BuckCanucked

There was enough horseplay in an area of hard wet surfaces I don't fault the supervision, but moreover, showers were a great equalizer as well. Generally we showered in silence (get it over with quick and get out) or horseplay- I remember a bully once sarcastically saying "Ooo...(Buck) you're such a man!" In a crowd of about a dozen of us. To which I replied, "you would look there!" Shut him down quick, in and out of gym class for a while. What's he going to do? Jump me? The little shit. 

A random memory popped into my head today...
I know "coach in the locker room/shower" is a common porn trope, but I remember a time my HS freshman year in track (1978/79) the coach - a bearish guy in his 40s or 50s - used the showers with us after practice (late afternoon, not during the school day). No towel dance, he was there in the altogether.
He was also my civics teacher who I saw every day fully clothed.
I don't recall being surprised, beyond the same way we are when we saw teachers in the grocery, you know, simply out of context. Looking back, he could have waited an hour til we kids cleared out, but of course at the time nothing was as hypersexualized as it is today.
Maybe it was SOP at the time. Maybe he was an exhibitionist. Does anyone else have a similar 'gaf' attitude of teachers, coaches, or in college, TAs and so forth mixing with students? Was this behavior typical in the 50s-80s or unique to my experience? Guys older than me swam naked at the Y, what was typical then?
(Showers were compulsory for us and started in 7th grade.)

FunFact: Raw milk and hot tubbing in denim cures all, unless you take Tylenol. I saw it on the interwebs.

My opinion:
Be upfront with anyone you contact.
You should also consider paying the provider for their TIME only on a first meet. Go on a "date" and make sure you are comfortable with your choice.
The second meet up will be far more satisfying without all the nervous energy.

A random memory popped into my head today...
I know "coach in the locker room/shower" is a common porn trope, but I remember a time my HS freshman year in track (1978/79) the coach - a bearish guy in his 40s or 50s - used the showers with us after practice (late afternoon, not during the school day). No towel dance, he was there in the altogether.
He was also my civics teacher who I saw every day fully clothed.
I don't recall being surprised, beyond the same way we are when we saw teachers in the grocery, you know, simply out of context. Looking back, he could have waited an hour til we kids cleared out, but of course at the time nothing was as hypersexualized as it is today.
Maybe it was SOP at the time. Maybe he was an exhibitionist. Does anyone else have a similar 'gaf' attitude of teachers, coaches, or in college, TAs and so forth mixing with students? Was this behavior typical in the 50s-80s or unique to my experience? Guys older than me swam naked at the Y, what was typical then?
(Showers were compulsory for us and started in 7th grade.)

Well, given some of the responses here I think its the adults that would be uncomfortable from the leering eyes of pubescent boys.
Anyway, I never experienced cubicle showers until private gyms took off in the 80s/90s. I don't get them from a users perspective... its far easier to clean an open area with fewer nooks and crannies... and one would think an open shower would discourage bad behavior, from cruising to peeing in the shower room. Frankly, I miss the horseplay and comaraderie of a shower room, where casual nudity a catalyst for that, not the goal.

My understanding is that as your PE (gym) period got later in the day they got more lax about enforcement, to the extent that the last period of the day was often assigned to kids who had some physical or religious objection or were special ed.
The reason was that classroom teachers would complain about smelly boys in their classrooms. Today they must complain about teaching in a fog of Axe Body Spray instead.
I never cared and showered at every opportunity because I was a secret naturist at an early age and enjoyed the public experience. 

Wrestling should remain a sport requiring thorough showers because of the viruses spread by skin to skin contact. I've found that wrestlers and rugby players have a more old fashioned sensibility about communal bathing. 
I never saw any untoward behavior in a sauna until I started frequenting a KSpa a few years ago and there it is out-and-out brazen, to the point that signs are everywhere forbidding the practice. I now go on weekend days which are more family days and that behavior doesn't happen at those times. I hope.

