Memories of Barbie

[AnchorAlumna]

Originally Posted by Cheerio

Our cousin Tammy had a TAMMY doll, whose original outfit was a blue one-piece gymsuit with white trim. Somehow that gymsuit permanently ended up at our house!

Slight sidetrack: Which of you remembers wearing a one-piece blue gymsuit in middle/high school? And was it required, as it was at my schools, that you embroider your FULL NAME in large, white letters across the back for all to read?

Ours were red. There were two versions: junior high school version with bloomer shorts (gathered legs), and the high school version with cuffed legs. Both ugly as sin and embarrassing to wear! Last name across the back yoke, first and last over the front pocket.

[Sciencewoman]

That would be considered hazing today.

[carnation]

They were sooo ugly. They were a major reason I joined the dance line--so I wouldn't have to wear the gym suits. (Also because I was short and skinny and the only thing I could do right in gym was serve a volleyball.)

You know how Tammy was both taller and larger than Barbie? To this day, my sister and I might compare 2 people that way--"you know, the 2 cousins who look like a Tammy and a Barbie together".

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by AnchorAlumna

Ours were red. There were two versions: junior high school version with bloomer shorts (gathered legs), and the high school version with cuffed legs. Both ugly as sin and embarrassing to wear! Last name across the back yoke, first and last over the front pocket.

Ours were a nauseating gold, cuffed legs, name just on the front. They were phasing them out for the year after me, so wouldn't you know it? My gym suit met a disastrous end, and I was forced to wear the newer version! That was almost, but not quite, like a t-shirt and shorts.

Originally Posted by Sciencewoman

That would be considered hazing today.

Absolutely!

Originally Posted by carnation

They were sooo ugly. They were a major reason I joined the dance line--so I wouldn't have to wear the gym suits. (Also because I was short and skinny and the only thing I could do right in gym was serve a volleyball.)

You know how Tammy was both taller and larger than Barbie? To this day, my sister and I might compare 2 people that way--"you know, the 2 cousins who look like a Tammy and a Barbie together".

Tammy just seemed gigantic compared to Barbie! I had a friend named Tammy, and I think every one of her 12 aunts & uncles sent her a Tammy doll! She hated them!

[Sciencewoman]

Total sidetrack from Barbie, but I am quite curious about these required gym uniforms, because I never, ever heard of these before this thread. We always brought our own gym clothes. I am thinking this was a "regional" thing??

[Low D Flat]

Have you seen "Pretty in Pink"? They were already on the way out back then, so I only saw them in the movie:

https://letthemreadvinyl.files.wordp.../11/andie4.jpg

[chi-o_cat]

The school I went to up to 8th grade didn’t even make us change for gym class. Most kids just did gym in their regular clothes (you had to wear sneakers), then went back to class. By the time we got to 6th, 7th, 8th grade some of us would choose to change, but it wasn’t required. And nobody ever showered.

In high school, people changed for PE classes, but just to regular shorts, sweatpants, T-shirts, whatever, no uniforms. I went to boarding school, so I would try to schedule my PE classes at the end of the day, or at least with a free period afterwards so I could go back to my dorm and take a shower, and not have to use the gym showers.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by Sciencewoman

Total sidetrack from Barbie, but I am quite curious about these required gym uniforms, because I never, ever heard of these before this thread. We always brought our own gym clothes. I am thinking this was a "regional" thing??

Definitely not a thing in my world at all. We brought our own shorts and a t-shirt in 10th grade. There were some school provided bathing suits when we had swimming. They were awful and we were thankful swimming was not co-ed.

[Cheerio]

Originally Posted by AGDee

Definitely not a thing in my world at all. We brought our own shorts and a t-shirt in 10th grade. There were some school provided bathing suits when we had swimming. They were awful and we were thankful swimming was not co-ed.

I've heard stories, told on the radio, that some schools had NUDE single-sex swim classes FOR GYM CLASS GRADES during the 60s/70s!

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by Cheerio

I've heard stories, told on the radio, that some schools had NUDE single-sex swim classes FOR GYM CLASS GRADES during the 60s/70s!

I've heard those stories about the boys, but not the girls!

[honeychile]

My brother was much older than I, and his YMCA swimming classes were taught in the nude. My mother was horrified.

[carnation]

Why would anyone want that?

[AGDee]

I always asked that about urinals and communal showers too. Why do boys have to do that? It's horrifying to think about.

[Cheerio]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I always asked that about urinals and communal showers too. Why do boys have to do that? It's horrifying to think about.

Oh no, not just for the boys! Our Junior High had female communal showers, just like the boys. Not fun, especially with the female gym teacher calling out every female student's last name and making sure every female student took a shower.

Thank goodness junior high was only sixth and seventh grades, as the school building was very small and the brand new high school had so much room they included eighth grade classrooms.

[carnation]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I always asked that about urinals and communal showers too. Why do boys have to do that? It's horrifying to think about.

My husband used to work for FCA and said that in a lot of college bathrooms, there would be 4 toilets--without walls between them--facing each other.

I mean, what would you say if you were facing some other guy as you both sat on the toilet? And wait, wasn't this a Barbie thread?