Ymca Cfnm

Ymca Cfnm

AFTERSCHOOL PROFESSIONALS APPRECIATION WEEK
YMCA OF CENTRAL NEW MEXICO
4901 Indian School Rd NE
Albuquerque NM 87110 ( MAP IT )

PHONE: 505-595-1515

New Mexico Pre-K provides classroom based learning for young children so that they are ready for Kindergarten at age five. Pre-K provides educational activities based on what children need to learn in seven vital areas.
The YMCA’s infant care program is designed to meet the needs of each baby based on his or her own schedule. They learn music, singing, reading, finger playing, and constant verbalization ultimately fostering budding socialization, self-concept, and developmental skills.
The Y Clubs out of school time program fills your childs day with creative and constructive opportunities. Through our program, school-age children participate in individual and group activities that enhance their learning experience.
Calling all 8 to 17 year old’s to the net! In this youth volleyball league, players learn the fundamentals of volleyball, sportsmanship, teamwork and healthy habits while sharpening their skills!
Through regular practices and games, teammates gain a strong knowledge of basketball, from shooting, to passing, to blocking and more. Plus they have fun and learn teamwork, which leads to a lifelong love of basketball.
Soccer is an exciting sport combining team play and individual skills. Our soccer league promises no try outs, no getting cut, and no bench warmers! Every child plays at least half of every game, while making friends and learning new techniques!