VIDEO CLIP:
https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_sup5lqYPit1uuocyz.mp4

LET'S ALL WATCH! - VIDEO CLIP WITH SOUND:
https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ogrq4naQiP1v8ypm4.mp4

Thank you for your candid response. Those of us in this age range gave up a lot due to cultural pressure and the specter of HIV. I'm honestly in awe of men my age who've been out and proud all along. I have/had the benefit of legit bisexuality and being a hetero-romantic, I leaned into that - but I do think I missed out on some seriously good times by remaining exclusively part of the straight world until very recently.

Thank you for your candid response. Those of us in this age range gave up a lot due to cultural pressure and the specter of HIV. I'm honestly in awe of men my age who've been out and proud all along. I have/had the benefit of legit bisexuality and being a hetero-romantic, I leaned into that - but I do think I missed out on some seriously good times by remaining exclusively part of the straight world until very recently.

I've noticed a lot of members here came of age during or before the HIV/AIDS crisis, when transmission was not well understood, infection was high, deaths in the community soaring, and spreading to hetero and drug using populations. Gays and bis my age (60) and especially slightly older found themselves in a world of misery around them. I came of age just as the scare was at its peak, so I opted for abstinence (via suppression of m2m attraction) and hetero LTRs saw me safely through it. 
How are you here?
Luck? Abstinence? Partnered? Just fortunate it didn't develop to AIDS until treatments came along? How is everyone living with it/around it now? Are we all on prep? More demanding about condoms? 
I knew of related deaths well into the early 90s. How are you younger guys, especially providers, living with that spectre, or are you really even cognizant of the world-changing impact of the virus in a post-prevention and treatment world? (Like black death, even measles and polio, I think our memories of such scourges are short).

Thank you for your candid response. Those of us in this age range gave up a lot due to cultural pressure and the specter of HIV. I'm honestly in awe of men my age who've been out and proud all along. I have/had the benefit of legit bisexuality and being a hetero-romantic, I leaned into that - but I do think I missed out on some seriously good times by remaining exclusively part of the straight world until very recently.

I've noticed a lot of members here came of age during or before the HIV/AIDS crisis, when transmission was not well understood, infection was high, deaths in the community soaring, and spreading to hetero and drug using populations. Gays and bis my age (60) and especially slightly older found themselves in a world of misery around them. I came of age just as the scare was at its peak, so I opted for abstinence (via suppression of m2m attraction) and hetero LTRs saw me safely through it. 
How are you here?
Luck? Abstinence? Partnered? Just fortunate it didn't develop to AIDS until treatments came along? How is everyone living with it/around it now? Are we all on prep? More demanding about condoms? 
I knew of related deaths well into the early 90s. How are you younger guys, especially providers, living with that spectre, or are you really even cognizant of the world-changing impact of the virus in a post-prevention and treatment world? (Like black death, even measles and polio, I think our memories of such scourges are short).

You do realize that PrEP with Truvada has been available since 2012. While obviously there can always be more research, it's been 14 years now. And from what I understand (although as I don't have the  facts and figures available so I'm willing to be told I'm wrong), the incidence of new HIV cases is down in the USA. 
 
As for COVID-how for the average person could masking really have been detrimental? And for the record, I've received yearly COVID and Flu vaccines without anything I can associate as a long term health detriment due to them. 
 
As to original subject of this thread, the first official case of AIDS in the USA  was 1981. I was 20. It's hard to remember back that far if I absolutely knew I was gay. I probably did and didn't want to admit it to myself.
 
I knew the thought of having sex with a woman scared me because the thought still makes me uncomfortable. But even though I had inklings I was gay-I didn't want to be. So my inadvertent strategy that I employed -although not specifically to prevent AIDS-was total abstinence. 
 
This led to me being a total virgin until the age of 41. And with my first sexual (and lessons in kissing) experience with an escort in a hotel room (I think it was the Best Western) located in Kentucky right over the Ohio River from Cincinnati. 
 
The paradox occurs to me quite frequently that if at the time I had been braver about being gay, there's a good chance I wouldn't be here to contribute to this or any other topic in the  Message Center today. And that while my dislike-I'll even say hatred-of being gay saved my life in my early 20's and 30's, it royally screwed up the life that it saved.
 
