Here I am at 14, in the worst suit of all time. Orrin’s on the left in the fashionable sports jacket ensemble.
It was 1974 . President Nixon was still in the White House. Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record. All in the Family was the #1 TV show.
I was in Middle School. It was The Awkward Years.
The part we all dreaded was swim class. Incredibly, all boys took swimming classes naked, an enforced rule due to the different standards of the time. This naked swimming practice wasn’t just in public schools, it was widespread: in Boy Scouts, Summer Camps and YMCAs. It was even going on in Europe and I’m sure all over the world.
The people in charge gave us the reasons to swim naked, but there was one lingering question. Why were girls allowed to wear bathing suits and not us?
Naked swimming did teach us about hygiene, something that seems to be sorely lacking in today’s schools, and being comfortable in our own skin. But did this institutionalized practice of parading adolescent boys around naked do more harm than good?
I got invaluable help in creating this episode by several of my old classmates who emailed me their Eyewitness Accounts.
If you went through something similar like gym horror stories or bad coaches, please post your stories and comments. Please, no names!
Note: We have recently taken The Naked Swim episode off of our free site. You can now download the episode for a donation of a mere 99 cents. Thanks for your support!
April 25, 2007 at 25:24 pm
[...] on The Blogincluding eyewitness [...]
April 25, 2007 at 25:47 pm
Well, I’m glad that someone finally raised this issue in a serious way. I too was subjected to the naked-swim tortures. When I was 13, I had a hernia operation which left a bright red scar near my private parts. It was simply something I didn’t want to be sharing with 30 other boys. So I went to Mr. D…, our swimming instructor, explained the situation and asked to be excused from swimming for a few months until things healed. He said, “Aw c’mon, it can’t be that bad. Drop your pants and let’s take a look!” So I naively did. And he said, “Aw, it’s nothing. You are NOT excused!” So I spent the next few months in swim class, trying to hold up various objects in front of my private parts to protect the view. Naked swimming — it was institutional psychosis. Thanks, Jerry, for providing this therapy forum.
April 27, 2007 at 27:34 pm
When I was in high school we had a gym teacher- He was supposed to have been a former Mr. Universe or something, with huge arms and a pickled face. He always carried this clipboard around, and was pretty sadistic. He ran us miles and miles, until we dropped. As in Jerry’s class, we too had to stand out in the cold, no matter what the season. I remember many times having to run in the freezing, early morning rain — all of us shivering and soaked to he bone — wearing only our T-shirts, shorts, socks & shoes.
May 1, 2007 at 01:27 am
You know the first Olympics was all naked. I guess they were extra careful when running the relay race when handing off the baton.
It was this sort of thing we’d always joke about as kids while at track & fields meets.
May 11, 2007 at 11:34 pm
I am 69 years old. I graduated from Eugene High School in 1955, and that Fall I began attending the University of Oregon in Eugene. At that time, one could NOT graduate with a degree (4 years) WITHOUT PROOF that he or she could swim! One either took a swimming test to prove that they could swim, or took swimming for PE one term. Now I grew up using the neighborhood skinny dipping hole in a “backwater” of the Willamette River, but I had never really become a good swimmer. So the very first term in college I took swimming for PE, to get that requirement for graduation “out of the way.” And it was required that we swim nude. No reason was ever given. Since I had grown up skinny dipping with the neighborhood boys and girls, I was “OK” with the nude swimming PE class UNTIL it was time to learn to dive from the diving board. Somehow, being up there on the diving board nude, for all to see, made me VERY uncomfortable. Looking back, I can’t help but “wonder” about the teacher’s hands-on
showing me how to move my legs for swimming. At any rate,
I learned how to dive from the diving board nude, and passed
the PE swimming class to prove that I could swim, and did graduate from the University of Oregon after completing all other requirements
May 12, 2007 at 12:34 am
It was the early to mid 1960’s at Chicago’s Albert G. Lane Technical High School. The embarassments included bare assed swims in a very cold pool (which proved to me that all boys are created equal, if the temperature is cold enough.
It was an all boys high school, so we didn’t have to suffer the fear of being surprised by teenaged girls. But it was the end of the Brylcreme era, so we had to shower all the grease out of the hair before we got into the pool. The gym teacher had upper class lifeguard (who got to wear trunks) and members of the swim team at the entrance to the pool making sure we didn’t make an oil slick in the deep end.