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I learned about my body, and bodies in general, as a little kid, and learned to be comfortable in it and with it because of swimming lessons at the YMCA in downtown Columbus, Ohio. That started back in the early 50s, which seems like a different century now. Oh wait, it was a different century! The lessons started with ‘tadpole’ and continued for many years until I was a ‘shark’. I was a YMCA veteran by that time.
What is remarkable is that back in the days before women were allowed to swim at the Y, the rule was: everybody swam naked. I assure you I am not joking. Everyone I mention this to reacts as though I must have lost my friggin’ mind. I’ve been lectured that if such a thing actually happened, any YMCA Staff condoning or participating in such practices would have been fired, sued for sexual misconduct and the doors of the YMCA shut forever. More than one person has yelled at me that this must be some kind of sicko urban legend.
The problem is, we’re not talking about an urban legend here; that was the official policy, not just with the local Y in Columbus, to but all over the U.S. and Canada. Furthermore, most high schools in America had the same policy. Boys swam naked! If you are interested in how this went down at public schools you can search on Youtube for Swimming Naked At School, parts I and II.
I bring this subject up not to titillate, but to underscore how social mores and sexual attitudes about nudity have radically changed since the those times, which seem like some kind of alternate universe now, — even to me!
I never had any personal experience with high school pool policies, but my cousins Tommy (my age), Danny (two years younger) and I would get on the Mound Street trolley every Saturday morning and head for the downtown Y for swimming lessons that our parents had enthusiastically enrolled us in. My parents aren’t alive any longer and so I can’t ask them if they ever questioned the YMCA’s policy about not allowing bathing suits. I can’t remember them thinking anything about it one way or the other. Some mothers, according to forum posts I’ve read, were thrilled that their little lads could swim naked as it was so much more fun for them. I don’t recall my mother or aunt Dorothy feeling that way.
Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Bobby must have been pretty OK with nudity as I sometimes showered in their basement with the rest of their kids (12 eventually) on days when we’d come into the house so dirty from playing we were sent immediately to the showers. Susie, a year younger than me, was a total tomboy and would be thrown in with the rest of us without a thought. Other than curiously appraising anatomical differences, we didn’t think too much about it either.
Amazing as it may seem, no one that I knew, certainly not my cousins or I, ever challenged YMCA policy. Some of the boys, especially those with some vacation experience at public beaches, would ask about it occasionally. As I recall those of us who did question this rule were told it was for sanitary reasons, that swimsuits harbored bacteria. I had enough showers under my belt at my cousins’ house that I guess this policy was not merely acceptable, but made a lot of sense to me. At least at my cousins’ house we didn’t have obligatory skin checks when we got done showering.
At the YMCA before entering the pool from the shower room, we would have to present our arms to one of the swim instructors. The swim instructor would rub his or her thumb over our forearm to see if any flecks of dirt would emerge from the roughed up skin. I remember several times being sent back into the showers to rewash before I was allowed to enter the pool. I remember being embarrassed because I had not washed well enough, — but certainly not from being naked.
There was also the fact that the open showers were located directly off and in view of the swimming pool. Since everyone showered naked obviously, stepping out of the showers and walking immediately into the pool area and troubling to put on a swimsuit would have seemed an odd thing to do, given the fact that there were no women around. Well most of the time.
There were exceptions. Most of the lifeguards at the Y were women. But they stayed in their high rise chairs. Occasionally we would get a female instructor. And then there were the parents day events and swim meets. Parents and family members were allowed to attend including Moms and sisters and whoever they might invite. I remember my Aunt Jean and her daughter Annie attending those on more than a couple of occasions. Annie was my age. I have included one photo I found and scanned. I think my mother took it.
What was the big deal? Believe it or not no one thought one thing about it. (I confess I did sometimes wonder what would have happened had my cousin Susie been allowed to be in the audience or even join our class.)
As best as I can determine, nude swimming was the official policy of the YMCA since its inception in the 1840s, both in America and Canada. A 1938 bulletin issued by the American Public Health Association reads: “At indoor pools used exclusively by men, nude bathing should be required. At indoor pools used exclusively by women, bathing suits should be of the simplest type.” I guess this explains the nude swimming in high schools as well. It was assumed that swimming nude was healthy, — for boys at least. But not healthy for girls? That policy continued until the APHA in 1962 broke with tradition and recommended for the first time in its history that boys wear swimsuits. I remember it because it was that same year that out local Y started clamping down on who could view the boys swim. You had to say that you were invited by his mother, not just say you were his friend. Too many young girls getting bugged eyed at the free peep shows, I guess.
So admittedly, even back then, there was not total continuity of policy on this. Every once in a while some hapless kid would show up for swim class wearing a bathing suit. He would be sternly admonished and not allowed into the pool until he took it off. We learned to watch those kids. They were the ones who we knew were uncomfortable with it. These were the kids some of the meaner boys would tease. We could count on it.
I’m sure the reader is wondering why this rule only applied to males since swim classes were never mixed. The best I’ve been able to come up with is that the social mores at the time were such that females had modesty to protect, but males didn’t. Fast forward to the 21st century and go figure! Another explanation: That’s just the way it was. People didn’t question authority so much in those days. The Y’s nude swimming policy did not change until the mid-seventies when women were allowed to use the pools and some swim classes became coed. The emerging equal rights issues and the passing of Title IX, dictated that either everybody swam nude or everybody wore a swimsuit.
What also seems strange now, but not then, was that the swim instructors and the lifeguards wore swimsuits for public events. Male instructors were usually nude for classes. Can you imagine a situation today where swim classes would require young men to swim naked in front of female instructors who wore bathing suits? But most instructors were male and stayed naked with the boys.
The law suits, the scandals! Why, young boys might turn gay because of it!!
Truth of the matter was, I was well past puberty before I had any inkling as to what ‘sexual orientation’ meant. The whole gay thing was not on anyone’s radar, at least that I knew of. If your instructor or his assistant was rubbing your arm to see how clean you got yourself, no one ever questioned any ulterior motive. Now there’s that famous song about the YMCA, but it was certainly not like that then. If it was, no one talked about it. Ever!
