YMCA-Swim Lessons-Naked Little Boys

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  Jan 20, 2008 3:17 AM GMT

  There's something I want to check out, and the best way is to put it out there, and see if anyone else had the same experience as me.............I learned to swim at the YMCA, when I was quite young. I was probably around kindergarten age or younger. Here's what I still vividly remember about it...........I remember going into the locker room, putting the clothes in a locker, proceeding naked into the shower to rinse-off, and then walking naked out the the pool for the swim lesson. .......There were aproximately 12 kids in the class. I remember the pleasant teacher and his name.(He wore a swim suit) .......I can picture us all sitting on the edge of the pool, naked, waiting for the lesson...........I don't have any negative associations with this experience, but as an adult, it makes me wonder a bit.............My question is...Did any else besides me have naked swim lessons as a little kid at a YMCA????!!!!!! (I'm 51, the YMCA was in NJ)

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  Jan 20, 2008 12:47 PM GMT

  I think this was common at YMCA's years ago.
  
  When I was a freshman in college PE was a requirement. The gym was under construction so they had us take our PE at the nearby Y. We had swimming one quarter and you had to be naked. So picture 30 fit young guys milling about the pool area starkers. It was pretty hot and I had to do my darndest to keep things under control if you know what I mean.
  
  Loved the experience actually. Once, me and one other guy were the only ones able to swim the length of the pool underwater up and back without coming up for air. We both got slapped on the bare ass from the other dudes after doing that. Ask me how many times I've relived that moment in my mind!
  
  Only creepy thing was this Y was managed by these out of shape old guys who used to watch us from behind a window in their office that faced the pool. I'm sure they loved their jobs.
  
  This Y was in Jersey too.

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• HndsmKansan
  
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  Jan 20, 2008 2:54 PM GMT

  I had swimming lessons at the YMCA as a 5 year old and never remember anything remotely like that, but this is Kansas.

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  Jan 21, 2008 2:29 AM GMT

  CRAZYBOY- your face bears a resemblance to mine when I was a kid. Didn't know I had relatives in Kansas.......................VTORSO- So what was the reason that they gave you at the YMCA that you all would have to be naked? Here's a video for you, while you ponder the question.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRf4aX6tPAk

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  Jan 21, 2008 2:46 AM GMT

  NO FAIR, I HAD TO WAIT TILL I WAS AN ADULT TO GO SKINNY DIPPING!
  
  I can picture this sorta thing happening in the past, but I don't think any YMCA would allow this now with the way things are in the world today.

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  Jan 21, 2008 2:53 AM GMT

  vtorso saidI think this was common at YMCA's years ago.
  
  When I was a freshman in college PE was a requirement.
  This Y was in Jersey too.

  
  
  COLLEGE!??? My, where is that Y? I'm in NJ!

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  Jan 21, 2008 3:07 AM GMT

  I never heard of this and I'm like guiltygear and did not skinny dip until well into adulthood. I googled this and found a Wikipedia article
  
  "Before the YMCA began to admit females in the early 1960s, swimming trunks were not even allowed in the pools[1], and high school swimming classes for boys sometimes had similar policies[2] , citing the impracticality of providing and maintaining sanitary swimming gear. These practices were common because of the perception that there was nothing wrong or sexual about seeing members of the same gender in the nude, especially in these indoor contexts among equals in 'birthday suit uniform'."
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinny_dipping
  
  

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  Jan 21, 2008 3:22 AM GMT

  When I was a kid my parents made me join The Boy's Club. I tried to learn to swim, and yes they made all the boys swim nude. I thot it was weird then and I still think it's weird. PS I STILL can't swim.

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  Jan 21, 2008 3:33 AM GMT

  Yes, I am 56 and I, too, had swimming lessons naked as a little kid at the Y.
  
  

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  Jan 21, 2008 3:39 AM GMT

  wow, maybe I should have been born 50 years ago.
  

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  Jan 21, 2008 4:03 AM GMT

  COMALE- I thank you and Wikipedia for providing the answer. You are right. I don't remember girls there. The females went to the yWca.............CASLON- Thank you for confirming this. I have a couple of questions for you, since you are the only other YMCA nekked kid swimmer to come forth thus far..........How old do you remember swimming there naked before you wore trunks? Do you remember feeling at all uncomfortable about the nudity? I was so young that it didn't make a difference to me. On a young kid the gonads don't decend for awhile, so you can jump in without having to cup your jewels. ....................On a somewhat unrelated note....I actually figured out the term "Adult Swim", which Cartoon Network calls their adult cartoons at night. At the YMCA I remember they would yell out "Adult Swim". That meant that the kids had to get out of the pool, so that the adults could get in.............