In addition to being obsessed with making us swim nude (Johnny Weismueller had swum in this pool in this state some thirty years before us and who did we think we were to object), at least one of the gym teachers was obsessed by jock straps. He did regular checks, pulling the waistband up from behind. It wasn’t a wedgie, it was much more painful, as your testicles attempted to ascend back into a place of safety and warmth.
May 19, 2007 at 19:52 pm
Damn, we must be about the same age…1974 was also the year the Ramones started, told to me by Johnny Ramone himself may he RIP!
May 20, 2007 at 20:10 am
Back when I was in HS we also had horrible times with swimming.
We weren’t swimming nude at all because it was co-ed gym class, but the suits that we were forced to wear were either way too tight, or way too loose. And appeared to be from the 40’s and a faded brown color.
I remember we would all wind up fighting over the baggy trunks and I actually came out in a victory getting a pair. After class when I went to my locker to get dressed I noticed that the pull string somehow got in a knot … and it was a seriously tough knot at that. I spent several moments trying to get it untied in a panic not even having enough time to towel myself off.
I was already late for my next class, and I had enough, so I managed to grab an old key from my bag and tried to saw through the thick rope like drawstring. Finally getting it off I threw it to the side, got dressed, and began running to my next class that just happened to be across the street in another building…. during winter… and I was hardly dry.
Needless to say I was frozen stiff.
June 21, 2007 at 21:32 pm
June 22, 2007 at 22:20 am
Parkland HS, 1976 Orefield,PA checking in
July 4, 2007 at 04:47 pm
[...] revlogging their latest opus (read what Jerry writes about his naked swim trauma by CLICKING HERE) we present you a RED CARPET INTERVIEW with Jerry just before the award ceremonies. And of course [...]
August 7, 2007 at 07:47 pm
We did the naked swim at Cathedral Prep High School in Erie, PA back in the early 70’s. The pool and the air temperature were always very cold, as I recall. It’s an all-boys Catholic school, and they told us we couldn’t wear trunks because we would probably leave them in the lockers and contaminate the pool water with cumulative mold. Funny, they didn’t have any problem doing a mass search of our regular lockers whenever they felt like it, but making the janitor sweep through the gym lockers after swim class was too much! They eventually allowed trunks, some time after I graduated.
August 30, 2007 at 30:33 am
I actually prefer to swim naked.
September 11, 2007 at 11:32 pm
I live in Australia, and although I don’t remember their ever being a culture of nudie gym class swims, as a kid I think although I would’ve preferred not to go nude I wouldn’t have a huge problem with it. Makes you think though, as their is probably no nationwide US gym class instructors nude-boy watching conspiracy, they really have no reason to enforce boys to go nude swimming.
September 18, 2007 at 18:50 am
Jerry, you brough back some painful memories. We also got ‘invaded” by the girls swim class, in their swimsuits, us bareass (and barefront) It was humiliating to ask any of the girls on a date, since they all had already ’seen all of our goods” LOL…
September 19, 2007 at 19:10 am
Jerry, and lets not forget the decision of school authorities to have doorless and or stall-less toilets in the boys bathrooms. Girls always had locking doors, and seemed fascinated to walk into the boys bathrooms after lunch, knowing they would catch us sitting on the toilets relieving ourselves. Female teachers also felt they had a free pass to walk in and ‘check for smokers” whenever they wanted. Talk about embarrasing ……………
September 28, 2007 at 28:39 pm
Gambatte, Mike! Which is Japanese for “persevere, never give up.” Jerry
October 4, 2007 at 04:53 am
Jerry….how does that pertain to anything?
October 4, 2007 at 04:54 am
LOL
October 10, 2007 at 10:27 pm
The Jr. High School I attended in Massachusetts (1968-1969) was so old (1880’s) that it didn’t have a functional gymnasium. So the 8th grade boys would take their weekly 2 hour PE class at the YMCA gymnasium down the street.(This was pre-Title IX, so the girls could still take their class on the playground during spring and fall and take an indoor “health” class during the winter, as did all 7th graders.
Every third week, after changing from our school clothes to regulation gym shorts, T-Shirts and sneakers, and having 30 min. of exercise in the gym, we would have an hour of swimming in the Y’s pool. Although we had heard from older students that we would all have to be nude for this part of our class, I can still remember being quite surprised the first day when the teacher announced at the end of exercise: “Go downstairs to your lockers, take off all of your clothes, and line up at the entrance to the shower room.”