How did things change so much? I have no real answer for that. The mere fact of making the Y a coed facility is part of it, sure. But something else was happening in society. During the 1960s with its supposed increase in liberal attitudes toward sex, nudity got sexualized. As sex began to pervade the media and advertisements, our innocence was also lost and being naked. Nudity now carried a whole lot of meanings (some of them rather dark) beyond not being clothed. In retrospect, it was a sorry tradeoff. Now entire generations have grown up never having known the joys of institutionalized skinny dipping.
Yes, I remember that time fondly. But these days, old crotchety fart that I am now, I have to confess I much more enjoy pushing people’s buttons and the arguments that ensue when I bring up this subject. I’m guessing you probably don’t believe any of it either, do you?
Yes, I believe you, and I envy you.
I think this is something which every growing male needs, and that this one missed.
My cousin Annie is the subject of my second blog. We were both big fans of swimming at the pool near her home.
The Origins of Nude Swimming in Illinois Public Schools and Community Pools.
https://drloihjournal.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-origins-of-nude-swimming-in.html
I was surprised to find out about males swimming nude, but certainly not shocked or disbelieving. Apparently I just missed this practice, having begun Junior High School in 1971.
We wore swimsuits, but I’m not sure what the point was. We were naked as we put them on in one large lockerroom. We were naked as we showered in one open room after swim (and all other days, too).
Several years after that, I saw notices at the downtown Y. It was a about a nude swim session for men offered weekly.
I found your blog on Pastor Frank Senn’s YMCA blog. I swam nude at the Y too. People seem shocked now when it’s mentioned but I say as you do, “if you showered in a gang shower and then put on a suit with everyone together, what is the difference with just going nude in the pool. There are some differences with my experience. Instructors and lifeguards were also nude, no female guests could enter the poor area whereas your parents, uncle and aunt girl cousin could watch. Thanks for the photo; I presume it is you. I am amazed that you had women instructors.
We also had the arm rub and tray of chlorine or something to step in before entering the pool
In high school PE we swam nude but the teacher wore shorts and T-shirt. On the swim team we practiced nude and the coaches were nude. We wore kind of skimpy suits at meets..
There were never questions from parents about nude male swimming. We even swam nude at our friends’ family cottage. A few times two girls from their grandparents college would swim with us. They wore suits. No one seemed to mind.
Yes, while things are more liberal now, schools and Y’s would never have nude swimming. Maybe because we associate nudity with sexuality.
If people could get off the sex association for a bit and focus on how free swimming naked, or doing other naked activities, makes you feel, I believe it could happen again. I see nude yoga is becoming popular now. It is a most liberating experience. If we could somehow focus on that.
Thanks for that post. I’m a bit younger than you, but had a similar experience. I grew up in the 70s, in a very small town. We didn’t have a “Y”, but there was something similar, though it was owned by a family, besides the big pool, they had other things. This place had swimming classes, etc, and had the same policy of boys having to swim nude. They had separate classes for boys and girls, but during our classes it common to see not only Moms, sisters, cousins, etc, but also anyone that was with them, like friends, or girls they were giving rides to.
Our changing/shower area wasn’t right off the pool, in fact it was a bit of a way through the building, so we’d have to strip in there then walk to the pool, with no towels.
So all in all we were seen a lot. Different times back then, even if we were swimming in lakes, rivers or ponds, most parents still had the boys strip. Or when we got older, we’d do it ourselves and swim naked. The only worry was if someone, usually a girl or group of them coming along and deciding to have some fun by running away with your clothes, leaving you to walk home naked. lol
I took swimming lessons when I was in the 3rd grade at the Y this was 1959-60. It was only boys and we were naked. That was the rule there was never any sexual overtones and also during the week one or two was swimming that i use to go with my Dad and we were naked. Everyone was it was something to with the filtration system.
Agree JJ, it was a rule, never anything sexual etc. As I said in my post above, different times. Even outside of swim classes, etc, many still had boys go naked at lakes, rivers etc. We even did it ourselves as we got older, it was never am issue really, unless as I said someone decided o play a joke and steal your clothes.
There has been a lot of heated debate as to whether women ever taught the swim classes at the YMCA. I found this. So, YES! Curious, to deal with the female teacher a sign was put up warning the boys. ahem And then they would do what? Drop out of the class? Read for yourself. During the interview they ask her about it. It was not a hush hush thing.
Since my posting on the woman who was hired as a female swim instructor I have been contacted by a woman who claims she was that for two years before Title IX went into effect. She claims the warning sign put up was not for the boys. They were the least of the many YMCAs concerns. The warning signs were put at many Ys up because the many male swim instructors and their male assistants resented now having females on staff. The reason being that they would start have to be wearing swim suits, which they refused to do, such was the culture of nudity. So this was how they dealt with the issue.
Many schools in UK had nude swimming policy for boys as well, apparently some in Australia and New Zealand too, it was just an Anglo-Saxon thing and during P.E. boys would often be prohibited from wearing underwear, shirt and footwear, usually just shorts, or shorts and sneakers, weird how now it’s probably the most prudish out of western cultures. This is a great topic for some full length documentary movie, given how unaware the Americans are.
My sister’s friend Rita used to join her, watching us from the bleachers. After the Y cracked down on that she told Debbie she missed seeing me naked and could she come over sometime. Debbie said sure and then the told me later. Ookaayy. But I went along with it. I think Rita had a crush on me.
Many times, friends of my sister would sit and watch as well, sometimes because we were giving them a ride, or vice versa, but a lot of the girls found excuses to come in and watch.
Yep. I hear ya!! Then there was the time when I graduated. The daughter of Mom’s best friend “Aunt” Peggy were both there because of the cookout later in my honor. Karen sat next to me on the way home in the car….with her hand on my thigh.
yeah, i had to get used to my sisters friends and other girls watching, and the rides home. They would tease etc, especially if it was a classmate.
I was recently back in my home town, and ran into an old friend. We got to chatting and the subject of the swimming place came up. She laughed and admitted that her and the other girls used to make up excuses or use any reason to come in during and after classes just to see us naked. She said it was fun for them to do because they liked seeing us naked, but also liked that it made some of the boys embarrassed, and that they also liked teasing us. As she was telling me this, I remembered back how she and some others would tease us and how we’d be standing fully exposed after class while they were clothed and laughing.
Too bad they got embarrassed. There were many of us who would turn directly toward girls like that and bounce on our heels to make it flop, which quickly made it longer. Then THEY were blushing!! LOL! We were so BAD!!
Yeah, most of us didn’t get too embarrassed, unless it was cold…lol
I thought that I might have mis-remebered or perhaps dreamt that we swam naked at the New Haven YMCA as kids in the 1960s. Thank you for posting this article, so I can assure myself that I am not crazy!
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