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Buck Naked and Unashamed
When nudity was normal
My Geriatric Journal #15
If male nudity embarrasses you, dear reader, close your eyes. I, personally, may have been exposed to more flaccid penises than many men alive today — with the exception of urologists, of course.
When I was a boy, it was perfectly normal for boys and men to be naked together. Indeed, bathing suits were forbidden both at the YMCA pool where I spent my Saturday mornings and at the high school swimming pool during the twice weekly physical fitness classes.
When I bared this fact to my wife (sorry, I couldn’t resist) many years ago, she was shocked. Naked? Everyone? Why? She must have asked. (Both indoor swimming pools and public nudity are extremely rare in Puerto Rico where she was born and where we live.)
Yes, all the boys, all the men. She found it hard to process, as I think most people who were not boys in the first half of the 20th century also would. Imagine if your kids’ school announced today that bathing suits would not be allowed in the pool!
Well, it was standard operating procedure for boys at YMCAs and schools in many parts of the United States at the time (Google it). I say boys, because YMCAs were not coed then and schools, according to my research, did not require girls to go naked. For them…
