# Gym uniforms



## Pappy (Sep 26, 2017)

In the 50s, when I was in school, the girls wore these one piece uniforms. From what I’m hearing, on my hometown forum, they hated them. Us boys wore grey shorts and white t-shirts.


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## CeeCee (Sep 26, 2017)

Yep, those look like the gym suits I wore in HS.  Ours were a royal blue.

That even looks like my 9th grade gym teacher, Miss Connoly.


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## Happyflowerlady (Sep 26, 2017)

We had a locker where we kept our gym clothes, and took them home when they needed washing, otherwise they stayed in the locker. We had to wear shorts and a tee shirt; but I don’t remember if there was a color designation or not. 
I hated PE !  We had the same teacher for Health and for PE, and she was a terrible teacher. Most of us were failing Health, and that in itself shows that if the whole class was failing, the teacher is not doing it right. (Most of my other classes I was an A student). We had Health one day and PE the next day. 
I do not have depth perception, so anything that we played (basketball, etc) that included a ball was very distressing to me, and I was always getting hit with the ball because I couldn’t tell how close it was to me until it smacked me in the face.


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## Trade (Sep 26, 2017)

Happyflowerlady said:


> We had a locker where we kept our gym clothes, and took them home when they needed washing,



Same here. Except that I didn't take mine home for washing very often. I can remember wearing some pretty ripe T-shirts.


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## jujube (Sep 26, 2017)

That is EXACTLY what our gym uniforms looked like.  Ours were a particularly disgusting shade of pea green and guaranteed to fit no one.  

They came in three sizes: too small, too large and a combination of too small and too large.  Depending on your body type, they were either too short in the crotch or hung down to your knees.  

We had to write our names on them in permanent laundry  marker so there was no chance of passing them down to the next sister, so everybody had to buy a new one.  They were supposed to be folded neatly and then taken home every week for laundering, but of course we forgot.  So we had to show up in hideously wrinkled gym suits and get marked down for it.  

I despised gym class, too.  I was dreadful at anything that required coordination, throwing/catching balls or climbing ropes.   Every Friday, we also had folk/square dancing during the second half of gym class, which meant the boys came over in their sweaty gym clothes and we had to dance with them in OUR sweaty gym clothes.   Once a month, we had ballroom dancing and we didn't have to change into our gym wear - HOORAY!  

The worst part of gym class was the legendary and dreaded "sex talk" we got the first half of our sophomore years.  We had to watch a very graphic movie about venereal diseases and get "the talk" from our respective gym teachers.   I just remember our gym teacher (who lived with the other female gym teacher and was exceeding "manly") telling us that boys had nothing else on their minds but sex because their sex organs were on the "outside" and that it was up to us girls to "keep things under control" because they couldn't control themselves.  She once told us to avoid dates in restaurants with white table clothes because the tablecloths "made the boys think about 'bed'".   Pretty warped, huh?

Some particular sadistic individual also thought it would be fun occasionally for both the boys' and girls' gym classes to get together and play dodge ball.  Man, it hurt like the dickens getting hit by a basketball thrown by a football player.  

I thanked my lucky stars that only two years of gym class was mandatory in high school.  

I really enjoyed the one phys ed course I had to take in college.  It was called "Body Dynamics", nobody cared what you wore,  the Teaching Assistant who was in charge spent most of her time in the corner of the gym talking to her boyfriend and we all sat around painting each other's fingernails.   Now, THAT I could get into.


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## Pappy (Sep 26, 2017)

Our gym coach, Mr. Elia, was a tough guy on us kids. We all dreaded the “Spot” which was a slap to the back of the head. It got your attention. 
If he tried that today, he would be sued, screwed and probably be arrested.


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## GypsyRoadLady (Sep 26, 2017)

Howard D. Crull Middle School 6-8 1972-1975 the suits were a terrible knit with red shorts and an attached red striped shirt. I had long forgotten those till this post!


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## SifuPhil (Sep 26, 2017)

Funny - we ALSO had red and white striped shorts and a muscle shirt as our standard gym uniform.

This is me in 9th grade ...


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## hollydolly (Sep 26, 2017)

At least you were all covered up....we girls had to do Gym in our Navy knickers, and white shirts., this was in the late 60's early 70's...... When we were on the hockey field or the athletics track we were overlooked by the large windows of the boys woodwork and technical classes, I can hear the cat calls and jeers even now... ...horribly embarrassing when you're a young teen 


Fortunately by the time my daughter started school. things had changed thankfuly  and she wore a short navy skirt or  culottes  and white t-shirt..


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## CeeCee (Sep 26, 2017)

Our swimsuits were hideous but better than what the boys had...nothing.   Thankfully we didn't swim together.

Ours were a faded and worn out one piece with no bra support and many had holes in them.  They were one size fits all and stretched...to a point.

We also had to wear a swimming cap.  You can imagine what we looked like after that class.  My high school was huge and had 4,000 students and it  was 4 stories and in a u shape.

The pool was on the first floor and you had 5 minutes to shower and dry off and put your clothes and stockings on your half wet body, fix your hair and make up and heaven help you if your next class was on the 4 th floor on the opposite side.  I think on days we had swimming class I wore knee socks.  That helped.

You could only use your period as an excuse once a month, other times we used sore throats or something similar.  On those days you had to write a report instead of swimming.


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## hollydolly (Sep 26, 2017)

Thankfully we didn't have a swimming pool in our School in Scotland, we'd have frozen to death lol...

My daughter otoh did have an outdoor  pool here in England at her school..but she was allowed to wear any swimsuit as long as it was the school colours..


