While heading out to the river last June, I stopped at a convenience store for some pop. As she collected the money for my purchase, the cashier read aloud the lettering on my tee shirt: “Minnesota bear naked after dark twilight swimming.”
“Do you participate in that?” she asked.
“Sure!” I replied. “Uh, not with real bears.”
“‘Bear naked’—I got that. But isn’t it cold?”
“Not in summer.”
She went on to say something about admiring people who took a dip in icy waters to raise money for charity, but she couldn’t understand doing it just for fun.
It seems that the picture of a bear on my tee shirt led her to think of polar bares.
So there you have it—swimming in winter is considered weird but the thought of swimming naked provokes no comment.