So along with 25 classmates, I stripped naked, lined up and waited until we were told to walk beneath a running shower to rinse off before walking down a corridor to the pool deck. We did as we were told, and no one questioned why. To me, it kind of made sense: why go to the trouble of bringing a bathing suit, and then have to carry it around while wet all day, when all that inconvenience could be avoided by going into the pool without any clothing.
It was all completely innocent. As far as I know, no one felt uncomfortable. For a few weeks prior, we had been required to take a group shower in an open communal shower room after gym class, so we were already accustomed to being nude in each other’s presence. It actually felt liberating to be able to engage in an activity without clothing. The only uneasiness I recall had nothing to do with being nude per se, but rather related to the fact that I had reached puberty much earlier than almost all of my classmates, so I stood out as different having fully grown pubic hair.
October 30, 2007 at 30:02 am
Wow. I’m suddenly glad to have been growing up in the nearer present time. O.o When I was in school, by law the coaches couldn’t even force us to shower since it was a communal shower – they can’t force us to strip for any reason, unless official police strip searchers are present. No coach would even dare to say we had to – doing so would risk a sexual harrassment lawsuit.
November 3, 2007 at 03:26 pm
We had naked swimming in our Junior Highchool in Edina, Minnesota. This was F**** UP, our gym teacher in this day and age would have been put in prison for a very very long sentence. He was truly an old pervert, who should have never been teaching gym classes to young boys. Today, the High School pool in Edina Minnesota is named in honor of this f***. If I saw him today, he’s already dead, I’d punch square in the jaw and know his lights out. That F***@^&%!!!
November 20, 2007 at 20:51 am
swimming nude healthy and refreshing!!! Just gotta get used to being nude. Will help bring your school grades up.
November 24, 2007 at 24:27 am
When I was in middle school and high school in the 1950s, we were required to swim nude and take communal showers. The same was true at YMCAs. At the University of MN in 1957, all new students were required to submit to physical examinations and had to wait around nude. At that time, a boy who was uncomfortable with being nude with other boys was assumed to have serious mental problems. I hid the fact that I was uncomfortable for that reason.
Nudity should be optional and there should be provision for those who are uncomfortable with it.
December 17, 2007 at 17:07 pm
I also attended Lane H.S. in Chicago, graduating in 1971. There was plenty of nervous tension about attending Lane knowing we were required to swim naked. Fortunately I had pubic hair and had developed some as many other 14 years olds do. Once we finally took the plunge, so to speak, we had to undress in a locker room, then take a communal shower and finally be inspected by the lifeguards who, by the way, were allowed to wear swim suits.
Once together however the naked part was soon overlooked and in fact I would actually feel sorry for the few 14 year olds that hadn’t started puberty, at all…….with their baby soft smooth bodies and little equipment, lol.
December 29, 2007 at 29:29 pm
i was in the 8th grade. i had changed schools. in the 7th grade i didn’t play n e football or n e thing. my new class mates talked me into playing football with them, so on the first day of my football practice, after practice i kept my tidy whities on and the coach made me take them off so i could take a shower with the other boys. it was the next to last class and he didn’t want me to go to my last class stkinkin’. after the first day, i was used to it an’ it didn’t bother me n e.
December 31, 2007 at 31:47 am
I was in 7th grade in the 70s and I swam nude for 12 weeks with 50 class mates. After the first few days it was not a big deal except at least once a week one of the female gym teachers would come into the pool area to get a look.
January 9, 2008 at 09:02 pm
Heritage High School, Littleton, CO. 10th grade, 1972. New high school, new swimming pool. I hated PE anyway. And I didn’t know how to swim. There was some new requirement with the new school that everyone had to take a swimming class. All PE-classes were single-sex, except that the swim classes were co-ed, I guess to make better use of the facilities. Anyway, I took a beginning-swimming class. The class was full(crowded) of students that already knew how to swim and was taking a beginning-level because it was “easier” (The following year, you couldn’t get into the beginning class unless you could prove you couldn’t swim!). I was one of two boys in the class that absolutely couldn’t swim. The woman coach they had teaching the class didn’t have time to teach the two of us to swim becuase the class was too full. So the two of us were put into the charge of the student-assistant. The other guy learned to swim. I showed up in my swimsuit everyday, and stood in a corner of the shallow end of the pool. For that, I got the passing grade of “C”. All the boys wore nearly identical dark blue swim trunks that were about like white briefs(underwear) in cut. To this day, I can’t swim. The showers were communal. I hear that these days, because of some Title IX requirement for equal PE instruction, all PE classes are co-ed, and many of the contact-sports have been eliminated.
