A question for geezer guys born in the 40s and 50s.

[trof]

1. Did you belong to the YMCA?
2. Did you learn to swim there?
3. Were you required to swim naked?

I did, I did, and I was.

It seems there was a 'concern' about germs back then.
Germs AND soap particles that could be brought in in bathing suits.
I have read that water purification/filters were fairly primitive.
All were required to shower before entering the pool.

The 'Y' pool in Birmingham, Alabama had a tile surround.
We liked to get a running start ("NO RUNNING ALLOWED!)" and slide damn near the length of the room on our naked slick butts.

Was this policy weird?

[dem4decades]

1. During the early seventies I belonged to a YMCA that had a naked swim for men

On Sunday nights. Can't imagine how that even happened.

[wcmagumba]

2. Born late 50's, no YMCA, learned to swim at church camp and a bit more at Boy Scouts...

always in swim wear...

[marble falls]

3. Yep, yep, and yep.

[hedda_foil]

4. As a geezette, I remember....

At my high school, the girls wore disgusting cotton knit suits in the girls pool but the boys swam nekkid. How do I know, you ask. My boyfriend was the school yearbook photographer. When I refused to believe that the boys didn't wear suits, he took a wide shot photo from the gym balcony. It was black and white from a distance so the details, so to speak, werent distinct but it was clear that those boys had nothing on!

[Marcuse]

8. We were required to swim nude in high school, "because lint would clog the filters".

Disappointment was followed by bewilderment when a Porky’s surveillance mission found that the girls were wearing those huge disgusting blue one piece cotton knit swimsuits.

[Lord Ludd]

10. Same here, though I never took a swimming class

However, a news item made the rounds that one of the guys mistakenly thought the pool was unoccupied & burst in from the locker room in his birthday suit while the girls class was still very much in session.

[Dave in VA]

5. No, yes, and no.

Our school system would take us third graders on the school bus to the local YMCA everyday for about 2 week. Co-ed swimming lessons. Everyone had to show that they could swim the width of the pool and dive off the end of the diving board at the end of the 2 weeks. All of us who were able to perform these 2 tasks were awarded a YMCA water safety certificate.

We thought we were some hot stuff.

[-misanthroptimist]

6. No, no, and no

[Chipper Chat]

7. Yes yes yes.

Didn't give it a second thought.
Indiana.1953. I was 13.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. A friend of mine, a year older than me,

(he was born in 1947, I in 1948) thinks his P.E. swimming class with the boys all swimming naked was more than fine. I'm totally appalled. Okay, so my high school did not have a pool, which is a bit of a factor, but perhaps more to the point until this topic came up a few years ago, I had NO idea that high school swimming classes involved nude swimming for the guys. And why the guys only and not the girls? What am I missing here? Why was nude swimming EVER ok? Why the boys and not the girls?

As to the OP's mention of germs being an issue, I can pretty much guarantee the girls were not required to swim nude, and their bathing suits were a bit more covering than the guys' bathing suits. So the germ explanation is, and was even then, total bullshit. I kind of wonder who exactly wanted to be looking at naked males.

[Maine Abu El Banat]

12. Up here in Maine

We went to a place called "the lake" for swimming lessons.

[JoeOtterbein]

13. 4. Was there some older....

...creepy guy watching?

[trof]

14. Lifeguards/swimming instructors?

[JoeOtterbein]

15. Yep.

And in my HS they would give you bathing suits. A really creepy old guy would hand them out, while you stood naked in line waiting

[Submariner]

16. Early 60s Arlington MA YMCA

Yes, No, Yes.

Learned to swim at the city pool, Foss Park. The Y water was clean with a lot of chlorine smell in the indoor heated pool.

We were told as (catholic) kids that the YMCA swimming naked thing was a Protestant religion thing, part of being god's child from nature.

However, I was also part of the CYO (catholic youth organization) and we had to wear swim suits at summer retreat (catholic) camp, because we were as pure as the driven snow, and not sinners like our protestant counterparts, so we were naturally modest and holy too by hiding our junk in twin trunks.