Hesketh Fletcher Gym Team

John, you would have had to have been very careful how you sat on the floor and took part in other activities in the gym. I went to an all boys school so didn't have your problems but it wasn't uncommon to catch a glimpse of one of your classmates anatomy, although we all saw one another regularly in the showers.

Dominic/Jack, at the secondary school that I attended we occasionally had mixed PE with the girls.
I wore satin shorts like some of the other boys wore and we were not allowed to wear underwear.
This could easily be detected as the shorts were so thin and was punishable.
The girls would like to see us wearing these shiny shorts, but I was very shy and embarrassed as they were so skimpy.

Jack, no - there was little left to the imagination but there were no girls around to be shy in front of or to show off to. Members of the public saw us when we were out on a cross country run but neither they nor us seemed at all bothered. I wore fairly thin, short cotton shorts, not the nylon or satin ones that some have described and a few in my class wore.

Jack, If you refer to the thin white shorts mentioned in previous comments, they certainly did not leave much to the imagination and I bet you enjoyed the girls at your school seeing you in yours and stripped to the waist sweating in the gym and running around outside. If they could have seen you in the showers afterwards there wouldn't have been anything left to the imagination!

Dominic, shorts and barechests doesn't leave much to the imagination! Like Rob we were worked hard and barechested so it was a common sight to see us sweat in the gym. Girls always got a good view too and I think Katie and Andrea would have been happy to see us strip both in the gym and outdoors!

Some of these girls' PE kits sound rather scanty! I went to an all boys grammar school in the 60s so I had no idea what girls wore for PE inside.
The kit we wore was much the same as Roy and Stewart - just a pair of shorts - no shirt, shoes or underwear. This was in the gym and outside for athletics, cross country and various games. I think it was quite common at the time and certainly wasn't a problem.

Wow, there are more us out there than I thought who had strange PE kits! At senior school aged 14-16 we had leotards for PE but at middle school it was like Emma and Emilys schools and we didn't wear clothes for PE. Doing PE with nothing on was ok when we were 8 or 9 but still doing it when we were 12 and 13 was a bit strange looking back!

I went to an all boys school in the late fifties when we had to wear just shorts with nothing on underneath and plimsolls,and stripped to the waist all year round,in the gym and outside for athletics and cross country running. We were worked hard in the gym to the extent that we were always running with sweat and looked forward to the pleasure of all getting our shorts off and going in the showers afterwards. We had no choice in what we we were told to to do in pe but we quickly lost any inhibitions and gained confidence from our experiences.

At my school in the Midlands 1959-1963 we did PE in the gym in just shorts, we were told that plimsolls marked the wooden floor so we were barefoot, outside on the playing field we wore shorts and a white vest and plimsolls, with team games skins vs shirts, cross country did involve using back streets as it was an inner city school, we ran in shorts and vest and plimsolls, on hot summer days most took off the vest and tucked it in your shorts, only putting it back on close to school.

We didn't have showers at our school but used the toilet block sinks to do a body wash.

Although I attended a mixed school PE was always done separately.
We had to be stripped to the waist both indoors and outside and many boys also went barefoot.

Hi Emily,

Yes those over the shoulder sashes were a nuisance weren't they! The netball bibs, with the position letters on were much better.

With regard to bras, as far as I can recall, we were all wearing them by the end of year 8 and some of my classmates would definitely have been very uncomfortable if they hadn't been!

Hi Claire, your message reminded me of the times we did team sports in the gym. Since we were all "skins" one team would be given a kind of coloured sash to wear over the shoulder. They always slipped off and were a pain so it was better to be in the team without!

Did you have a proper PE top that you had to take off? And shorts or a skirt too I guess?

Hi Emily, I went to an all girls school and skins and shirts were an everyday occurrence. I was flat chested until near the end of yea and our teacher didn't hesitate in having me on the skins team. Until you started wearing a bra you went bare top, but obviously when you did then it was your top that came off. I did hate wearing those are text tops so preferred just a bra.

Hi Andrea, yes it was very strange to suddenly be topless and in the gym! Even though after s while you got a bit used to it, it always felt a bit strange. And in winter it sometimes felt very cold too!

We didn't wear regulation type knickers so PE was in our normal cotton underwear knickers. I think at that age most of us wore white but maybe a few pale blue or powder pink.

I think your PE teachers were probably right to suggest that some girls should wear a bra! I was never physically uncomfortable during the time we did PE topless but I think certainly by the end of year 8 some of the girls could have been.

Hi Emily,
Yes it must have felt weird wearing a bra the rest of the time then having to take it off and run around topless in PE!
Did you have to wear 'regulation' gym knickers or were you allowed any style?

Our indoor PE kit was regulation gym knickers (which we were supposed to wear even when we hadn't got PE) and a white polo shirt.
Like you I didn't start to wear a bra until the start of year 8, but some of my classmates had them in year 7 or even in the last year at Primary school.
In complete contrast to your school, rather than not allowing bras, our PE teacher would sometimes 'suggest' to girls that they should start to wear one if she thought they were bouncing around too much!

