I don't recall much said about the "lads" and their attire except on certain days or events when we were expected to wear dress shirts, ties and jackets.  In Physical Education however, especially in the swimming pool, the practice of simple attire was a bit excessive.  We  swam  naked!

In those days we did not question or challenge what adults told us to do.  Swimming naked,  with our classmates,  was not a choice --- and never discussed.

After attending conservative Catholic schools for eight years,  along with many of my classmates,  coming from schools like Saint Elizabeth's, Sacred Heart of Jesus, Saint Patrick's, Our Lady of Fatima, etc.,  the practice of naked swimming was more than shocking and embarrassing.  Imagine, 50-60 naked boys, in various stages of adolescent development, lined up or facing one another,  not knowing what to do with their hands or eyes.  50-60 boys could not "fit" into the pool at the same time so when we were not swimming - we were standing, lined up against the walls, facing those in the pool or those on the opposite side of the pool.  Most of us found this to be a very uncomfortable experience.  The swimming instructors always wore bathing suits.  We knew that the girls got to wear bathing suits --- but no one ever explained to us why the boys had to swim naked!  To this day I still don't understand --- why?   Were we being prepared for military service - where men had little or no privacy?  There is still alot of "chatter" about this on the internet.  Most men, my age, are still asking the question - why? - but some think adolescent naked swimming (in school) to be quite normal.  Swimming naked with classmates, whom you vaguely know, is not the same as jumping into a creek, naked, with your neighborhood buddies.  Our "swimming lessons" at Patterson stopped when the new swimming pool developed a large crack sometime in late winter of 1961.

This practice was widespread in the 50's and 60's in the United States and the United Kingdom and gradually phased out of schools, camps and the Y.M.C.A. by the 1980's.

                     Christopher  Newman    February  2,  2011