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
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".
We really did not care if the caps kept out water as we would swim heads up "Hollywood Style".
At my pool and many others in the UK and that is still what you see. We are about 10 years behind you in terms of enlightenment. I have tried to convince them of the wisdom of having at least 1 lane in at all times.
I explained the dangers of mixing width swimmers, splashers and people who like to jump in any where and any time and people wanting to do lengths.
To try to swim lengths at these times is like a runner doing a 10k as laps through the shopping mall, with his eyes looking down and not ahead !!
We have 2 lanes in from 6:45 am to 8:30 am, monday to friday and twice a week a "special" swim time of 1 hour where all 4 lanes are in. The rest of the time it is a free for all, length swimmers are not welcome and the pool is dominated by the" head-up breaststrokers."
I remember swim club in the early 70's with poor goggles and our coach used to smoke heavily on poolside, there would be a layer of smoke floating on the water surface. I have very bad allergies and asthma so training was hell.
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".
We really did not care if the caps kept out water as we would swim heads up "Hollywood Style".
At my pool and many others in the UK and that is still what you see. We are about 10 years behind you in terms of enlightenment. I have tried to convince them of the wisdom of having at least 1 lane in at all times.
I explained the dangers of mixing width swimmers, splashers and people who like to jump in any where and any time and people wanting to do lengths.
To try to swim lengths at these times is like a runner doing a 10k as laps through the shopping mall, with his eyes looking down and not ahead !!
We have 2 lanes in from 6:45 am to 8:30 am, monday to friday and twice a week a "special" swim time of 1 hour where all 4 lanes are in. The rest of the time it is a free for all, length swimmers are not welcome and the pool is dominated by the" head-up breaststrokers."
I remember swim club in the early 70's with poor goggles and our coach used to smoke heavily on poolside, there would be a layer of smoke floating on the water surface. I have very bad allergies and asthma so training was hell.
