12/99

John Bryan Park near Springfield in Ohio has an area where people go to sunbathe. They used to have a swimming pool, but filled it in, and now the area where the pool was is an unofficial sunbathing area. It's not unusual to see people (men and women) catching sun in thongs here, and sometimes on weekday afternoons, women will go topfree too.

Last summer, I was hiking from Yellow Springs to Clifton and decided to stop at the old bathhouse to fill up my canteen. John Bryan Park is between Yellow Springs and Clifton (Ohio) and the old bathhouse is along the trail from Yellow Springs to Clifton if you take the right trail. Directions to the bathhouse via roads are to follow the road to the left after entering the main John Bryan entrance, and the bathhouse is about 1-1/2 miles at the end of the road. It was a hot Saturday, and I was surprised that two women were laying out on their backs, topfree. I ask one of these women about being topfree and she said that she just hated getting tan lines. She said that they hadn't been bothered at all, and that they would come back again as soon as they could. They were set up behind the old bathhouse where they had some privacy from the road.

A few weeks later, I drove back to the same area with the intentions of laying out in my thong to get some sun. I was surprised to see the same two women laying out in a very visible area between the road and the bathhouse. They had brought their boyfriends this time, and were using a grill and picnic table. They remembered me from before and ask me to join them. For two hours, we laid in the sun, ate hot-dogs, and played Frisbee. Although a few people slowed down as they drove by, nobody said anything negative, except for one guy who didn't like seeing me in a thong!

--Randy, Ohio