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## CeeCee (Sep 26, 2017)

hollydolly said:


> Thankfully we didn't have a swimming pool in our School in Scotland, we'd have frozen to death lol...
> 
> My daughter otoh did have an outdoor  pool here in England at her school..but she was allowed to wear any swimsuit as long as it was the school colours..



By the time my daughter was in HS, regular swimsuits were allowed.  I don't remember if there were any restrictions on them though but I'd assume you couldn't wear a thong bikini.


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## CeeCee (Sep 26, 2017)

This is is a photo of my HS in Pittsburgh.  It's a more recent pic that I snagged from a post on FB.  I read that it's not a HS anymore but a Senior housing building.


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## tnthomas (Sep 26, 2017)

At the schools I attended the vast majority of girls wouldn't 'dress out' for gym class.  The teacher would have them walk the 400m

 track for the duration of the class period.

I think that the girls that did _dress out _would wear shorts and T shirt similar to this:


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## JaniceM (Sep 26, 2017)

We had to wear those horrid gym suits in 7th & 8th grades-  the worst of it was the heavy-weight elastic on the inside of the legs.  Quite uncomfortable when doing gym stuff.  The gym teachers were strict about it-  they'd give you a Zero for the class if you didn't wear the suit.  
We were glad when Coach took over, and told us we could wear regular t-shirts and shorts.


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## Camper6 (Sep 26, 2017)

> Fortunately by the time my daughter started school. things had changed  thankfuly  and she wore a short navy skirt or  culottes  and white  t-shirt..



The boys looking out the window.  That was me alright with the gang.  

One day the teacher left us in our room alone because there was qualifying for the girls track team. So we all went to the window.

Well.  Everything was fine at the starting line, however when they took off one of the girls bloomers fell down around her ankles.  She just reached down and hiked  them up and hung on to them and won the race.

I wish I had a video of that and of the guys at the window.


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## jujube (Sep 26, 2017)

I was perpetually grateful that the showers in the gym hadn't been functional in years at my high school.  I was a painfully modest girl and would have absolutely died if I had to shower in the "gang showers" (all one big room with shower heads sticking out).   Of course, that left one hot and sweaty after gym, but.....

Luckily, we only had gym three days a week.  The other two, we had "health and safety" class (freshman year) and "personal civics" (sophomore year).  Those were both good for a nap during the movies.  I learned how to sleep with my eyes open.


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## Pappy (Sep 26, 2017)

No room for modesty in the boys shower room. Although I hated it, we had to shower after gym. I dreaded the wise ass who was always snapping his towel on guys rears.


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## CeeCee (Sep 26, 2017)

When we had swimming we had to shower after and it was all open.  The horror!


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## Trade (Sep 26, 2017)

I didn't mind PE at all. It was almost always outdoors for us because this was Florida. Usually it was 5-10 minutes of calisthenics and then we'd do something cool like play touch football or soft ball, or such. Then at the end it was a lap around the field which was maybe a quarter mile and in to the showers. They never did give us enough time to shower and change for our next class though and that was kind of a pain. On rainy days though we would stay in the gym and do square dancing with the girls. That kinda sucked. They would have the girls and the boys line up on opposite sides of the gym and then have us march single file past each other and whoever you happened to line up with, that was your partner whether you liked it or not.  

But that all changed on Fridays. Friday was what the coaches liked to call "Fun Day". I think it was an invention of our head Football coach, Hugh Kriever, who was an ex Marine. He looks like a nice easy going guy in his yearbook photo, but in real life that dude could be scary. 



http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/tampabaytimes/obituary.aspx?n=hugh-b-kriever-max&pid=162806296

That day they tortured us. It was all exercises. They ramped up the calisthenics big time. Especially the hard ones like squat thrusts. God how I hated squat thrusts. But everybody was hoping for the calisthenics part to not end, because when they did what came after them was worse. Much worse. Wind sprints. Wind sprints that you thought would never end. Wind sprints until about 1/2 the class was puking. Then finally blessed relief when the 10 minute bell rand and all you had left was that jog around the field and into the showers. God how we all hated "Fun Day".


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## Trade (Sep 26, 2017)

CeeCee said:


> When we had swimming we had to shower after and it was all open.  The horror!



Just the girls together? 

Or was it boys and girls?


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## CeeCee (Sep 26, 2017)

Trade said:


> Just the girls together?
> 
> Or was it boys and girls?



Just the girls!  Even though it was the 60's and the slogan was make love not war....not in my family or Public HS.


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## IKE (Sep 26, 2017)

Me, Big Louie and Alfonso in our gym clothes after just winning our tri-state high school (we were held back a few times) badminton tournament.


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## Trade (Sep 26, 2017)

CeeCee said:


> Just the girls!  Even though it was the 60's and the slogan was make love not war....not in my family or Public HS.



Come to think of it I did feel a little weird myself the first time or two that I had to shower with a bunch of other dudes. That would have been in 7th grade PE in the fall of 1959.


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## Temperance (Sep 26, 2017)

Haven't thought about those gym suits in years.  Ours were very similar and were a horrid green color.


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## Camper6 (Sep 26, 2017)

We were supposed to shower before we went into the pool.

It never bothered me to take a shower with all the guys.  It just never entered my mind.  

I enjoyed showers because at home all we had was a bathtub.  I hated that.  Sitting in the dirty water and not being able to rinse off.


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## jujube (Sep 29, 2017)

I actually have my grandmother's phys ed uniform from 1913 when she was in the 8th grade at a girls' school.  It's a navy blue sort of dotted swiss one-piece bloomer suit with a collar and cap sleeves that buttons down the front.  There is a knee-length skirt that buttons onto the bloomer suit.  She said they wore long navy blue  stockings and canvas shoes.


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