At the lake, where there were fewer people than by the sea (but still some, just enough people to make it mortifying), our parents had this brilliant idea one time: they made us run around naked the entire trip—except our one female cousin! Total injustice! We’d been vacationing there forever, but out of nowhere, someone suggested (no clue why!) that we, boys, could stay naked… and it just stuck.
This went on for a few years, as far as I remember. How long it lasted for each of us depended on our physical development. The first summer, everyone was naked. By the next year, the oldest cousin got to wear swim trunks because he’d hit puberty. For me? Unfortunately, it dragged on way longer…



