Junior High (7th and 8th grade) shower poll.

I only vaguely remember having to change?? The gym at my middle school was closed all of 9th grade -- some sort of construction thing (ancient building). I intentionally fulfilled my PE requirement for high school via summer school between 9th and 10th grade so I wouldn't have to deal w/it.

[alison]

We didn't take showers nor were we required to take them. Middle school PE was a nightmare for me. There was a girl who decided to hit me on the bottom with her badminton racket each time class was set up to play it. And there was a girl in my row of lockers (we did have to change into sweats) who was pregnant and was hiding it. She was 12 or 13.

It was awful.

[MarissaNicole]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who hated PE. I might have to start a "horrible PE memories thread" tomorrow

[MrsK]

For middle school, I went to a magnet arts school where most girls took dance instead of gym. Dance was indoors (air conditioned) and we rarely worked up a sweat. It was also common at that school for girls to wear leotards under clothes or cover ups all day since the dance majors would be dancing 3 or more hours daily.

[lovelight]

We never showered - don't remember if the locker room had them? I would've died though. Changing into my pe clothes was traumatic enough for me.

[GreyhoundsRUs]

Didn't shower, but the other girls thought it was funny to unhook my bra while I was changing

Needless to say, I loathed middle school...

[DCJenn]

No showers but mandatory zip-up one-piece maroon and white striped uniforms. (ergo- you were forced to change) I'll have to see if I can dig up a picture. (public school in the 1970s)

J.

[MarissaNicole]

Jenn I can't picture that without smiling/laughing

[peggyfromwastate]

No showers but mandatory zip-up one-piece maroon and white striped uniforms. (ergo- you were forced to change) I'll have to see if I can dig up a picture. (public school in the 1970s)

J.

WHAT??? Wow. one piece... polyester I guess too...

[DCJenn]

Oh, yes, fabulous stretchy/clingy polyester. (Peggy- Montgomery Village Junior High, FYI)

J.

[Thirteen]

We didn't have access to the showers - football is a religion where I grew up, and they had dibs virtually year-round in our gym area/locker rooms.
Blech!
Gym wasn't mandatory though, and while I played a sport in high school, we just had training as our last period of the day and then it went into after school time.

[MDPhDWife]

We never showered - don't remember if the locker room had them? I would've died though. Changing into my pe clothes was traumatic enough for me.

Ditto.

I hated PE so much in middle school that by the time I got to high school, I convinced my mom and our family doc to write me a note to excuse me from my PE requirement. Yep, I was a slick saleswoman back then!

[Cinderella]

Showers were optional most of the time in middle school. Sometimes depending on the gym teacher we all had to take them. Some girls took them regularly. I was self conscious at that age but I remember sometimes taking quick showers after a workout because I was an athlete and kind of needed to. Most of the time it was private because no one was in there. Plus it seemed the majority of the girls didn't like P.E. nor broke a sweat or were concerned with makeup and hair and crowded around the mirror afterwards. The showers were along one wall with a privacy wall between the showers and the locker room. Nobody said anything or ogled and starred at you if took a shower.

[v-girl]

Perhaps you appreciated it more because of the brace? Whereas everyone else just took their bodies for granted?

Hmm...perhaps I shouldn't post before consuming caffeine.

[ladymoreta]

I finally thinned out around my sophomore year of high school and was pretty happy with my body until my senior year when the gym teacher did one of those body fat analyzer things on all of us, and it showed that I had too much. I've pretty much had an unhealthy body image since then, even when I was at a healthy weight...

ETA - to clarify, this was at the residential high school I went to for my junior and senior year, which did require PE, but it was after regular classes, so we just showered at the dorms.