January 27, 2008 at 27:13 pm
I had a ymca membership after getting my first permanent f/t job so I could to weight training. that way I wouldnt get bullied anymore. it worked.
I could never ever ever ever ever figure out why the fuk swim trunks were banned. so I stopped using the pool time and only went when it was mixed gender and trunks were mandatory.
February 24, 2008 at 24:35 pm
I also attended Lane Tech in Chicago in the late 60’s. All swim classes were in the nude and I also loved to go to the local “Y” to swim on Saturday. The “Y” was a no suit venue too. I guess that I never thought about why did we need to be nude.d
February 26, 2008 at 26:34 am
i was in the boy scouts in the 70’s and on a field trip to a forest we camped on a river and swam and played naked all day now that im older i think that our scout leader was a pedofile but i wasnt touched or seen anyone molested but he sure liked us naked i didnt mind after all we all have the same parts and its only flesh and i got a great tan
February 26, 2008 at 26:57 pm
I had nude swimming in senior high. I took junior high in another district and had gym class where the teacher made syre we had the right color. The summer after I graduated high school I visited Europe and spent time on a nude beach in Denmark. It was just like any beach except most were nude. What is with the big stink in this country over skinny dipping? Sides, if you are going to marry somebody both of you should be nude before so you know what you are getting.
March 1, 2008 at 01:29 pm
I did the nude swimming in gym class. It was 1970-1973 in a suburban Chicago high school. At first I was very scared
because I was afraid of getting beaten up, or worse, by the older kids. I started high school early, and I was physically immature at about 4′10′ and 87 pounds. I was also very apprehensive about the prospect of corporal punishment as the swim class would be the worst possible time for it. It turned out okay. The older kids left freshman alone, and the coach was sympathetic to our insecurities and did what he could to smooth things over. It was eventually a liberating feeling to swim nude without any fear or carnal self-consciousness.
March 13, 2008 at 13:46 am
Actually, I did not really take pe naked. however, If i had forgotenned to wear my pe attire that day(it happens most of the time), I was made to take pe naked and mine was a mix school! how humuliating. Sometimes , I got caning by my parents the day before usually 5 – 7 srtokes. However, there was once i did somethng real bad , and I was caned countless times until my skin tore. It bled. Afterwhich, I was not allowed to redress.(i was naked) I was made to stand outside the door of my house and do pushups . How my ass really hurt.
April 4, 2008 at 04:28 pm
1968-69 …Thacker Junior High School in Des Plaines Illinois was the scene of my naked swimming experience. It was weird at the time, but the creepiness factor has increased substantially as times have changed and I now look back. If our coach “Coach K” observed any horseplay, he would have us come out of the pool, stand on the edge, and plant a “rose” on our ass…basically his handprint. Pretty unbelievable. I now wonder about whether he got any thrills out of this.
Fortunately, we moved to our newly built school in eighth grade which thankfully did not have an indoor pool.
April 10, 2008 at 10:23 am
Catholic schools in the 70s were oppressive in many ways.
Required p.e. showers, required gym “jockey” straps, slaps to the face,
required swimming in the buff, forced work with no pay to take down chairs after Bingo, etc. Not to mention “the paddle” at about 2.5 feet long and 6″ wide with 30-35 airholes, made of oak. Maybe I was bicurious or just an exhibitionist, but I had no problem at all with swim class, not even when I had paddlewelts on my keyster and got teased about it. I liked girls, but the thought of 30-35 athletic, tanned classmates swimming in the buff together had an attraction all its own. But it was innocent, not sexual. Some of the coaches may have been ephebophiles, but if they were they did not use corporal punishment nearly as often as they could have.
April 12, 2008 at 12:29 am
I am not really sure of this subject matter; but swimming naked, i think was to get the male population to get ready for WAR. The point was to shape the male to feel comfortable in close quarter situations. To rid the male of this discomfort would enable the highest percent of survive due to hygiene.
April 22, 2008 at 22:43 pm
[...] revlogging their latest opus (read what Jerry writes about his naked swim trauma by CLICKING HERE) we present you a special page where you’ll find a Red Carpet Interview with Jerry just [...]