Hi Andrea, we weren't allowed our bras, it was strictly knickers only. I didn't wear a bra in year 7 anyway but I did in year 8. Some girls did wear bras in year 7 though so it was probably even weirder for them having to take them off than it was for me having to take my school blouse off and not put a top in. But it was also weird doing it in knickers and everyone seeing them for the whole lesson.

Hi Emily,

Re-reading Emma's post, she said that they were allowed to keep their bras on if they had started to wear one. Was it the same for you, or was it strictly knickers only?

This has been really interesting to read! Especially Emma's information about her secondary school in the 90s. I was at secondary school from 1994 but girls only unlike Emma. But just like her we had to do our indoor PE not wearing PE kit for the first two years. All we were allowed to wear was our knickers, no tops and no shoes or socks. I thought my school was really weird and the only one that did that but it seems we weren't!

When I did cross-country the boys were all bare-chested and barefoot.
Most of the route was on main roads outside the school and our feet did soon harden up.

Hi Spence. Yes, boys and girls were barefoot. The circular route was on a woodland trail through the woods that bordered the school, and out on to roads to get us back to school.
Everyone's feet hardened up very quickly, so I never remember there being a problem.

Stewart

Did cross country with boys bare chested and girls in only vests take place all year round?
Your earlier post suggests boys and girls would be barefoot for this. Where did you run, on grass or on the streets?
How did the girls cope with the muddy grass or hard concrete?

Pete,

My Ex told me that he and his classmates were told that it wasn't hygienic for them to wear the same underpants for PE as they were wearing for the rest of the day, so they weren't allowed anything under their shorts for the first couple of years at secondary school. At the start of the 3rd year they were told that they should start to wear jock-straps as they would need 'support' as they got older. He continued to wear one for football etc as an adult.

By contrast, when my son was at secondary school (up to 5 years ago) they just wore their normal underwear for PE and games.

Dave...Only just picked up your message from October. Yes, boys were shirtless. The only time we wore tops was for rugby (and we were allowed boots too, for that, of course. We did cross country with the girls, and track and field events. Other than that, the lessons were separate.

I have read your comments Roy re being stripped to the waste. Were you allowed to wear underpants and was this a single sex school.

I know attitudes have changed today, but I wonder if the difference was when we were at school we had teachers especially our PE teacher and fathers who had served in the armed forces either in WW2 or National Service and so thought nothing of expecting us boys all changing and showering together as they would have done when in the forces.

I was at secondary school between 1959 and 1966 and it was obligatory to do PE stripped to the waist.
Nobody thought anything of it and the same for having naked showers after every session.

To Nick
AS I wrote I was at an all boys school
1961 to 1966. During all thoose years we were never advised to wear or advised about Jock straps or any athletic support. I do recall that as we got older there was talk about jock straps but really as silly conversation thinking they were what adult men wore for rugby and that was all.

Following the pe lesson we of course had the obligatory communal showers and after the first few lessons there was no inhibition about showering together, unlike it seems these days. As repugnant as it seems by the time we were about 14 years old certain show offs were comparing their attributes. That was the only thing that made some of us less well endowed boys a bit inadequate.

Still we all survived and it was not only at school there was the community. Several of us were in the same Scout troop and so shared tents together at camp and we really got quite used to seeing each other undressed. During the day we would wear shorts after all this was in the era of Scout uniform being shorts(even in winter)

In reply to Pete and others about not being allowed to wear underpants under the shorts for pe / games. I think the reason is to ensure a complete change of clothes.
I was at school in the 1970s; like others, wearing pants for games was forbidden. Older boys were required to wear a jockstrap, this was the only thing allowed to be worn under the shorts. I am suprised that many of you played games and pe without one and hence no support.

Hi Jack

There wasn't much privacy really I guess. The dividers were the kind you may have seen in sports halls with the bottom couple of metres made of thick plastic type material and the rest up to the ceiling made of netting. We occasionally saw into the other half of the gym but not very free. Also, we entered and left the gym at slightly different times to the boys so there was no mixing then.

Our dance lessons were also single sex. They weren't ballroom or anything that needed a male partner but were more modern dance and ballet.

In reply to John I remember yhe grey school shorts. I wore them until I was about 13 in secondary school. One of the few still waering them at that age. They were tight and very short and they were worn during winter as well. However,we survived. By way of interest does any one know why we were not allowed tp wear underpants under our shorts for PE. I presume in this modern day & age underwear is worn

Pete, we also wore those nylon shorts that you mentioned, without the benefit of underwear and no vests and we had to go bare foot for gymnastics. The thin nylon shorts were so thin that any under wear was clearly visible if anyone was foolish enough to wear them and they became translucent when wet.
Short trousers could be worn, if parents chose to compliment the uniform as my parents did. Unlike board shorts these were trim and were worn well above the knee throughout the year.