Burnley Grammar School

one2jack/Benny, when I wore shorts for school and home they were much shorter than the knee length shorts that as seen today. Despite my age or height my shorts were worn well above the knee, and bought so that they fitted neat and trim.
Usually boys were promoted to wearing long trousers at a certain age, usually about thirteen years of age, but my school allowed the option of keeping boys in shorts till they left school if their parents so desired.
My fate was sealed and my parents took the benefit of this option and kept me in shorts till I left school.
Apart from being the odd one out at school, I felt I had a very juvenile appearance, that I'm sure my parents appreciated.

At school we always did pe in just shorts. We were always barefoot and bare chest.
I remember many mothers didn't like children, especially boys, running around their houses in sweaty socks, so they had to take them off. So when visiting I often had to remove my socks. My mother was the same.

benny, swimming was mixed too. we only could wear speedos, but most of the guys would have prefered wearing cool longer shorts. speedos were after a while some kind of embarrasing. obviously tell tale bugle esp when you get older... but teacher said its better for mobility and swimming itself. long shorts would have distubed us

one2jack

At ourSecondary school (all Boys) swimming was at a municipal pool. Trunks were speeedo in desin desig but a cheaper version. This was the only option. Far better than the current trend for long shorts which I avoid.

james, sometimes i rebel in wearing just shorts, but most of the time im ok with it. im 19 and still living with my parents, so im still in shorts when i got home. i left school a few years ago. so i'm just used to it.

when i was younger i was in just shorts all neighbourhood in summer. not even shoes. hang out with friends and playing. now its just around the house.

i dont know if my friends had these rules at their homes. everytime i was at theirs, they were dressed completely (just shoes off, sweatpants).

the reasons are: laundry, to get comfortable with my body, fear that i'd damage the clothes, etc.

Growing up we were never allowed to wear shoes at home, they came off at the door and we had house clothes to change into. But we did not have to go bare chested. Back in the 60s and 70s not many homes had central heating and it would have been extremely cold to go without a shirt in winter.

one2jack,Jeremy, how did you feel about wearing shorts all the time and did you rebel or object to wearing them?
Up to what age were you made to wear shorts and what was the reason given?
I was kept in shorts at home all the time and they were compulsory.

james, jeremy. for p.e. boys wore shirts, shorts and trainers. same outside. speedo for swimming, trunks werent allowed. same for girls, but sure swimsuit for swimming. p.e. was mixed. teams were skins vs shirts, girls got vests as teammate. in case of forgetting the kit means for a boy do p.e. in his clothes, often they decided to go shirtless. barefoot because risk of injury when doing p.e. in socks. i don't remember when girls forgot their kits...


same as you guys my parents want me to strip to shorts when i got home. in summer even outside around the house. i didnt know others had the same rules.

Like Alistair my brothers and I were made to strip to the waist as soon as we got home from school. We also had to go barefoot and were in shorts.
Sometimes we had to go out into the garden stripped to the waist and barefoot and as far as I know some of our school friends had to do the same.

one2jack,we too were shirtless for PE, just shorts and barefoot.
Like Alastair, my parents adopted this approach when I returned from school and changed out of my school uniform into a pair of shorts.
This was just normal practice and I always wore shorts at home without a shirt and went barefoot.

Alistair why your perents want you to be shirtless? do yo have to be barefoot aswell? only inside? what about your friends?

Although we wear shirts during pe lessons (I'm in my last year of school) my family still believes that shirts are unnecessary in the home. Whenever I'm at home my bro and I are stripped to the waist in shorts- it has helped me to be more confident about myself and encourages me to exercise and look after my body.

Any questions, just ask

Yes, I totally agree with you. Bare chest or vests are the most practical way of doing sports.

Formerly most schools which didn't require boys to be barechested for PE made them to wear PE vest.
Nowadays PE vest are changed for T-shirts. I can't see why.
Boy didn't seem to mind wearing vests for PE.

Well I know both my friends and I always looked forward to seeing which boys would be made to drop their PE vests, and whether the teacher would choose between skins and vests teams or full skins with all the boys having to strip down, indoors or out regardless of the time of year. A vest or bare chest is far more practical and cheaper alternative. I'm willing to bet both my son's and their friends wouldn't object either.

The comments prior to this latest one seem to have diappeared into thin air. I was agreeing with the previous writer than fellows in Britain do seem more prudish. I compared this to the fact then when abroad men wear speedo type swimming trunks and think nothing of it, whilst us English seem to try and cover our bodies whith ridicously long swimming shorts. In my school days it was brief style trunks and that was all that was available.