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  Jan 21, 2008 4:24 AM GMT

  By the way, that's a nice innocent nostalgic painting. Very nice.

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  Jan 21, 2008 4:29 AM GMT

  skeezix said "Adult Swim". That meant that the kids had to get out of the pool, so that the adults could get in.............

  
  
  Even adult were swimming nude?

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  Jan 21, 2008 4:39 AM GMT

  We had naked swim lessons at the Y in Birmingham, Michigan too. I was 8, so this would have been 1965. (Yikes!)

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• dfrourke
  
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  Jan 21, 2008 4:49 AM GMT

  I think this was fairly common practice...my father [59] told me that when he was in High School they swam naked [just boys - no girls in the pool]...and apparently, the last one in the pool got a swat on the ass...
  
  ...hmmm....
  
  - David

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  Jan 21, 2008 5:00 AM GMT

  EBL333- Thankfully, none of the adults were naked.

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  Jan 21, 2008 5:13 AM GMT

  I remember how I felt. I hated it. I didnt like being naked at all. I used to hide behind the hedge at home rather than go there for a swimming lesson. Eventually, my parents gave up on sending me there.
  
  Do you have any idea why they had us swim naked?

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  Jan 21, 2008 7:28 AM GMT

  CASLON- Sounds like the nudity was traumatic for you and others. See COMALE's entry above for more info.

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  Jan 21, 2008 10:02 AM GMT

  i'm glad you shared that story with us vtorso.
  
  
  what a difference a few decades makes.

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  Jan 21, 2008 11:52 AM GMT

  skeezix said.VTORSO- So what was the reason that they gave you at the YMCA that you all would have to be naked?

  
  
  They told us it was more sanitary and that swimsuits gave off lint that clogged the pool filter. I don't know about the lint part but whatevah.
  It was fun. Really glad I had the experience.

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  Jan 21, 2008 12:43 PM GMT

  I learn some basic swimming by jumping in a little stream by a rice field . I then learn more by swimming under a waterfall . Its was in college that I perfected my swimming skill.

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  Jan 21, 2008 1:23 PM GMT

  dfourke -
  
  That was exactly the situation at my Junior High and Senior High School (swimming, and in the nude, was compulsory). The only difference is that in my class, it was the last person out of the pool and into the showers at the end of the class who got the swat with the paddle.
  
  One aside...
  
  As I recall, during the winter, following showering for PE or after swimming, we'd comb our hair, then go outside until it would freeze--and although it quickly thawed when back inside, it tended to stay in shape through the remainder of the day.

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  Jan 21, 2008 2:22 PM GMT

  Back in a simpler time...
  
  I too can remember swimming naked at the Y.
  
  Before the YMCA began to admit females in the late 1960s or early 70's, swimming trunks were not even allowed in the pools, and many school swimming classes for boys had similar policies, primarily due to the impracticality of providing and maintaining sanitary swimming gear (Do you remember how much those old locker rooms reeked?). It was common because of the perception - again of a simpler time - that there was nothing wrong or sexual or immoral about seeing members of the same gender in the nude, especially in an indoor context among equals.
  
  When I was a small kid down south 'skinny dipping' was common for kids - probably because most of us did not own swim suits; or always have them with us when we snuck away from our parents to go swimming.
  
  I truthfully can't remember any sexual overtones to this common practice until we grew much older - teenagers really, and then the practice was still very common with most kids sexuality focused on the opposite sex.

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• art_smass
  
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  Jan 21, 2008 4:19 PM GMT

  Now the YMCA has private booths within the locker rooms for kids to change so that no one will see their bare bums. I can't believe how many people use them. Their parents teach them to view every stranger as a potential pedophile, when in reality guys like me are only looking at them thinking "When did kids get to be so fat?"

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  Jan 21, 2008 11:25 PM GMT

  My university had a guys only pool complex for decades where the guys all swam and got sun naked. This pool was surrounded by high brick walls - no women. It was replaced by a new pool complex that is co-ed about the time I started there - so I didn't get in on all this male camaraderie unfortunately.
  
  I don't understand some guys when they are so scared anybody is going to see their junk. I saw a guy in the showers at the gym yesterday - who actually showered and soaped - the whole thing, with his boxers on. He did this stupid little dance trying to shove his hand down the front and then the back of his boxers, trying to clean his junk with soap. What is this? What has he got that we all haven't seen a thousand times?

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