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It might've been the day you started laughing and shot mashed potatoes out of your nose on the lunch of that one girl. Or it might've been the week you and your manboobs were forced to bounce up and down the basketball court in gym. Whatever it was, something really tortured happened to you in junior high and you've never forgotten. Kind of selfish of you not to share, don't you think?

The Naked Swim

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.




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