Did you know that schools had nude swimming till the mid-70s?

[xfundy]

I sure didn't. Imagine how the fundies of today would freak out about the things the fundies of yesterday did.

[Petrushka]

1. Links to the rest of the story --->

Part 2 --->

Part 3 --->

[Marcuse]

10. Class of 1971

The boys' swim teacher banned trunks "because the lint would clog the pool filters". Naturally we assumed the same rule applied to the girls' classes. Imagine our disappointment.

[Rhiannon12866]

25. That was the year I graduated

And we had to wear these heavy green bathing suits that I swear were made of wool. They were always way too big and weighed you down as soon as they got wet. We had to wear bathing caps, too, and, since I had long hair, I was always losing mine. Of course, I did go to an all girls boarding school. I hated swimming classes for those reasons, but they were required.

[CTyankee]

2. I found out that my husband's PE class included swimming nude at the school pool...

At his 50th high school anniversary in Wisconsin they visited the old school and the guys and their wives were all talking about it...a lively discussion...they particularly mentioned the effect of the cold water on certain parts of their anatomy...lol..

[My Good Babushka]

3. I only learned it last summer

our neighbor was talking about going to school in the 60's, and having naked swimming class. Now our school district doesn't even have a pool for swimming class.

[IrishAyes]

4. We did a lot of things w/o benefit of clothing in the 1960's.

[fasttense]

5. Hey, I missed out.

I graduated from high school .....well in the mid 1970s. I never got any nude swimming. And I was on the swim team.

[In_The_Wind]

6. We didn't have a pool at the school I graduated from in '66.

[dugog55]

7. High School in Illinois

I started High School in 1969 in Illinois. We had one hour gym class every day, all four years. For one six week period every year we had swimming. The school provided swim trunks that as Freshman we wore the first couple of days, they were cheap nylon things that kept falling off. By the end of the first week we were all swimming naked and continued to do so for the next four years. No big deal with all of us kids.

But, back then the teachers could still paddle students for misbehaving. Our whole class was goofing off at roll call one day, so after roll was taken we lined up single file, walked to the edge of the pool, grabbed our ankles, took a whack on the ass with a wooden paddle and dove in to swim laps. It really did hurt, but we all took it, and no one complained. We laugh about it now when we get together to chat. It was part of growing up at school, part being one of the guys, but mostly knowing the the teachers were in charge of the class and learning to show them respect for their position.

It wasn't just in swim class either, if you got cheating at dodge ball or any other game, or even being disruptive or belligerent in class, you were singled out for a "burn". The rest of the class would cheer and hoot when you got cracked. Of course back then if you whined to your parents about what happened in school, they would probably give you another paddling at home for not behaving in school.

I do not know of anyone from the era that feels paddling was not right, or too severe a punishment. We all knew the rules and what would happen if we broke them. Personal responsibility.

[bitchkitty]

12. I am from that era.

And I think that corporal punishment is barbaric. I was spanked, paddled, whatever you want to call it, and it didn't do a goddamned thing for me except fuck me up in the head for years.

I know that you're probably a nice person, and this is not an accusation, but your last paragraph is what child abusers tell themselves when they beat their children.

[AverageJoe90]

18. And this is probably true for so many others, too.

For every one who managed to turn out okay.....there's ten, or twenty, perhaps, who didn't, whether they became psychologically messed up, or in and out of jail, etc.

[malthaussen]

8. We sure didn't at my high school.

Of course, we lacked a pool.

I did some recreational nude swimming though... but that's another story.

-- Mal

[xfundy]

17. Lyrics

It's a wonderful song.

R.E.M. LYRICS
"Nightswimming"

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night

The photograph on the dashboard taken years ago,
turned around backwards so the windshield shows.
Every street light reveals a picture in reverse
Still it's so much clearer

I forgot my shirt at the water's edge
The moon is low tonight

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
I'm not sure all these people understand
It's not like years ago
The fear of getting caught
The recklessness in water
They cannot see me naked
These things they go away
Replaced by every day

Nightswimming,
remembering that night
September's coming soon
I'm pining for the moon
And what if there were two
Side by side in orbit around the fairest sun?
The bright tide forever drawn
Could not describe nightswimming

You, I thought I knew you
You, I cannot judge
You, I thought you knew me
This one laughing quietly
Underneath my breath
Nightswimming

The photograph reflects
Every street light a reminder
Nightswimming
Deserves a quiet night
Deserves a quiet night

[Sander]

9. YMCA in the '50s

I was a member of the YMCA in Toledo, OH in the late '40's and early '50's and this was common practice.

