It never occurred to me that the girls didn’t know. We knew what they wore in swim class: regulation suits and swim caps. Our parents knew the boys swam naked. But the girls didn’t know? Wow.
The k12 schools in my area skirted addressing this issue by never having swimming pools in the first place.
Swimming lessons should be a required teaching for kids K-5. It’s the only sport that can save your life. You could hold it during summer breaks, 1-2 1/2 days a week.
Too many people grow up never learning to swim, and every year we see numerous drowning deaths.
ISTM that most of the people who drown know how to swim. Sometimes people take too much risk, and/or get caught up in undercurrents etc.
People from my high school were discussing this on Facebook a while back. The geneal consensus among the women was that they’d heard rumours but weren’t sure if they should believe them.
Huh, at my summer camp overnight the girls seen nude. If I’d heard rumors that groups of all-boys were swimming nude, I’ve have believed then without giving it much thought.
This was my experience, too; I was on my prep school’s swim team in the early Eighties. Swim in trunks; shower afterwards in the nude and do NOT look at anyone’s crotch no matter what.
That amazed me, too. Never heard of that being done.
See post #128. Those pictures are all photo-shopped.
And again!
One thing that has been mentioned repeatedly in this thread is how frequently it has been resurrected. However no official count was made. I decided it might be interesting to count how many times it was made into a zombie.
Note that I count the thread as resurrected if a full month has passed between two posts. At one point the thread was revived at just past a month, some may not count that.
I will list the month and year a new post was made if the previous post had occurred at least a month earlier. This thread began in November 2006, more than 10 years before this post. Here are the times it was resurrected:
July 2009
April 2010
September 2010
November 2010
April 2011
November 2011
August 2012
May 2015
October 2015
January 2016
February 2016
July 2016
January 2017
So going by my arbitrary definition of at least one month between posts, this thread has been revived a total of 14 times. What I find particularly interesting is that it is only 3 pages long (assuming I don’t create a 4th with this post).
Question is: what percentage of these revivals were done by new posters?
I suspect that this is a subject that people are interested in and this thread comes up in google searches.
Most but not all; roughly two thirds were by new posters. But the first revival was by a 9-year-old account, and the poster who revived it in February 2016 had an account from 1999?! So maybe more of a mixed bag than you’d think.
I grew up in Memphis in the 1950’s. Our YMCA at that time required nude swimming for all boys, no exceptions. My first visit I took my suit and was instructed to take a shower first, before swimming. The towel attendant observed all boys to be sure they showered. When I went back into the dressing area another boy told me we all had to be naked in the pool. He said, I’ll show you around. He stripped and showered while I waited wrapped in a towel. When he came back, he was totally naked and told me to put my towel in a bin. I was a bit uncomfortable, but I threw my towel in the bin, and we walked to the pool stark naked. All the boys were nude, and we had a good time playing that day. Ages probably ranged for 6 to 16. I learned about puberty that day. I was 9 years old.
Later I signed up for a swimming class with boys ranging in age from 10 to 14 years old. The male instructor wore a suit, his teenage assistant was nude just like all the boys. The water was very cold as the pool was indoors. I recall visitors coming into the pool area, mostly mothers but children, boys and girls were also allowed to come in and observe. Initially I didn’t like being nude in front of females but got used to it. We stood on the pool deck for roll call and then got in the water. I hated being naked in front of mothers and daughters without the cover of water, but we had no choice. Some folks I knew from my neighborhood saw me naked on several occasions. Once or twice the front desk lady would come in the pool area.
We all got used to it and no harm was done. Later in college we swam nude, so I was prepared. That the way it was in the 50’s and 60’s.
Welcome, Arky1! Glad to have you here on the SDMB.
I understand some zombies may not be someone searching and adding to the conversation, but revived by spam which gets deleted, but not before someone posts additional comments which stay?
I know I’ve replied to posts before where I did not realize until it was mentioned that the topic was a zombbie.
Not disputing your particular account, but I do dispute that it was common for women and girls to look on nude boys swimming, especially boys as old as 14. Rather the opposite, if my personal memory of that era serves me – the delicate sensibilities of girls especially were rigorously protected from the knowledge, let alone the sight, of male pubes. Perhaps girls were more protected where I grew up on the west coast.
Female visitors weren’t an everyday occurrence, but it did happen from time to time and only during swimming lessons. I don’t recall it ever happening during regular pool time. No exaggeration. It only embarrassed me if it happened during roll call while standing on the pool deck. Thanks
Mixed bag?
I am a past member of the YMCA. At nine years old, my uncle asked my mother if I wanted to take swim lessons with his son. I said yes, but I don’t have a swim suit, my uncle answered "You don’t need a swim suit, all boy swim naked, and the next Saturday my cousin and were taken to the Y by my older cousin, he was 14. When we arrived at the Y, my older cousin took us to the locker room. He said “Do as I do and then follow me to the shower” Once we were bare,we walked to the shower, there we to find about 20 boys all naked and waiting for the door too open.
Once we started our lessons, every one forgot that they were nude. I swam at the Y all through High School and never saw any women or girls in the pool area.
September 2023
July 2024