Nude Swimming at the YMCA

2/13/02

[pabianice]

All the recent news about pedophiles and child pornography has made me wonder about how our local YMCA was run back when I was a kid (late 1950s - early 1960s). No bathing suits were allowed in the Y pool. We kids (boys only, ages about 8-14) simply swam naked. Seemed a little odd at the time, but kids generally do as adults demand without thinking too much about it. There were men there, too, but they wore bathing suits.

Did anyone else have the same experience at the Y when they were kids? Did naked swimming serve some health purpose, or was advantage being taken of us?

[MoralSense]

An old-time Boston pol told me the public school district used to do physicals at the Boys & Girls Club, which had the same nude swim rules for boys. This guy always got a doctor's warning, because his heart rate was so high. He was early in the alphabet, and before the docs showed up, he and always the boys were wrestling and horsing around, throwing each other into the pool. The other boys had time to calm down. He didn't.

As for Y, my little boy is in Y camp during the summers, and to judge from the number of swimming suits he has lost and/or allowed to rot, there are solid practical reasons for not having bathing suits.

[colorado tanker]

"Have you ever seen a man naked?" The Captain in "Airplane."

[Godfollow]

Ya... when I was in high school, 60's and 70's, all guys gym classes swam naked. And your right, I've often wondered the same thing.

[Arizona]

I'm sure our dykey PE teachers' obsession with checking to make sure we were showering had nothing to do with cleanliness.

You know, I never thought of that before. But it makes sense now, 40+ yrs later. The gym teachers back then were definitely "different", but believe it or not, it never occurred to me that they were interested in us - - the students! How naive of me. ;)

[steveo]

Listen here

[Atlantian]

My husband swam "nekkid" at his Georgia Tech swimming classes in the 60s. He didn't think anything of it.

[cynicom]

That was the rule back in the 40s. We were always warned to stay away by parents. Regardless of the reason offered then or now, my opinion is that hygiene was a cover only.

[Hoosier Patriot]

Kemosabe, me think him 'light in moccassins'.

Ugh! Me agree. Him probably called, "Chief Smoking Wood."

[weegee]

...my opinion is that hygiene was a cover only.

Certainly seems odd that girls could wear swimsuits. Odd too that adult males could use swimtrunks at the same time male youths couldn't (so it didn't have anything to do with, "we just cleaned the pool").

Much as the notion of photographing countless people in the nude at hospitals and universities for somotyping stopped. Some of those college archives still exist and some have been destroyed. They are reputed to include such people as GHW Bush and Hillary Clinton in the buff from their college days. All in the name of science, personal liberty be damned.

[Hoosier Patriot]

..Hillary Clinton in the buff from their college days.

Oh great! Thanks for that wonderful mental picture while I'm eating lunch. {;-(

[mc5cents]

Y.M.C.A.
Village People

Young man, there's no need to feel down
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground
I said, young man, 'cause your in a new town
There's no need to be unhappy

Young man, there's a place you can go
I said, young man, when you're short on your dough
You can stay there, and I'm sure you will find
Many ways to have a good time.

It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
They have everything For young men to enjoy.
You can hang out with all the boys.

It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
You can get yourself clean
You can have a good meal
You can do whatever you feel.

Young man, Are you listening to me
I said, young man, what do you want to be
I said, young man, you can make real your dreams,
but you've got to know this one thing.

No man, does it all by himself
I said, young man, put your pride on the shelf
And just go there, to the Y.M.C.A.
I'm sure they can help you today

It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
They have everything for young men to enjoy.
You can hang out with all the boys.

It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
You can get yourself clean
You can have a good meal
You can do whatever you feel.

Young Man, I was once in your shoes,
I said, I was down and out with the blues
I felt, no man cared if I were alive
I felt the whole world was so jive

That's when someone came up to me
and said young man take a walk up the street
There's a place there called the Y.M.C.A.
They can start you back on your way.

It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
They have everything For young men to enjoy.
You can hang out with all the boys.

Y.M.C.A.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
Young man, Young man, there's no need to feel down
Young man, Young man, pick yourself off the ground

Y.M.C.A.
just go to the Y.M.C.A.
Young Man, Young Man, I was once in your shoes,
Young Man, Young Man, I was out with the blues

Y.M.C.A.
Y.M.C.A.
Y.M.C.A.
Y.M.C.A.

[kennyo]

I never swam at the Y,but my dad belonged to the Downtown Athletic Club in NYC(awarder of the Heisman Trophy),and I took a scuba class there in the late 60's.The rule was to swim in the nude.I was a bit embarrassed at first(I was about 14),but got over it and never gave it another though. We even played water polo,which can be quite physical.

[Rebelbase]

I hate that song.

[Oschisms]

IMHO, you've put up with far too much. Report him to management. If they don't do anything, do some stalking of your own. Maybe he'll stop when you tell him where his mom lives. Even perverts don't want their mom to come to harm.

[weegee]

Even perverts don't want their mom to come to harm.

Or more appropriately, they don't want their mothers to know what they are up to when they are in "public".

[Tymesup]

I used to belong to Holiday Spas in the 1980's. One club had one set of lockers, so they would alternate men and women at different times of the day. Most of the old guys would swim nude.

Friday nights, they let both sexes use the club by sharing the locker room and showers. No way this would happen today, so I'm sure the club has been shut down.

[colorado tanker]

LOL! Are there other quotes from "Airplane" there?

[Eva]

No, it was hygiene. Remember the pool of disinfectant that you had to walk through before you got to the pool? They just trusted the adults to shower thoroughly before entering the pool. As for allowing the girls to wear suits, it was the YMCA.

Besides, women are naturally more modest than men. We have a hot tub in the locker room at our health club, which is meant to be used naked. I have only seen it being used about three times since I have been a member. My husband says the men use theirs all the time.

[Prodigal Son]

I never knew that. It's very common in Europe for small children to swim nude but usually they begin wearing bathing suits well before puberty. Topless doens't so much as turn a head here(except mine) of course but it more seems to be what one feels comfortable with and I have rarely seen total nudity among adolescents/adults at a German Schwimmbad or Schwimhalle. That with the YMCA does give one a little chill or at least a nervous smile when one recalls the Village People's ode to the place.