once ther was nude swimming at my local Boy's Club

[Peter S]

There are plenty of pictures from both conflicts of troops swimming naked in lakes and rivers as a rare chance to have a bath, and they're "all boys together". The Scout master was probably a veteran and had had a similar experience

[eyesup]

I talked with some of the older leaders when my son was in Scouts and swimming nude was common on camping or hiking trips.

Not,   A,   Big,   Deal, back then, at least according to them. Not so much now.

We went to a summer camp on Catalina Island when my son had been in the Troop only a year. The camp had got rid of the group showers and replaced it with individual showers for the boys by then. Can you imagine how long that takes to get through a few hundred boys using single showers. Talk about silly.

The leaders shower was another matter. It was essentially a plank fence rectangle about 7 feet tall with a right angled entrance so no one could see in. Not only was it right off the main path through camp, lots of foot traffic there, it also had no roof! The pipes were just nailed on the studs. We were lucky if the water stayed warm between the heater and the shower head. Bracing!

We would go down there with a flashlight and take a shower at night after the moon came up. Stars, trees and the dark sky. More reason to take a long shower. Even with a camp full of teenagers it got quiet after 10:00pm and on the island there was no background city noises.

We were only a mile or so from the ocean and the smells and sounds from the beach made the walk very nice. If you took a shower in daytime anyone could see into the shower from a nearby hill. If you were so inclined.

We were back there again after my son was almost finished with Scouts and they had replaced it with individual showers. Some anal leader with a mission probably. Spoiled a great experience.

Duane

[nudewalker]

The 4H camp I attended had much the same set up. A rectangular wall set around a concrete pad with the plumbing and shower heads attached to the fence.  It was bordered on one side by a building that housed the toilets, sinks and heater. Being open air and placed in the woods surrounded by cabins that slept maybe 12 of us.  most guys would just wrap towels around themselves to go between the cabins and showers but there were some of us that just walked nude. Oh, and the girls had much of the same set up on the other side of camp across from the athletic fields. My last year there they replaced the woodn cabins with brick and each had it's own shower and toilet facilities. And individual showers as Duane described.

[Greenbare Woods]

When I attended a YMCA Camp in the 1950s. The only showers were a row of about half dozen sprays attached to a pipe run along the back side of the cookhouse.  A canvas would be hung to provide some minimal obstruction to view of passing people.  No thought was given to preventing boys (or counselors) seeing each other while showering.

It was pretty rustic.  The cookhouse was just a kitchen with a wood fired stove.  A large wooden platform had long tables and a canvas (tent) roof and back wall, with one open wall. Hand washing was done at a long trough sink that had 2 rows of faucets. 

Cabins had a dozen bunk beds and a counselor bed in the middle.  Counselors were older teens who got a free camp.  No thought was given about changing clothes in the cabins. The swimming area down by the lake was also nude.

Sometime in the 1960s they built a big lodge with indoor eating.  The old porch had been pretty cold sometimes.  The indoor lodge also had indoor showers and toilets. 

 

[nudewalker]

Cabins had a dozen bunk beds and a counselor bed in the middle.  Counselors were older teens who got a free camp.  No thought was given about changing clothes in the cabins. The swimming area down by the lake was also nude.

Sometime in the 1960s they built a big lodge with indoor eating.  The old porch had been pretty cold sometimes.  The indoor lodge also had indoor showers and toilets.

And soon after that's when they started with bathing suits, individual shower stalls and hiding to dress  started.

[Greenbare Woods]

And soon after that's when they started with bathing suits, individual shower stalls and hiding to dress  started.

YEP

[BlueTrain]

Just noticed this thread (slow day here at work). I make posts on the Nude Sleeper's forum, usually contrary to the party line (that is, Nat's posts). My experiences were quite different from his.

I grew up in a small town. There was no YMCA. In fact, I now live in a county with over a million in population--with one YMCA. I've never set foot in a Y. So, to say that all boys used to swim nude at the YMCA in years past is a stretch of the imagination. Not because boys (and men) did not swim nude there, but simply because not everyone belonged to the Y. They didn't all have swimming pools anyway.

Another frequent topic is swimming nude in high school. Nat never did, yet he never stops talking about it. This same county where I live has no high school with a pool. I did, however, swim nude in a certain college pool. There's no question about that, either. It's just that I find it amazing that a high school would have a pool. But we did take showers after gym in junior high and high school. And then there was the army, too.

I was an only child. My best friend was an only child. Another friend had two older sisters, no brothers. His next door neighbor was an only child. I've never understood why it was called a baby boom. My father was one of thirteen. True, we only had one bathroom in a house that was bigger than the one I live in now but a weekly bath was sufficient. My parents, however, were privileged enough to have their own room, so I never saw them naked.

