The Great Gym Class Rebellion of ’65

Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here, with no idea why this particular memory popped into my mind some sixty years after the event. Still, once a thought turns up, I tend to make use of it, hence another nostalgia post for the Maine Crime Writers’ blog.

I was sixteen when I started my senior year in high school and one of the youngest in my class. We’d moved into a brand new building the previous school year and acquired, along with it, a fair number of new, young, energetic teachers. They were in their early twenties, which made a few of them only three or four years older than the oldest members of the class of 1965. That certainly made a change, and I suspect most of my classmates far preferred young blood to the rather nasty old biddies who, in particular, taught almost all the required sections of math and history. But I digress.

Gym class was mandatory. We had nice new locker rooms, new playing fields, new equipment, and something we’d never had in the old building—facilities for taking showers after gym class. In our senior year, the powers that be decided that showering after exercising and working up a sweat should be mandatory. We were told there had been complaints about the smell of that sweat in the classes that followed phys. ed., and that using deodorant wouldn’t be sufficient to eradicate the problem.

According to our graduation program, there were fifty-three girls in our class. There were probably three sections of physical education, although I won’t swear to that. There were at least two sections. Anyway, as I recall, almost all of us shared the same reaction to this mandate—no way! Why? Because using the showers in question would mean showering with the rest of the girls in each section of gym class. As a group. Naked.

yearbook photo of some of us fooling around with the laundry basket after gym class (that’s me in the white blouse)

It may sound quaint in 2024, but in 1964-5, at least in our quiet rural community, modesty was more common then exhibitionism. We were sixteen- and seventeen-year-old girls who weren’t allowed to wear skirts above mid-knee to classes and weren’t permitted to wear slacks in school at all. I wouldn’t say we were overly concerned about body shaming, although I can think of at least one girl in my class who would gleefully have pointed out flaws in the rest of us, but speaking for myself, I was a “late bloomer” and self-conscious about my lack of cleavage. I know I wasn’t the only one wearing a padded bra, but there’s a big difference between being seen in your underwear in the locker room by other girls and stripping down to the skin to shower with a large group of them.

To our gym teacher’s surprise, the senior girls, en masse, refused to comply. It wasn’t an organized revolt, but it didn’t take us long to realize there were advantages to sticking together. During that entire school year, only one or two members of our class compromised, and then only to make use of the one private shower available. However insignificant our gym class rebellion may seem, especially compared to demonstrations over much more serious matters that were taking place throughout the 1960s, for us it was a learning experience. Eventually, the mandate to shower was withdrawn.

I suspect that even our gym teacher (who happened to be married to the older brother of one of our classmates) might have had a grudging respect for our stand. By the time we took the candid photos for the yearbook (shown below with yearbook caption), she was happy to go along with the fun.

Still, there might have been consequences. At the time all this started, many of us were in the process of applying to colleges, colleges that were going to look at our grades, and at one point we were warned that our behavior could result in an F in physical education.

There were some nervous moments when the next report cards came out. An F was traditionally marked in red. When I opened mine, that color leapt out at me. Then, as I recall, I laughed. All of us who rebelled received the same grade—a D written extra large and in red ink.

Fortunately, those D’s had no effect on academic standing. Nine of us were among the top ten graduates in our class.

So ends my tale of youthful rebellion. What issues, silly or serious (but silly preferred), do you remember feeling strongly about during your high school years?

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett has had sixty-four books traditionally published and has self published others. She won the Agatha Award and was an Anthony and Macavity finalist for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category. In 2023 she won the Lea Wait Award for “excellence and achievement” from the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. She is currently working on creating new omnibus e-book editions of her backlist titles. Her website is www.KathyLynnEmerson.com.