My mom's brothers and sisters once asked my mom if I knew how to swim fast or if I had taken lessons. They said I had a swimmer’s body and suggested she sign me up for swimming lessons for that summer break. Mom searched and found the local high school pool that was mostly closed all summer long unless there was a swim class or instructor present. She asked and there were only two spots left in the classes for the high school seniors on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons with coach Miss Jenny.
Mom signed me up while at the high school office where she was also informed a medical examination was required before I was allowed to join the class. Luck was in her favor that day because the school nurse was within earshot and offered to do the medical exam right then and there. Mom was given a clipboard and asked to fill it out while the nurse and I went into her office.
The school nurse asked me to remove my shoes, socks, shorts, and shirt and stand on the scale to be both weighed and measured while she prepared the examination table. She turned around to find me standing there in the nude. She asked me to put my underwear back on, but I told her I had no underwear. The nurse said it would be fine and the examination would go quicker and had me stand on the scale and weigh and measure my height.
After that was done, she had me sit on the paper sheet on the exam table. She asked a few questions while checking my pulse, breathing, lungs, blood pressure, temperature and I had to follow her finger with my eyes. Then she had me stand up and she checked me for a hernia and inspected my penis and anus before I was allowed to get dressed again. She returned me to my mother who was almost done filling out the paperwork. I was informed I cleared the medical part to join the swim lessons. The last part was, I was required to wear a racer swimsuit style speedo swimsuit.
We stopped by the pool to see if Miss Jenny was there to get more details on where we could get one of those suits. Miss Jenny was in the lobby of the pool building saying goodbye to another mother and her daughter who had a swimsuit draped over her shoulder. The girl looked a little younger than me. Miss Jenny was glad to see her class was filling up the week before her lessons started. Mom told her we did not have a lot of money and might not be able to afford a racer swimsuit for her class. Miss Jenny told us she had access to a few swimsuits the high school swim team used for meets. She left us and came back with two suits, saying she thinks one of them will fit my frame. Mom told me to go into the men's locker room and put one on and then come back out so they could check the fit.
When I returned, they were talking about the class schedule and times. They looked down at me and started to giggle. Mom told me I had the suit on backwards. She had me turn around and face the wall. She pulled on the strings that were in the back and shook me saying these go in the front. She then told Miss Jenny that I had never worn a racer suit like this before. Mom started to pull my suit down to the floor, there I stood half-naked, in the lobby of the swimming pool building. Mom then told me to lift my feet up off the floor and turn and face her. The suit stayed in place on the floor. I turned to see Miss Jenny looking at me and three girls walk out of the women's locker room and turn and look at me. Mom then pulled up my suit and pulled the strings tight saying this was the front side. The racer suit fit me good enough and I was allowed to take it home and bring it back to my first swim class.
On the first day of lessons, we met with Miss Jenny in the same lobby at three pm. She thanked our parents and told them to return in one hour to collect us. She then told us the rules she wanted us to follow. No running, no screaming, no horseplay, follow her instructions and then told us we had to enter the locker room, remove all clothing, and put them in a locker, shower for at least 60 seconds, then put on our swimsuits and meet her in the pool room. The two girls followed Miss Jenny into the ladies’ locker room and the three boys went into the men's locker room.
Miss Jenny had us do the basics like holding our head underwater, kicking our feet while holding on to the wall, and other drills we would learn to build on each day of our lessons. Both of my parents were very strict on me taking a full shower before they would allow me back in the car after my swimming lessons. They said the type and amount of chlorine that was used was way overpowering and offensive and they did not want me to stink up their car or the house. My parents gathered up a shower kit, and a spare bath towel I could take with me and use after each lesson. Miss Jenny agreed with them that the school used very strong chlorine in the pool, and she often had to shower before leaving the building herself.
Within the first two weeks of lessons, the brother and sister pair ended up dropping out of the swimming lessons. Then around week four one of the other girls was taken to Europe for a family emergency that lasted the rest of the summer. That left just me and one other guy for a while until he just stopped coming to the lessons altogether. Then it was just Miss Jenny and me in her swimming class.
I recall one time the maintenance man came into the pool area to talk to Miss Jenny about an issue with the showers in the men's locker room. I heard Miss Jenny say she would lock up the building after turning off the pump for the night and he left us alone. Once time was up, Miss Jenny told me I would have to shower in the girl’s locker room while she shut down the pool pump and made sure the building was locked up.
Not knowing any better, I did as I was instructed. However, walking into the girl’s locker room left an uneasy feeling in my belly and I knew I was going to have to use the bathroom before taking my shower. I followed a similar format as if I was in the men's locker room. I removed my suit and bundled it up in my pool towel and stuffed it in my bag. I then used the toilet before returning to my bag to get my shower stuff and towel.
I then went into the shower room and showered. Just about when I was done and waiting for the timed water shower head to stop, I saw Miss Jenny enter the area just outside the shower room.
She turned and looked at me, naked as the day I was born, standing there with water dripping off me and reaching for my towel that was hung on the outside wall. She asked what I was still doing there, and I should have been showered and dressed by now. I told her I had to use the toilet before I showered. She said she understood, and I had to hurry up and get dressed and go outside and wait for one of my parents to pick me up. She never scolded me or raised her voice or acknowledged I was naked.
The very following lesson, I showed up and met her in the lobby again. She informed me that the men's room was completely off-limits as the issue that kept me from using the shower before had grown bigger and no one was allowed in the men's room until they could fix the issue. She told me to hurry up and head into the lady’s locker room and get ready for today's lesson. We were going to try something new today!
I headed into the locker room and opened my bag to find my shower towel and my swimsuit missing from my bag! I just sat there wondering what I should do. Miss Jenny came in to find me visibly upset. She asked what was wrong and I told her about my missing gear, and I was really looking forward to today's new lesson.
She told me there is always a way to work things out and told me to calm down. She went through the options. I could swim in my shorts for this one time. I told her we were heading directly to grandma's house for her birthday party and had to wear these shorts for pictures with grandma and my cousins. She then said she would allow me to swim in my clean underwear.