And there are still repercussions for me today from being such a chickensh*t about accepting what I am. I'm more accepting of being gay than I ever thought  I would be. But I doubt I'll ever be totally at peace with it.
 
Still it's not all bad. As I said I'm more accepting than I ever thought I'd be. My close family knows-mother/brother/brother's wife/ and my sister-and they didn't ostracize me (I didn't really  think they would-but before I told them there was always a niggling doubt in my mind). And I occasionally am able to meet guys for sex-or even more occasionally an actual date. In fact I've got  a buddy situation over the last two months or so. I don't know where it's going to lead. But I enjoy spending time with him. 
 
So I guess all in all I'm glad abstinence saved me. 

FunFact: Raw milk and hot tubbing in denim cures all, unless you take Tylenol. I saw it on the interwebs.

Here's a broad, general comment that will make me a pariah on this board: 
A neck tattoo conveys different energy, but the same message, to me that a bible verse does on a Facebook profile or contractor's truck:
"I'm gonna screw you over, its just a matter of time."
To be fair, I'd sooner put my trust in the neck tattoo though. Unless the tat is a crucifix. 🙄
 

FunFact: Raw milk and hot tubbing in denim cures all, unless you take Tylenol. I saw it on the interwebs.

I've noticed a lot of members here came of age during or before the HIV/AIDS crisis, when transmission was not well understood, infection was high, deaths in the community soaring, and spreading to hetero and drug using populations. Gays and bis my age (60) and especially slightly older found themselves in a world of misery around them. I came of age just as the scare was at its peak, so I opted for abstinence (via suppression of m2m attraction) and hetero LTRs saw me safely through it. 
How are you here?
Luck? Abstinence? Partnered? Just fortunate it didn't develop to AIDS until treatments came along? How is everyone living with it/around it now? Are we all on prep? More demanding about condoms? 
I knew of related deaths well into the early 90s. How are you younger guys, especially providers, living with that spectre, or are you really even cognizant of the world-changing impact of the virus in a post-prevention and treatment world? (Like black death, even measles and polio, I think our memories of such scourges are short).

FunFact: Raw milk and hot tubbing in denim cures all, unless you take Tylenol. I saw it on the interwebs.

FunFact: Raw milk and hot tubbing in denim cures all, unless you take Tylenol. I saw it on the interwebs.

I've noticed a lot of members here came of age during or before the HIV/AIDS crisis, when transmission was not well understood, infection was high, deaths in the community soaring, and spreading to hetero and drug using populations. Gays and bis my age (60) and especially slightly older found themselves in a world of misery around them. I came of age just as the scare was at its peak, so I opted for abstinence (via suppression of m2m attraction) and hetero LTRs saw me safely through it. 
How are you here?
Luck? Abstinence? Partnered? Just fortunate it didn't develop to AIDS until treatments came along? How is everyone living with it/around it now? Are we all on prep? More demanding about condoms? 
I knew of related deaths well into the early 90s. How are you younger guys, especially providers, living with that spectre, or are you really even cognizant of the world-changing impact of the virus in a post-prevention and treatment world? (Like black death, even measles and polio, I think our memories of such scourges are short).

FunFact: Raw milk and hot tubbing in denim cures all, unless you take Tylenol. I saw it on the interwebs.

I've noticed a lot of members here came of age during or before the HIV/AIDS crisis, when transmission was not well understood, infection was high, deaths in the community soaring, and spreading to hetero and drug using populations. Gays and bis my age (60) and especially slightly older found themselves in a world of misery around them. I came of age just as the scare was at its peak, so I opted for abstinence (via suppression of m2m attraction) and hetero LTRs saw me safely through it. 
How are you here?
Luck? Abstinence? Partnered? Just fortunate it didn't develop to AIDS until treatments came along? How is everyone living with it/around it now? Are we all on prep? More demanding about condoms? 
I knew of related deaths well into the early 90s. How are you younger guys, especially providers, living with that spectre, or are you really even cognizant of the world-changing impact of the virus in a post-prevention and treatment world? (Like black death, even measles and polio, I think our memories of such scourges are short).