, "So if this is so important to you, strip right now, right here." Another objected, but two said, "This is what we'll see, so let's see if he's really sincere." Without a word, Cy stripped and stood in front of them, without a trace of embarrassment--they really did not understand where he was coming from. Silence in the room. "OK." Said one official. The middle one said, "Request granted. Please wrap yourself in a towel between any of your swims. If we detect the slightest misbehavior, Cy, we will immediately disqualify you, and that will not look good in the eyes of the scouts who are here, and why else did you come here all the way from California?" Cy promised, gave them that smile of his, handed his clothes to me, and walked out, wearing his sandals, his event credential, and nothing else.

He was scheduled for warm-up in an hour before this first events for the morning, freestyle 100m and 200m. He found a towel, wrapped himself as requested, and sat on the side with his legs in the water until his cohort was called. Then he nonchalantly tossed the towel to one side, and filed up with the others to the jump off point from which they could swim out to any of the lanes of the warm-up pool. Other swimmers gave him, a look, a second look, and occasionally flashed a look at each other, but said nothing. By the end of the morning, he had done very well in his first events, placed in the top 20 where he wanted to place. He was a 9^th grader, after all. He quietly wrapped himself back up with his towel and found me with his designated lunch in a container, his vegetarian choice as usual.

In the afternoon, he placed in the top 12 in the 500, as astonishing show of strength, endurance, and skill from a very tall 14-year-old. Local string reporters had been tipped off about the "nude boy," and officials allowed him to take a few questions before dismissing the reporters. If any editors or bloggers thought that "the nude boy" was going to be top news, they were sorely disappointed. The country was already moving on, and a nude boy who swims was not commonplace, but no longer news. Especially when no one particularly objects.

So those three days went very well, and Cy and I came home. His parents and coach were thrilled. I think his performance there did make Stanford sit up and take notice.

Have you had a long relationship with Cy?

He has never particularly come to see me, although we have talked a number of times at the pool, after a practice. He's such a polite, down-to-earth, intelligent young man; everyone loves him. I first got to know him before his 8^th grade year, when he and another boy who was 18 at the time were having a particularly relationship, and the older boy asked if they could meet at my house. Naturally I invited them both, but never particularly tracked when they were there or what they might have done. They certainly cleaned up after themselves, as I tell ask from all the boys, and almost all do. When we traveled to Columbus, we slept together. He really needed to cuddle, needed to be held. He has a marvelous capacity for love, and someone someday will be very lucky to pair with him for the long haul.

Thank you for this stimulating and insightful conversation.