May 3, 2008 at 03:00 pm
I had swimming in gym and the clothing code was we could wear whatever. I did it in jock whereas everybody did it in speedo or girls panties. There was an exception. We had water polo and half the guys were “skins” which meant wear nothing. The last day the coach promised a surprise. First the whole class was told to strip and then some of the girls ran though and screamed while looking at us. Turned out the girls’ class had girls that wanted to look so they had talked the teacher into letting them streak and making us strip for the girls. Several girls went into the cage nude. They handed out the towels while watching the showers. There were a few woodies and the girls let us know that they knew.
May 8, 2008 at 08:05 pm
fhfgh
May 14, 2008 at 14:56 am
I swim laps in a pool several times a week and wish I could swim naked. I swim about five hours per week. I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s when all the YMCAs required naked swim. I also went to a boy’s camp in New Hampshire that occaisionally woke everybody up and forced everyone to skinnydip in the lake at night which was horrible. Other than that involuntary experience, swimming naked is the way to go. This country is so uptight about the silliest things. If there was legalized, community skinnydipping maybe there would be less mass murdering.
May 24, 2008 at 24:11 pm
eww eww ewww ewww eww
May 25, 2008 at 25:25 am
BLAME IT ON ORGANIZED NUDITY
THE MORAL EROSION OF AMERICA:
WHY DID AMERICA FROM THE 1950S – 1970S FORCE BOYS TO SWIM NAKED ?
It was the Communists , in The Communist Manifesto
( a crime manual ) here is a quote from the Communist Manifesto:
” The Manifesto suggested a course of action for a proletarian (working class) revolution to overthrow the bourgeois social order and to eventually bring about a classless and stateless society, and the abolition of private property. ”
Well it worked, America is NOT going to be a Super Power for much longer, because of this bad policy..countries like Iran will develope WMD at a faster rate, and because America brain froze its thinking class , we’ll be passive and allow these criminals to streal top secret 75 year COPYRIGHT PROTECTED Data..even the A Bomb is United States Priority Date still.
Somehow the CIA through project Bluelbird ordered Schools to Force Students into Organized Nudity to Brain Freeze them.,
maybe under the idea that America would soon be leaving the Silver Standard and by Brain Freezing Students through organized nudity , civilization would accept valueless paper money as we have been since 1969-1970.
somehow the Communists Bribed the CIA through project Bluelbird , to force and degrade the thinking ability of America’s children:
here’s a quote from Wikipedia on Project Bluelbird
” BLUEBIRD was the cryptonym for a CIA program involving special interrogation methods, including the use of drugs, hypnosis,[1] and isolation. It lasted from 1949 to 1950 when it was renamed “ARTICHOKE”, and would eventually become the infamous MKULTRA. Responsibility for the project mainly lay with the Office of Scientific Intelligence. ”
The FBI’s J Edgar Hoover should have done something more to stop the Abuse of America’s children , even Psychoanalyssi education would ahve helped prevent the moral decay of the United States.
NOTICE THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL IS THE NEED FOR FOOD.
June 11, 2008 at 11:05 pm
I swam at 5:30 AM in a private club with an outdoor pool. Often I was the only one there. One morning I thought my swim suit was too tight, so I looked around in the dark, saw no one and, and took it off. There was a running track around the club which ran by the pool. On rainy days I knew there would be no runners, so I looked forward to those days. One morning I was able to swim 10 laps nude before I lost my nerve and put my suit back on. Later, I was swimming without my suit and sensed someone coming to the pool in the dark. It was a young married woman I’d spoken to off and on. She had been a competitive swimmer at UCLA. When I got to the end of the pool I immediately began swimming to the other end, where I’d left my suit. When I returned to the other end (clothed) she said that I had really gained some speed. I told her that there was a reason for it–that I wasn’t wearing a suit. She said only “Whatever works fo you–do it!”
On another morning I heard a female voice say “OK, put your suit on!” and wondered if I’d been found out. It was just this woman, who knew of my little secret and didn’t mind.
