Swimming, back in the day

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• AL

  

  Alheath

  Sep 26, 2021

  Fascinating piece of history.

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• NU

  nudeyooper

  Sep 26, 2021

  I was old enough to be going to our school system pool at the time of the newspaper article, but our swimming lessons and open swims were coed and we all wore suits. The surprise for me here are the posed for pictures with naked guys and clothed gals. Now that I've had chances to swim nude, I look back wishing we were less prudish in our neighborhood.

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• ST

  

  Strandjunge59

  Sep 26, 2021

  It's funny that it was common for men to be nude in that times. Today it's the other way round. A nude man in public would have much more problems than a nude woman.

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• TD

  

  Tom D

  Sep 27, 2021

  Once some one of my colleagues born in the 80'smade a comment about the lack of modesty among the older men in his gym's locker room. I replied that it probably was because they grew up in a time when men and boys routinely swam nude in the company of other males, They acted like they had never heard of this before. This surprised me because I would have expected that their fathers who were in my age range would have mentioned it to them at some point.

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• ST

  

  SteveOriginal Poster

  Oct 31, 2021

  I wish I could shed more light on the origin of the photos. I picked them up from a blog post by an English-speaking man who lives in Austria. He says they're not Austrian. I'd guess that the men's and women's teams did not swim together. In one of the photos, it's plain that each team is posing with its own coach at the end of the row. The hairstyles would date it to the 1960's, western Europe or the anglo world.

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• FI

  

  firstsun

  Nov 1, 2021

  Steven that is so true that artical could of been written i the local paper where i grew up that was exactly how it was just the boys had the afternoon and girls in the morning. That was how i learned how to swim and we loved it especially the free hour after.

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• SA

  

  Stone Andy

  Nov 1, 2021

  I don't think the pictures were photoshopped or changed and have seen many vintage shots similar to these. At that time "modesty" for men was that they neither preened nor were shy. My understanding is that much had to do with mandatory military conscription of the era, where men had to be prepared to live as men among men without comfort or privacy. I saved some old pix from a swimming blog that went offline which I'll try to share.

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• NU

  

  nuderay

  Nov 2, 2021

  I'd like to be able to go naked at the indoor pools in my area. To bad society is forced to wear swimsuits that usually don't leave much to the imagination.

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• ST

  

  Steve

  Nov 5, 2021

  By nuderay: [quote]I'd like to be able to go naked at the indoor pools in my area. To bad society is forced to wear swimsuits that usually don't leave much to the imagination.[/quote] A local municipal pool used to have a nude might every Saturday evening back around the nineties. I only knew as my sister had a part-time job at the tuck shop (concession stand) and was told she didn't have to work Saturday nights. The owners of the contract to run the stand took on that shift themselves! The pool doesn't seem to do that anymore.

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• RO

  

  roffdusen

  Nov 9, 2021

  Mark my words, before too long nudity will be illegal in a locker room and you will have to shower in shorts. You think I am joking, but I am not. I see the trend coming. Especially YMCA's that have multi generational clientele AKA kids as well.

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• CH

  

  Chris

  Dec 8, 2021

  I was at a spa here several years ago and they had the shower curtains as well.... When I opened it, all the way naked, to set the water temperature I just left it open.... I hate being restrained in the shower lol... 21 months ago I finished my outdoor shower, I've only showered in the house 5 times since I completed the shower in the yard

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• SA

  

  Stone Andy

  Dec 10, 2021

  Yes, you're correct. The trend is to commodify the basics and luxuriate the add-ons. So our local basic carwash was rebuilt to an appointment only detailing center. At the brand new LA Fitness gym in the next higher rent town over, they built a more sprawling facility than our 10 year old gym - minus the sauna. They priced the basic LAF membership to put our local Y out of business. It's clear that LAF's profit margin comes from aggressively marketing personal fitness sessions. The same has happened at the local Korean spa - the chairs are out of the wet rooms, the lights are brighter in the relaxation rooms and the specials for treatments are front and center (and I don't go back).
  All that makes it difficult to enjoy time just to be naked. How do you market and productify that? Where people used to spend a couple bucks for a cup of joe at the diner to socialize, they now download a free app and wait 15 minutes for a $7 corporate Starbucks filled paper cup. That may be genius from a corporate perspective, but what we do about other than to stay home and drink coffee naked? Perhaps we need some breakthrough product to redefine nudism. A venti nudicino anyone? That might not happen, but for better or worse, we can always count on one thing for sure: change.

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• PA

  

  Paul

  Dec 10, 2021

  Whatever "A twenty nudicino" is, I'll take two.[quote]A venti nudicino anyone?[/quote]

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