And finally, there was no boy's club back home.

We moved to the country when I was still in high school. I don't know where I'd heard about skinny-dipping but I had visions of that being a common practice. It wasn't. What was lacking was the old swimming hole. Never heard anyone talking about swimming in the old swimming hole. This was back up in the hills, you understand. There used to be a mill near where we moved but the only thing remaining was traces of the dam that created the mill pond, which might have been a good place for swimming. I can only relate my own experiences and that's what they were. Nat keeps saying that I lived an atypical life and everyone else was different. Could be.

[Greenbare Woods]

I participated in Nude Sleeper's Forum for a short while.   I found Nat to be insufferable, even his active avatar. 

The schools were I grew up did not have pools, and the city pool was outdoors, open in summer, and suits were required, but the boy's locker room was naked group showers. 

My parents had 4 kids, so did our next door neighbors.  Schools kept having to build more classrooms, hence the "baby boomer" tag.   The years before mine had 2 classes each at the elementary school.  My grade had 3 classes.  The next year they had 4 classes.  Then they built a new school. 

Myself and the next door boys began rebelling against clothing and going naked around age 8 or 9.  We slept out in the back yard on hot summer nights because the upstairs of our houses was too hot.  Sometimes late we would run naked out the back gate to the school yard and farther.   I didn't know what "nudism" was until much later. 
Bob

[BlueTrain]

I keep wondering when I first learned about nudism. I do know that I was already "running around naked" before then.

As for Nat, he takes teasing and sharp retorts better than I do. It's not a bad forum, in spite of the apparent narrowness of the subject.

[jbeegoode]

I first became aware of nudists places at about age 8. A friend of mine told me about it. I was shocked and amazed. We had just gotten done singing the kid song, "There's a place in France, where the women wear no pants. And the men go naked and the...." It was popular in several of the schools that I attended. Childhood bawdy. I never thought that people in USA actually did such a thing.
I had been told the the French were looser that us. When I moved to France a few years later and saw lovers making out on the subway, er metro, I was amazed and curious. That just didn't happen in USA until the late sixties, at least around me, and as i remember, it was me doing some of it. The revolution had begun.

I wonder if the nasty old tune is still around on the playgrounds.
Jbee

[Greenbare Woods]

When I was in school I heard a version of that song about France.   But I didn't understand it to mean anything about a nudist place. 

[jbeegoode]

I'll clarify, "There is a place in France." It just enforces the idea that lack of pants, or clothing is a nasty, or a naughty. Yep, I don't recall having a clue about nudist recreation places the first time I heard that one.
Jbee

[BlueTrain]

There was no swimming when I was in scouts in the 1950s. The one and only place to swim in town was at the city pool, which was open for a whole three months of the year, which is the same as the swim club that my wife belongs to. When my son was in scouts (Webelos), we went to a local rec center for an outing. None of the boys had any problem with changing clothes with the others, as well as their fathers and other adults who were strangers. They were much less bothered than I was at that age, having been warned about strangers. So whenever someone says something about how kids are body-conscious, shy, bashful or any of that stuff, don't be too sure about it.

We also went to Webelos camp on a lake where there was swimming. Bathing suits were worn. But there were women there, including one of my sisters-in-law (different week, though). As far as I could tell, nobody was troubled or embarrassed over having to wear bathing trunks.

[Greenbare Woods]

I'll clarify, "There is a place in France." It just enforces the idea that lack of pants, or clothing is a nasty, or a naughty. Yep, I don't recall having a clue about nudist recreation places the first time I heard that one.
Jbee

When I was growing up right after WWII we learned "dirty ditties" about Germans, Italians, and French.  We assumed they were from the war.  "Whistle while you work, 'cause Hitler is a jerk,...."    "There's a place in France,...."  etc.    It was part of 3rd grade education on the playground, not in the classroom. 

[BlueTrain]

My wife was a school teacher and that reminded me of something I heard at a Christmas party attended by a lot of teachers.

As you know, family life education exists in grade school these days, although I have no idea what is taught. But one of the teachers there was telling about his experiences with teaching the class. He told about what a lot of students asked (where do twins come from?) and the kinds of questions he wouldn't answer. But the general consensus was that the kids seemed to know a lot more than we did at the same age. One of the younger teachers asked where they learned about it. Some one said they learned about it on the bus on the way to school. The first teacher said, "Well, that explains why I was a slow starter. I walked to school."

Never assume that anyone else's life is anything like your own, which you think is normal and the same as everyone else's.