I took a job in Northern California for a year and was away from my family for 5 months. One Saturday, while looking for Night Clubs in the Yellow Pages, I saw a listing under Nudist Clubs. The one listed was pretty close by, so I drove there on a sunny Sunday afternoon in April, since I had always been curious about nudism, As I drove in, 5 or 6 bare men and women were sitting on folding chairs across the entrance. They welcomed me in, I paid the $10. rate for the day, and had a great time swimming in their pool, talking with them and was invited back for their pot-luck the next Saturday night. I really enjoyed the freedom of being able to be totally free of clothes, and at ease with the people. I went there often after that.
My wife doesn’t share my attitude on nudism, so I don’t bug her about it. Occasionally when she is away I have visited a few nudist places in Southern CA, and enjoy being in the sun and meeeting new people, playing water volleyball, etc. I’m not a womanizer, so I don’t attempt to make anything more of it. I still swim daily in a local pooll (wearing a bathing suit), and my body is in great shape. But I prefer swimming without the suit. I did so on a recent trip to Cancun, when the hotel pool was open all night–I’d use the pool in the early hours, and no one objected–had it all to myself, though.
If more pepole were able to see each other without clothes, we wouldn’t be such an uptight population, always making the appearance of sexiness, but not wanting to expose ourselves.
June 18, 2008 at 18:26 pm
I took a beginning swim class in 1960 at the University of Illinois. We were not allowed to wear suits. I still prefer to swim nude. Thankfully, my backyard pool allows me to do just that without being observed. I do not mind being naked with other nude individuals but I would not like to be watched by clothed neighbors who might raise an objection.
August 1, 2008 at 01:46 pm
Hi, This Trauma represents the singular biggest issue of my entire life. The experiences have left a permanent scar ever since. This sort of thing should’ve NEVER been permitted. It’s totally outlandish and unconstitutional. I especially agree with mike. As for my bad experiences, the worst was receiving a physical from a female nurse. All the boys were forced to line up naked. (all my other physicals were a “One to One” basis). And wait for our physical. This was in an ordinary classroom, I don’t know why. The curtains were shabby, but I don’t think anyone looked in.
Plus, we were only informed about it, just a few hours earlier. We were told , sometime today, the boys must go to check for infection.
Finally, 2 additional female teachers were present, and they both watched me get the physical. (they were facing me, while standing next to the nurse. I was the last one to receive the physical.)
Beforehand, I always asked lots of questions. But, they insisted, “It could save my life”. I also asked why it required 3 teachers, to give a physical. She said, it was important to make sure all of the boys got their physical. This is just one horrid memory… -Dave from N.Y.
August 1, 2008 at 01:58 pm
OH , by the way, I urge everyone to read DR.DAN IZZO’s comment , (4 comments above). Because I have theories similar to his. Ironically, I’m the ONLY person who also includes a hypothesis involving “forced immodesty” on the part of female administrators. In other words, women seek to prefer when a man trusts her. I just witnessed a case in 2008. at a center where young college men work & live, there’s A middle aged cleaning lady who spent alot of time hanging out near their locker. And she always chatted with them. Eventually, she was able to gain their trust, so that , she now walks inside their locker, and hands towels to them. NOW here’s the punchline: she says that they “prefer her being there”. They look up to her, like their own mother. Basically: she doesn’t want them to be “shy” while she’s present. This is one unique (BUT TRUE) example of “Forced immodesty” which I’ve personally witnessed, THIS YEAR.
by the way, I’m sorry this was too long, BUT, I could give many many more examples. believe me, I could. As for me, I’m afraid to take showers ever since. I usually use Rubbing Alcohol instead of showering..
August 5, 2008 at 05:41 pm
In Junior High School our PE class met for 2 hours every Wed. morning alternating each week between sports (soccer in the fall, volleyball and basketball in the winter, and softball and track in the spring) and swimming. At the first class in Sept. we were told that we always had to be “dressed” for class, meaning that when class would be at the field or gym we were to report to class dressed in our “gym suits” (regulation gym shorts and tshirts, and sneakers). The teacher said that on those weeks when we had swimming, we were expected to report to the pool deck “dressed in your birthday suits.” Everyone gave a nervous giggle. So every other week we’d strip naked in the locker room, rinse off in the communal showers, walk down a tiled passage way to the pool deck where attendance would be taken, and then spend 90 min. or so taking class in the nude. It was kind of weird the first time. After that no one cared.
August 12, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I used to live in ausrtalia. In our school all the boys had to do the naked swim. Unfurtunetly I had the smallest penis so after swimming and after I put my underwear the biggest boy in the class would grab me and everybody would hit me in the testicles. I was in agony for hours
September 16, 2008 at 16:17 pm
People, get over yourselves! It’s just your body. We all have pretty much the same thing. We swam naked in gym class in the 60’s and I don’t know of anyone who had a problem with it.
