Schoolkids love smelling, hate showering (naked, in school, in front of peers)

I loved high school gym class. : I can remember two games we played that would probably be ruled unworthy of the curriculum if played today. One was Animal Ball. It was a dodge ball hybrid. Instead of basketball sized balls, smaller softball-sized ones were used. The class had roughly 100 kids in it. Fifty kids on one side. Fifty on another. From sideline to sideline too. None of this baseline shit. Also, since the gym was one of those old WPA projects there were concrete stands. The floor just was not that wide. Basically you had to hope you didn't get drilled with an 80 mph fastball to the skull.

The other game was call "King of the Ring". Old wrestling mats were dragged out and the teacher ordered about 20 to 25 kids on their knees in the circle. The object was to be the last one in the circle. It was supposed to done by pushing and shoving. Only it ended up being like WWF only real. And then the winner had a one-on-one with the gym teacher. Totally fucked up.

Oh in freshman year, I was slashed with the razor in the arm while roll was being called in one of these gym classes. Didn't dare rat the dude out or run crying to the nurse though. Luckily I had a black T-shirt on that day. The blood did not show. Looking back it was a totally stupid thing to do, but I was really scared of the older kid who did it. Still have the scar too.

 

With rules like this, there's no need for the penis patrol....Remember this lady?

 

Shower with bathing suits on? Honestly never thought of that one before. Interesting.

 

Kind of difficult to get a certain area of the body soaped and rinsed, I would imagine.

 

We had to shower. All the guys brought in bathing suits so we all showered that way. I think the gym teachers prefered this as well.

 

And actually, when I was on the swim team, everyone did this too. We would always have to shower at the end of the day because nobody wanted to go home smelling like cholorine. We still ended up smelling like chlorine.

 

We had a guy on the football team try that once. He was promptly tossed out of the shower by one of the seniors, who said, "Boy, this ain't no swimming pool!" Good times.

 

We didn't get enough time to shower after gym. I hated it. I'd rather shower than go through the day sweaty.
We showered after wrestling practice.

 

The Sentinel article mentions a heightened sense of privacy in America, and I think that's got a lot to do with it. It takes just one stealthy picture on a cell phone, and your jimmydangle is public pubic knowledge.

 

Was this your gym teacher?

 

One point I think Starman made is that there's much less gym class than there used to be.

Like several other posters, I went to high school in Illinois, late 1980s, where four years of P.E. (well, more or less) were required to graduate. Not sure if any other state has that anymore ... in fact, here in the Pacific Northwest, the kids are lucky to have gym class once a week by middle school.

When I say "more or less," I mean you could take a semester of driver's ed or health and it would count as P.E. Plus, if you played certain varsity sports (such as football) your P.E. class would be scheduled the last hour of the day, and it would mean suiting up and going to practice. When football ended, you were in gym class with those guys, playing a vicious brand of floor hockey, basketball, etc.

 

Graduated in 1987 from an Iowa public high school.
Four years of P.E., held on alternating days (two one week, three the next, repeat).
Showers were supposed to mandatory, but it seems the girls rarely or never did. Never a problem on the boys side, though.
And for an early poster's question, we played all kinds of games and sports, from wiffle ball to dodge ball to scooter and regular hockey.