Why the change?

I meant to add, I used to go to a local swimmimg pool whre there was sperate all male & female changing. The male did not have cubicles and as some did try the same as the beach dance change under a towel. Most did not bother and even carried on conversations rather like the advert.
Now whereever I go I have to be careful because all pools seem to have mixed "Changing Villages" and I have to rmemeber that any moment a female (either swimmer or attendant) could walk in and I must change in a very confined cubicle.

When I was young we thought nothing of the bare chest & barefoot requirement! Guys casually went naked in changing and group shower rooms. Now lads either don't bother showering (yuck) or do a ridiculous towel dance until they're in cubicle showers.

However, guys on mainland Europe haven't changed their attitude towards communal showering?

Why is it that American & British guys are so prudish nowadays?

Below is a link to an 1965 Advertisement for the water saving Bradley Group Showers. Imagine the shock if these were installed routinely today, as they once were!

http://s15.postimg.org/rftf9vimj/zz_tumblr_o0ekcm3_IAr1txny1lo1_500.jpg

Absolutely right. Our cross country course took us over a local golf course and public footpaths in some woods. hence the footwear.
When we got back to school our plimsolls had to come off before we went into the school. This was to keep mud off the floors. Also our gym floors had just been relaid so The PE teacher was very strict about footwear in there. If we were excused PE due to a sick note we had to watch from the side. We had to remove shoes and socks before we went in. He said socks were slippery and a health risk.
Mr Anderson always wore foorware in the gym!!!!

Mark - our course was mainly in open country along muddy paths and around 2 sides of a field though we had to run along a rough track and pavements to get there and back. The sides of the field were probably most challenging when it had just been ploughed and stones brought to the surface. I don't remember there being any broken glass around - there was much less anyway in the 60s. I'm sure if there had been any injuries the school would have made us wear plimsolls - no trainers in those days, of course.

We were always barefoot in the gym and barechested, gym was a double session on Fridays, Mondays was cross country day and Wednesdays was football in winter and cricket in summer, not shirtless in cross country but on hot days most boys were,this was 1959-1963 in a Midlands Secondary Modern school.

Happy Days !!

We always did PE barefoot indoors but outdoors we wore trainers etc. Surely there were health and safety issues with doing things like cross country in bare feet. wouldn't there be a possibility of broken glass etc on the course?

Reading through the comments brings back many memories - mostly good. My all boys grammar school back in the 60s used black and white shorts to distinguish teams so, like John and Jono, a pair of shorts was all we wore for p.e. Cross country was also done barefoot and shirtless. I don't think any-one ever complained about being cold - we just got on with it.

Dave, thanks for the link to the Belgian PE pictures. I wonder if maybe the boys are required to take their shirts off for using certain apparatus? Although it would make more sense for them to be shirtless throughout.

To Matthew,
No, as far as I know no one changed their minds. Most people who were shirts never wanted to take them off ever and some of hem change in the toilets because they were that shy. Also, most skins were perfectly fine with being skins.

Here is the link for the shirtless PE lesson of a Belgian school posted some months ago. I wonder why the boys have shirts on in some pictures and shirtless in others.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/hildecrevits/albums/72157642678186554

I'm 22.

In PE we were offered two choices, have clean underpants for after the lesson or take them off for the lesson. For a couple of weeks at the very beginning most lads had a second pair but then you and everyone else forgets so you take them off as who wants to sit for the rest of the day in underpants you've rolled around the rugby pitch in? It's just common sense really.

After a couple of weeks no one was shy but then we also had communal showers that were still going when I left school four years ago and AFAIK still are. Showers were compulsory and again, who doesn't want one? My view is it's life, get on with it, changing rooms don't bother me in the slightest but I do see guys who feel they have things to hide which I don't understand. If the sight of a bare bottom offends you then you probably shouldn't be there in the first place.

Evan in comparison to my days at school, has the rules for Pe changed? Were you allowed to wear underwear? or has the ban on pants becomea thing of the past?

Like Benny we always went topless for indoor PE and again we thought nothing of it.
Also when we did cross country most of again went stripped to the waist and again thought nothing of it.

During my time at secondary school (all boys school) we were always no tops when indoors and we never thought anything about it. Also in keeping with the times we did not wear any underwear even when outside.I do not remember any embarrasment.

When we went outside for sport we wore a football shirt, and short shorts.

To Evan,
In time, did any of those who were initially reluctant to be "skins" come to change their minds?