I remember at the time I thought, "Well this is for boys only and no girls allowed, so it was OK." Of course, I was only 8-10 years old and never heard of child abuse and had a very rudimentary understanding of the "birds and bees."

However, when I started High-School there in 1954, we swam with swim suits.

[OilemFirchen]

16. Boys and men.

I don't recall nude swimming in school, but my dad and I frequently used the Y. Everyone was naked, from toddlers to old men.

[RebelOne]

11. Not when I was in high school in the mid-50s.

That would have been shocking in South Florida.

[zebonaut]

13. Very silly; it should have been Co-ed naked swimming

Another healthy thing the right robbed us of. Instead they gave us tobacco and sugared soda.

[SoapBox]

14. Oh my gosh!

One of the best posts ever!

I never knew about this. I was born mid 1950's and grew up just out of Portland, OR...we had swim lessons in late grade school at the new, fancy, indoor public pool...it was co-ed...and we had to bring our own suits.

I've bookmarked this...can hardly wait to show.

[markpkessinger]

15. I graduated high school in 1979 . . .

Last edited Thu Mar 6, 2014, 08:24 PM - Edit history (1)

. . . I never saw anything like this. I had heard of the practice taking place in some Catholic schools, but not in public high schools. We did, however, have open showers, and showers were mandatory following each gym class.

[shanti]

19. 73 grad in the oc

We had a brand new pool. I never heard of any nude swimming, but I was often out of the loop, so there's that.

[alonzo R]

20. Nude Swimming in high school

My family is from Wisconsin, and my dad says that nude swimming for boys only was common throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota. He says it really never bothered him because everyone he grew up with considered it normal. What isn't weird, isn't weird. Girls wore suits, but he doesn't know if they brought their own or if they were provided by the school.

Boys swimming was mandatory nude. They weren't allowed to wear suits, though the teachers did. He thought at the time that this was hypocritical, but eventually two things happened. The first was that he realized that the teachers never got in the water. The second was when they had a male student teacher, and he did get in the water, and he did get naked.

The swim team practiced nude, but competed in speedos that were provided by the school. Apparently, these suits were so old and worn that they were thin and really transparent. He said they would have preferred just to compete nude, and he believes some schools did that, but not his.

One other thing. Gym class was shorts and a t-shirt, but the shirt wasn't mandatory, and a lot of guys didn't bother. You had to bring your gym clothes home every Friday for laundering, and if you forgot to bring them back on Monday, you had to participate in class anyway, either in your underwear or naked, your choice.

[dmoore]

21. Love swimming naked

When attending jr. high and high school swimming classed all boys were required to be naked. Didn't bother me at all, in fact I enjoyed it. Was fun to look and be looked at. Became a member of the YMCA in my 20's and would go for a swim every day at noon or after work - everyone was completely naked, all ages. Sometime the lifeguard on duty would forget to close the frosted windows and saw people looking in at times. It was a fun time.

[CTyankee]

22. visiting my dtr's summer place and enjoying a nice skinny dip in her pool at 5:30 am....

lovely time to swim, early and fresh...I hate the feel of a wet bathing suit after I get out...it's so delicious getting out and drying off completely...and no one around but the birds...

[jackjohnson]

23. I knew.

Actually, fundamentalism is an early 20th century Protestant movement. The pic is pre-fundy.

The naked swimming requirement was imposed on boys at the YMCA and it was imposed in many schools. I learned to swim at the CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) summer classes taught at St. Joseph's High School in Hartford, CT, all in bathing suits. The rule was never imposed on girls, to my knowledge. It was a totally arbitrary ruling, and many justifications were given for it, but all were mere rationalizations without a logical basis. In some CT high schools it continued into the 60s. My school didn't have a pool, my town only had a swimming hole (and I do mean a hole) in the town park. No nudity there.

[Stuart G]

24. Yes, in high school..naked.

Early 60s in Chicago Public Schools. We, all young men, swam naked..
Not for the young women. At least where I went to high school.

[Cleita]

26. I remember that the boys in Catholic school were required to swim

nude. This was in the fifties. It was common knowledge and okay with the parents. Also, in my girls school, it was regulation to wear tanks suits meaning no bras or other support. When wet, everything was outlined and this was in Catholic school. I guess no one thought anything of it because the schools were segregated by sex.

[David Harper]

27. creepy

I attended St. Patricks H.S. in Chicago in the 1960's, and swimming naked was probably the weirdest creepiest experience of my life in those years. Some guys actually became visibly aroused by it, which was even creepier. I absolutely hated it. Sometimes Christian brothers would hang around and watch. These were the same cowards who would beat us up on a regular basis.
To this day ,at the age of sixty, I despise the Catholic church.