Then along came the lawyers…
October 6, 2008 at 06:20 pm
When I was in school we had to swim totally nude during swim class and I was uptight the first day but after that I found it totally relaxing. You were a little freaked the first time all the guys saw you nude but then you realize they have the same equipment you have. Sure some had pubic hair and some didn’t but it’s all a part of becoming a man and we all knew that. I found swimming nude in swim class totally relaxing and it was great because we could just run naked to the shower room after class was over to get showered without having to get undressed.
May 22, 2009 at 22:39 pm
YOUR WEBSITE IS THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 2, 2009 at 02:09 am
I grew up in Iowa in the mid 80’s. Our schools had to be one of the most nude in the country. In grade school the boys would swim nude and shower nude and do other various activities in the nude. We were never forced to wear clothes during gym, but we had to swim naked. We normally ran naked just because it felt good. The girls I think always wore clothes but not suits, as they were thought to clog the filtration system in the pool. The bathrooms were completely open you had the toilets and urinals in two rows and that was it no dividers or anything.
In middle and high school it was the same way with the exception that gym was coed. The boys were forced to swim nude the girls did not have to but always had the option too. the was way weird for us cause we were completely exposed to our girlfriends and crushes and not going to lies they were pretty hot so many of us had erections in the first couple of weeks. Erections were punished by having to get out of the pool and go to the diving board and stand there all exposed in front of you whole grade. Also for the record the pool room had windows adjacent with the hall way so upper classmen could look in. Later in high school the girls started swimming in the nude as well and that was really hard on the guys, took a lot of self control.
I joined the swim team in the 10th grade. We the boys had to compete naked, in front of audiences and against teams who wore suits. Imagine being in front of your girlfriends parents naked. Looking back it is quite interesting to see how much the world has changed. I will not lie once I was aquatinted with swimming nude, I loved it and miss it. It helped us to get to know each other and with both sexes. It made our class very close and lead to nudity at many parties with ponds as we were all used to it.
January 11, 2009 at 11:16 pm
I grew up in Connecticut in the late 60’s. We had nude boys PE swim class at Windham High School, and also at the local YMCA. We had a communal shower room for boys PE class. It didn’t seem that any of this required nakedness was any big deal. The pool water seemed cold at first, but after getting used to it, was fine. I was a thin kid who wore high prescription glasses all the time, so without glasses during swim class, could not see well at all, but visual acuity was not required for swimming, so I did all right. I was already used to nude swimming from the YMCA during grades 1 through 8, so swimming nude at the high school was no big deal, except that the boys were bigger and in puberty. After getting used to the water, i rather liked the feeling of freedom of naked swimming. The only contact I remember was during a PE water polo match that involved some rough playing for the ball.
College also required a nude boys swim test at the beginning of freshman year, in 1970. But had co-ed recreational swimming that required swim suits.
After college I tried going to a nudist resort. After getting used to co-ed nudity, I rather enjoyed it.
January 12, 2009 at 12:17 pm
With all due respect “Samuel,” it sounds like a fantasy, not reality.
January 19, 2009 at 19:59 pm
i went to highschool in the early-mid 80`s in a country town in Australia. the boys did PE seperate to the girls and there was no nudie swimming.We hated that our PE teacher(pommie bastard)used to stay in the shower room when we showered,while the girls teacher let them shower in peace.We thought he was a “perv” just for this so i dont think we would have handle him being able to watch us “skinny dipping” all class. I think,too, that this practise,of nude PE, could be harmful to slower devolpers.We were pretty cruel at times to them as it was.
January 19, 2009 at 19:11 pm
I gotta say i luv the suit man and i would have liked being 15/16 in `74. The music- Deep Purple,Led Zeppelin,Black Sabbath,Grand Funk,Aztecs(oz),Coloured Balls(oz) but judging by your suit your household musicwould have been something more along the lines of “101 polka hitsof the piano accordian. lol
January 20, 2009 at 20:37 am
Hi Orrin
I remember having to swim naked in middle school in Buffalo NY. Have you heard the story of the red badge of courage? As I vaguley recall the story, our gym teacher had a bunch of rules that we were all to follow in and around the pool (like no running). failure to follow the rules would result in a hard swat on the ass, resulting in a large red welt. This became known as the red badge of courage. Stories of boys who broke the rules and received the red badge filled the lockerroom. I never had enough courage to break the rules.
