Does anyone remember swimming from back in the 60's or 50's.
For laughs here are some of my memories.
In the 1960's lap lanes if they were put in a pool were scorned. Most pools were open and filled with splashers.Toy submarines were big People who were older then the swim teams (young people) who actually wanted to swim laps were .."oddballs" "they were "exercise freaks". All the pools I went to were outdoors. On labor day all swimming stopped..that was it. Most of us girls sat by the pool lounging ,oiling and burning and checking to see who was "seeing us". Then if we went in it was only for a few minutes to cool off. The flower swim caps were coolest but only if the pool required caps other wise most of us perfered to swim capless. If a cap had a strap most girls pulled it off right away and "lost it" We really did not care if the caps kept out water as we would swim heads up "Hollywood Style".Unless we had just had our hair done a couple days before then we would want to stay dry but the best time to swim was before a trip to the beauty shop.Every bodys secret wish was to sneak in late at night to skinny dip. Guys liked goofy swimming masks and goggles and fins so they would be scary looking and they were goofy for sure! I remember trying one swim mask that had two snorkles sticking out curved on the end with the ping pong balls in the cages ,it covered your whole face and when the balls stuck you could not breath .. death trap swim mask I called it..Of course liability lawyers had not been invented yet. We all awaited the mid summer pool partys with the big bar-b-cues and luau partys .We bought all our summer pool items at the big Memorial day drug store sales were we could get things like towels,suntan oil, zorris (flipflops)and two swim caps for the summer before the big advertised "Playtex Swim Cap Riot Sales" ended. And of course we played Marco-Polo on and on just as kids do today.
Parents
Former Member
I forgot about the jumping in. Yes I got jumped on a couple of times! You could tell who was on the swim teams too because they wore one piece suits in matching colors ,I remember White Stag brand and I do remember seeing the AAU emblems , I don't remember any of the swim team swimmers with goggles. Back then they were the big round eye goofy looking ones (Sounds like my Barracudas today gasp..) but mainly only the boys wore them..the younger boys that is and the occasional "exercise buff" , (thats the term I was trying to remember on my first post to describe fitness swimmers) .To tell the truth and I have said this before but I give Mark Spitz a good deal of credit for getting swimming popularized. He was the first swimmer I can remember with goggles on a swim team (Life Magazine) and he looked cool not goofy. The goggles have helped lots of people who would have quit I am sure. Today we have indoor and outdoorpools in lots of towns where people can swim year round. And the lifeguards are still tanned and wearing the white zinc oxide on the noses!
I forgot about the jumping in. Yes I got jumped on a couple of times! You could tell who was on the swim teams too because they wore one piece suits in matching colors ,I remember White Stag brand and I do remember seeing the AAU emblems , I don't remember any of the swim team swimmers with goggles. Back then they were the big round eye goofy looking ones (Sounds like my Barracudas today gasp..) but mainly only the boys wore them..the younger boys that is and the occasional "exercise buff" , (thats the term I was trying to remember on my first post to describe fitness swimmers) .To tell the truth and I have said this before but I give Mark Spitz a good deal of credit for getting swimming popularized. He was the first swimmer I can remember with goggles on a swim team (Life Magazine) and he looked cool not goofy. The goggles have helped lots of people who would have quit I am sure. Today we have indoor and outdoorpools in lots of towns where people can swim year round. And the lifeguards are still tanned and wearing the white zinc oxide on the noses!
