My Story Pt 1
Posted by Allwet on March 03, 2022 at 01:25:10
I have been visiting this site for over 15 years, occasionally posting, usually in reply to others but rarely on my own. I originally posted this about two years ago, but it disappeared when these sites crashed. There are a lot of new people here who never saw this so I thought I’s share it again, with some edits. I apologize for having such a long post.
Many here talk about how a first wet experience started their interest in this “sport”, but for me it was the opposite. I am in my early 60’s, and have been blessed or cursed by this wet clothes fetish since I can remember, at least since age 5 or 6. I don’t know what started it. Although I felt the urge since that time, it was a long time before I could act on it. Even then, years before puberty, thinking about clothed swimming always gave me that “tingle in the pringle”. Did anyone else here have that experience?
I remember seeing people swimming clothed or just in pants or t-shirts at the beach or pools, or wet scenes on TV or movies, and thinking how cool it looked.
As I mentioned in my reply to E.J.’s post, at about age 7 I asked my mom several times if I could take a bath in my underwear, socks, and t-shirt, and she always let me.
Growing up in Southern California’s San Fernando Valley, I remember hearing that about 75% of homes had swimming pools back then. We, unfortunately, were in the 25%. But it meant that almost everyone we knew had one, so we never went to a public pool. I took swimming lessons every summer from the age 3 to about 7. There were many privately-run, full-time swim schools with outdoor pools. These were not gyms, community centers or schools. They never had clothed swimming as survival training — that came later in Boy Scouts. I remember fantasizing that the swim school should have a clothed swimming party.
My first public experience in non-swimming attire was at one of these lessons. In the early 60’s there was as style of boys’ casual pants we called “surfers”. They were ¾-length tapered pants that went below the knee, essentially pedal pushers for boys. They usually had stripes down the side. They must have been a very short-lived fad, perhaps local to southern California. I have never found any photos or mention of them on historic clothing web sites.
Mine were a golden brown color. When I was about 7, I asked my mom one time if I could wear them at my swim lesson. To my surprise she said yes, and the teacher apparently didn’t object. I remember how great it they felt in the water with the fabric swishing against my legs. I also loved how they turned dark in the water. Another kid asked me why I was wearing my “slacks” in the pool. I’m still proud of my response. I said, “Because I feel like it.”
Around that same time we were invited to swim at a neighbor’s house. They had a son a couple of years older than me who had a faded black pair of surfers. I knew they would really look cool wet. He begged his mom over and over to let him swim in them, but she wouldn’t. I was so disappointed. Who knows, maybe he was one of us. Does anyone else here remember that type of pants?
Later, when I was about nine, we were at the beach and I asked Mom if I could wear my t-shirt in the water, and she said why not! Although I’m blonde, sunburn was never an issue for me then – I always had a beautiful tan, so I couldn’t use that as an excuse, but it started to dawn on me that I didn’t need to always ask permission or have an excuse. I still remember the shirt – It was white with red surfer graphics that an aunt brought me from Hawaii. I remember how swimming in it somehow gave me more confidence to swim in the waves. From then on I often swam in a shirt at the beach, and sometimes pools. (Interesting how I can remember the exact clothes I wore in the water, but have very little memory of my swim suits).
I never considered shorts as “clothed swimming”, although I found I greatly preferred them, underwear and all, to swimsuits. In the 60’s and early 70’s they were generally accepted as swimwear, so they weren’t a big deal for me or anyone else. In my teens cutoff jeans were what everyone wore. Shorts weren’t as ubiquitous as they are now, so if people showed up without a swimsuit, what the hell, just wear your pants. It may also have been a counterculture thing. Also, for older kids, shorts then had a reputation as something moms dressed their little kids in to look cute, so that by age 12 or so long pants were considered more grown up.
Another excuse I could never use as a young child was “I forgot my swimsuit.” Whether the beach or pool, we usually dressed for swimming at home, and came home in our wet gear. Our cars’ upholstery was vinyl, so wet clothes didn’t bother it. Public changing rooms were rarely part of my childhood experience.
Although I later realized that I usually didn’t need permission to get wet clothed, I still held back until I was 12-13, and even then I felt like I need some kind of excuse or social approval. (Last year I posted here about a time I inexplicably chickened out when my friend was swimming in his jeans). Around that time I would stage water fights fully clothed at my house, but I never just dove in my friends’ pools clothed just for the hell of it. At their homes I usually wore shorts and t-shirts. What still eluded me was a fully clothed wet experience, in long pants and a shirt, preferably submerged in a body of water. I can tell about that in a future post.
- Re: My Story Pt 1 E.J. 06:41:54 3/09/2022
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- Re: My Story Pt 1 Shlomi 14:06:56 3/04/2022
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- Re: My Story Pt 1 wetshirt 12:03:26 3/03/2022
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