Our P.E. teacher would not let us wear watches while in gym class, but maybe they did in Gadsden. For those of you who don't know, Gadsden is an industrial town of about 33,000 in northeastern Alabama. When this photo was made around 1960, there were almost 60,000 folks living there.
We could not wear watches or religious medals for PE. Jocks were mandatory, and I got paddled bare-ass for not wearing one. I GUESS our instructor must have noticed our cocks bouncing under our gym shorts. He lined up five of us, we had to drop our trunks, bend over, and take two wacks. By the way, we did NOT wear trunks for swimming classes. Times were different, weren't they?
ReplyDeleteOur school didn't have a swimming pool, and while jocks were optional, almost everyone wore one.
DeleteThanks for sharing, Big Dude. That story is making me sweat. It's like several deleted scenes from "Porky's."
DeleteLOL. I remember the watch ban. Hiding mine, which was from WWII even though this was the 1970s, in my socks. Just shorts for gym. No trunks first year.
ReplyDeleteI stuck mine in my pants pocket.
DeleteI still have that watch.
DeleteI don't remember a watch rule per se. And I don't remember there was ever an issue with religious medals because wearing one was very rare for men in England back then. Men didn't even wear wedding rings, unless you were perhaps Catholic. Just a signet ring if you came from a wealthier family. We didn't have crew cuts, either. A running vest in the gym, with shorts and the all-important plimsolls because of the sprung, wooden floor. Split-leg running shorts came in mid-60s. A Jockstrap was obligatory in the senior school. I remember Antoniades - a Greek-speaking Egyptian from Alexandria - having to explain why he wasn't wearing one. His English wasn't that good - he did most of his schooling in French - and told Bone Dome, our prematurely bald PE teacher, by way of explanation, "I don't have any". Never one to miss a cue, Bone Dome replied, "Well, you won't need one, will you." Hilarity all round. To me, the chap above could not have been anything but American.
ReplyDeleteWhen a certain new guy showed up for his first day of gym class, one of the teachers was overheard to say, "Finally found somebody with a dick smaller than mine."
DeleteLoved flat tops, still do but hy hair is a bit thin for them now.
ReplyDeleteI always wanted one. Too late now. I knew a bodybuilder from my nude swimming days. Perfection..
DeleteThese are the best group of comments I've come across here - at least that I remember. They've gotten me as excited as the photo of the Gadsden fellow, and he is really hot.
ReplyDeleteI never would have thought this photo would get the most comments, but it did.
DeleteMy huz was born in Gadsden-Dee Exx
ReplyDeleteI used to drive through there on the way from Atlanta to Huntsville, and it was an awful traffic bottleneck.
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