Nekkid at the "Y"

[trof]

I learned to swim at the YMCA (Birmingham, Alabama) when I was around 7 or 8 (circa 1949).
We weren't allowed to wear bathing suits. I think the instructors did, but not sure my memory serves.
We were told it was for "hygiene" reasons.
I guess my mom knew, and was OK with it.
I don't think it's the current practice and now it seems kinda "not right" to me.
What was that REALLY about?
Did you have a similar experience?
:shrug:

[GOPisEvil]

1. Wha huhhh?!?!

:wtf:

I used to be a lifeguard/swim instructor for the Boy Scouts in the mid-late 1980s. Believe me, EVERYONE had swim suits on! We'd have heard no end to it if we didn't!

My goodness; I can't see that ever being a good idea. Hygiene? Really? Was it an unfiltered pool? Heck, even when the pumps break, you can kill the nasties with chemicals. :shrug:

[JitterbugPerfume]

2. you been thinkin' bout

swimmin' nekkid again Trof ? you better go put some clothes on

[Chef]

13. Nude swimming

When I was in High School (1959-63), the boys swam nude and the school provided suits for the girls (gross, threadbare things). This was my first lesson in the inequalities of life (and anatomy). I wasn't crazy about it, but we just did it. This prepared me for the army where you couls have 20 guys using thge toilets at the same time. Wen I tell my younger friends about this, they look at me as if I were crazy. A different time.

[Maine-i-acs]

3. I saw it too -

Around 1970 or so at the Y in Portland. I was in a swim class (swimsuits on) but I got to the Y early one day and peeked in the pool area. Everyone there was nekkid! I was told that was a "family swim" period!

[trof]

15. A nekkid "family" swim?

I just can't picture me and my mom...whew.
Nope. I don't think so.

[demnan]

4. So were the instructors "watching" you?

I think this is child abuse if you ask me.

About swimming naked - it's great between consenting adults or older teenagers and I'm not uptight about my body, I just think that's a little strange at the Y.

[trof]

8. Well, yeah.

They were life guards as well as instructors. Seems to me they wore "official" swimsuits with a life guard patch or something, had the requisite whistle on the lanyard.
On one hand, we were just a bunch of little boys and maybe acceptance of body and nudity were "good"? Birmingham is not "bible belt" Alabama, but still...

[Waistdeep]

5. Same here

Once I visited somebody in Illinois in 1956 or so when I was about 9 and we went to the YMCA to swim. Lots of naked little boys. I thought it was a little strange, but it didn't seem to matter much once you jumped into the water.

[Brucey]

6. When I was in Jr. High we were forced to swim naked.

It was a horribly embarrassing thing. I never wanted to take gym classes after that, and to avoid them went into gymnastics. I ended up winning the state championship in High School. So, nude swimming turned out good for me!

[xchrom]

7. yes there were periods

during the week when it was bare-nekid swimming.
that's where my dad taught me to swim{guysonly}. both of us bare-nekid -- and i do remember the life guards -- they wore swim-suits.
but i remember the life guards 'cause they were so much cuter than the rest of the old geezers at the y. that was the 50's.

[trof]

10. Another thing I remember.

The deck/floor surrounding the pool (it was indoors) was surfaced with those little white octaganal tiles that were slippery as owl shit when wet. Proabably would be against 8 different codes now.

We'd get a running start and the flop down on our butts and just
sliiiiiiiiide.

[bif]

9. Same here.

When I was a kid we took a bus to the "Y" in Detroit and we all had to swim naked as well. Then, when I was in high school we had to swim naked as well. What the hell was up with that? I'll bet the girls didn't have to swim in the buff!

[JHB]

11. I understand it was pretty common prior to the 70's

I've seen this topic previously in another forum. Apparently it was pretty common in YMCA's, some schools, and similar "males only" swimming areas prior to the 70's.

The hygiene part is obsolete these days, but back in the days before synthetic blends became the fabric of choice for swimwear, cotton suits would lose fibers which (given a sufficent quantity of swimmers) would clog up the pool filters. And let's not forget that every problem you can associate with unlaundered gym socks becomes about ten times worse when the garment in question is cotton swimwear being kept in a locker -- rarely being given a chance to be laundered or even fully dry out x(

It pretty much died out in the late-60s to early 70s due to several reasons which hit at the same time (more co-ed classes, rising liability rates and the ability of students to successfully bring lawsuits, increasing awareness (and reactionary fear) of gays, increasing commonness of daily showers, etc.)

On edit: make that wool, not cotton, and "hygiene" was also invoked to make sure everybody washed before going in. Found this section at http://www.historylink.org/_output.CFM?file_ID=3100

An early casualty of gender equity was males-only nude swimming in the downtown pool. Men and boys had been accustomed to swimming au naturel at the YMCA, not only in Seattle but in Ys everywhere, since the 1890s. The practice may have evolved from problems created by the long, wool swimming suits then in fashion, which apparently shed so much they gummed up the pool filters. Later, nude swimming was justified on the grounds of hygiene. A handbook in use at the Seattle Y in the 1920s required that “A good soap bath must be taken before entering the swimming pool” in the same paragraph that specified “The wearing of swimming suits or supporters will not be allowed except by permission from the director” (Information for Members).

In any case, the custom was phased out as co-ed swimming became more common, although the pool continued to be reserved for men from noon to 2 p.m. daily until 1974. At that point, Sonstelie -– then a newcomer to Seattle who wanted to swim during her lunch hour –- fired off a letter asking how an organization supported by the United Way could maintain such a discriminatory policy. “They changed immediately,” she says. “I had never seen an organization move that quickly” (Sonstelie Interview).

The new policy led to what Dick Knapp, the Downtown YMCA’s physical director in the early 1970s, called “interesting times,” since many of the men who regularly used the pool at noon had never had to wear swim suits before (Knapp, "Last Blast"). When the gender barriers fell, it took a while for all the men to get used to the new rules.

[trof]

14. Well, that kind of makes sense.

About the wool bathing suits. I can remember that my first bathing suit (briefs, I think?) was wool knit. Itchy. I wore it in the back yard, playing in the sprinkler. Then I think we had one of the first plastic inflatable wading pools.

[Kolesar]

12. Sounds demented

I hated showering with classmates in Jr High School gym class. Gym class seemed to be a method to remove our dignity.

[TrogL]

16. Camp

I was at a boy's camp in the 60's. Nude swimming was mandatory - and it was in a lake so pool filters had nothing to do with it. In the evening I'd watch the councellors swim nude. Hmmmmm...

[BurtWorm]

17. Did you enjoy learning the back stroke?

[trof]

19. You mean "trolling"?

hee

[BurtWorm]

20. That sounds more appropriate

given the circumstances.

;)

[TrogL]

18. I suspect it may have been a "naturist" thing

The Y's, boys' clubs and camps were really into "clean and healthy living". People who were afraid of being nude were considered sissies.