February 4, 2009 at 04:04 pm
I went to an all boy private prep school and we had nude swimming twice a week for the six years I attended the school (grades 7 to 12). I really didn’t mind it all that much. To be honest it was no big deal.
Once in a while some teachers would come in to watch (all men). I did not think anything of it at the time, but looking back I guess that was weird.
It was a different time (1965 to 1971). Our parents all knew about this and didn’t care. My two older brothers both went to the school and sometimes we were all in swim class at the same time.
This would never be allowed today. I guess the world has changed.
February 19, 2009 at 19:59 am
I went to High School at Janesville Craig High School in Janesville Wisconsin. I gradutated in 1981. When I was in High School we swam naked in phy ed class. At the time it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. I know it seems so hard to beleive now. But at the time no one thought a second thing about it. I never saw anything pop up that would be embarrassing. It never caused me any mental pain. It didn’t seem to stress out any of my classmates either. We were just boys. Being naked did not have a sexual connection. Letting another boy see what was hanging between your legs was no more embarrassing than allowing them to see our bare feet, or ungloved hands. It’s just a God given body part.
February 24, 2009 at 24:06 pm
We swam naked in my school days. It seemed totally normal back in the day. I didn’t mind it that much. I didn’t like it when we had to swim with younger kids. Sometimes when we were in 11th and 12th grade we were swimming with 11 and 12 year old kids. Sometimes they were as young as 8 or 9 years old. Inevitably we would have to teach the younger kids how to swim. That was awkward when we were all naked. We got through it alright. It’s amazing how times have changed. Kids are a lot more conservative today. I think part of the reason kids are more conservative today is because the family sizes are smaller. When I was a kid it was nothing to have 4 school age kids home with mom and dad. Now it is much more common to have 2 school age kids at home with mom and dad. Kids don’t have to share bedrooms and bathroom facilities like we did when I was a kid. I came from a family of seven kids. We had to share bedrooms and the bathroom. I had to share a room with my older brother. It was not uncommon for us to see each other naked in the morning when we were getting ready for school. It was not uncommon for us to see each other naked in the evening when we were getting ready for bed. We shared the bathroom too. We saw each other stepping in and out of the shower. We saw each other doing a number one, or sitting on the toilet. I think it helped take the shyness out of us. It carried over into the schools. A high school kid today would die of embarrassment if his mother saw him walk from the bathroom to his bedroom naked. With seven kids all getting ready for school at the same time stuff like that will happen.
March 8, 2009 at 08:48 am
I think I have figured this out why only the boys were required to swim nude. First off, the problem could have been easily solved by using the same material for both the boys’ and the girls’ suits or having the girls swim nude also. But we know only the boys were required to swim nude. I conclude this was done to get boys ready for military service. Forcing the boys to swim nude was deliberate, it was psychological training. The schools wanted the boys nude to totally break down the individual. Get rid of their modesty so they will stop thinking about themselves. Replace it with the concept that you are the same as the guy next to you and are all just part of a team (a unit, platoon, company, etc). The good of the unit comes first, men who can’t put the good of the unit over their own well being put the entire unit in jeopardy. Combat requires men to endure stress and conditions unlike anything in normal life. This conditioning is essential to how the military functions. The sooner the boys got use to it the better (for the US government).
Conscription was in effect during WWII, Korea and Viet Nam. Conscription was also in effect during the Cold War of the late 50s and early 60s (read Wikipedia-Conscription). Conscription ended in 1973, US involvement in Viet Nam ended in 1975. Guess what, shortly thereabouts so did this nude swim policy.
March 9, 2009 at 09:40 pm
This is Tom again from Wisconsin. I think the last two blogs hit it right on the head. I remember the older kids in High School were given the designation of “Cadet” if they earned it. There were other military terms used too. The fact that bigger families see more of each other from time to time is very true too. I knew several families that had 7-9 kids. When I would stay overnight at their homes it would be necessary to check your modesty at the door. Conscription is probably the reason boys received physical exam the way we did too.
May 22, 2009 at 22:37 pm
I love your website. But put pictures of boys bottoms.(you know the thing under their underwear)
May 22, 2009 at 22:38 pm
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