School and college sports

[Edward]

One of the worst experiences I had as a kid was watching a mean-spirited gym teacher embarrass the heck out of kid in grammar school who couldn't skip. I have no idea why skipping was something we had to do in gym class, but we lined up and everyone had to skip the width of the basketball court and this one kid - who was a bit awkward in general - couldn't do it and the gym teacher kept forcing him to "try again" and taunting him as he failed. I'd like to say I stood up for him, but I didn't, but even as a kid, my heart was breaking. Some - not too many - kids were laughing, most were like me silent and probably horrified. I told my mom that night and she told me to tell the head gym teacher (my parents almost never got directly involved in anything to do with my schooling), but that went nowhere. I still get a sick feeling in my stomach (as I have right now), just thinking about that forty plus years later.

I remember many ocasions like that. Typically, the teacher would question the gender (and impliedly the sexuality) of the individual on which he chose to pick. A I recall, the younger they were, generally the more of a bully.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A lot of gym teachers seemed to be overcompensating for something.

 

[Ticklishchap]

Played rugby at school (wing) for a time

I was a Full-Back, for my sins.
Sorry about your rotator cuff: very annoying and disappointing

 

[Ticklishchap]

As for formal organized sports, I played the "big three", football, basketball and baseball as a kid, but baseball was by far my best and favorite, so that's all I played after about the 9th grade. Played all the way to college, and still play today. Today it's more about going out for a slice of pie after the game with the fellas than it is about actually playing, though every once in a while our competitive side rears its ugly head, such as the other day when the umpire doesn't know the difference between a force out and an appeal out. I mean, we're paying the guy $65, the least he can do is know the rules...

Umpire sounds very reminiscent of Cricket.

 

[Ticklishchap]

The main reason why this interests me is the change in my attitude towards this over the years. At the time - school and early college - there was a strong element of 'gritted teeth' in my approach to team sport. There was quite a lot of pressure to be interested in it and to an extent I felt an obligation to do it. Looking back, however, I feel a certain nostalgia and think I derived quite a lot of benefit from the experience.

On a lighter note, I greatly enjoyed the 'match teas' after Rugby games, when we got through copious amounts of buttered toast and cake in a very convivial atmosphere.

 

[LizzieMaine]

In the US, there was a greater emphasis on physical education in general in the late fifties, sixties and seventies than there was before or after. "The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports" was a very big deal then, a sort of patriotic campaign to get kids off their backsides and away from the TV set and into a regular routine of physical activity after a report came out in 1953 warning that Americans were becoming fatter and lazier than ever.

That Council 's main legacy was the insitution of compulsory phys-ed programs for all ages, but that mandate has eroded over the years. The Council still exists, but it's far less visible or influential than it was.

 

[Stearmen]

In the US, there was a greater emphasis on physical education in general in the late fifties, sixties and seventies than there was before or after. "The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports" was a very big deal then, a sort of patriotic campaign to get kids off their backsides and away from the TV set and into a regular routine of physical activity after a report came out in 1953 warning that Americans were becoming fatter and lazier than ever.

That Council 's main legacy was the insitution of compulsory phys-ed programs for all ages, but that mandate has eroded over the years. The Council still exists, but it's far less visible or influential than it was.

The study was done after an alarming rise in men that were found to be 4F during their draft physicals!

 

[LizzieMaine]

The remarkable thing is that when the draft started in 1940, the opposite problem was true -- the single biggest reason for rejection of draftees was malnutrition. Clearly the postwar era led to severe overcompensation.

 

[Fading Fast]

The remarkable thing is that when the draft started in 1940, the opposite problem was true -- the single biggest reason for rejection of draftees was malnutrition. Clearly the postwar era led to severe overcompensation.

Only because both of my parents were Depression kids and both were close to homeless in the Depression and worried about food and shelter, I grew up understanding that just getting enough food was a struggle not only for the poor but even for many with just-getting-by jobs in the Depression. It is very hard today, I think, for many younger adults and kids to have an concept of that as we live in a society where the poor have an obesity problem (according to many health studies). I believe it is just a hard concept - that many struggled to have enough food - for a large segment of our population to truly understand. If you watch the movies from the '30s, and not just the ones that clearly were trying to show the struggle, but the ones that are on some other theme - romance, sports, crime, etc. - there will be little asides or other hints that many people - even working class people with jobs - were struggling to get enough food. Hence, while I did not know that malnutrition was the number one reason for draftee refection in WWII, it does make sense based on what had gone on in the country for the prior 10+ years.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The explosive growth in convenience foods in the postwar era probably also had a lot to do with the bloating of the population in the early and mid fifties. While processed foods existed and were heavily promoted before the war, it was the war era itself where they really caught on -- it was so much easier to throw a box of Kraft Dinner together than it was to make a meal from scratch when you had war work and similar obligations to deal with. Habits formed during that period escalated sharply once the war was over and the Boys were quick to take advantage.

The "Deep Freeze" craze of the late forties also contributed. A lot of people who went out and bought deep-freeze units in 1948 and 1949 envisioned themselves as smart shoppers who were going to fill those freezers with whole sides of beef, but what they ended up being filled with more often than not were Birdseye Frosted Foods and, eventually, Swanson TV Dinners.

And finally, the packaged snack-food industry exploded during the fifties. Whereas before the war potato chips were a novelty food you might have at a picnic, after the war they became absolutely omnipresent. Whereas before the war you'd find a local brand of chips in little wax paper bags or tin cans in an obscure corner of a neighborhood store, by the mid-fifties entire supermarket aisles were being devoted to packaged snacks.

 

[ChiTownScion]

And finally, the packaged snack-food industry exploded during the fifties. Whereas before the war potato chips were a novelty food you might have at a picnic, after the war they became absolutely omnipresent. Whereas before the war you'd find a local brand of chips in little wax paper bags or tin cans in an obscure corner of a neighborhood store, by the mid-fifties entire supermarket aisles were being devoted to packaged snacks.

Especially with the blatant, "Hey kids! Tell your mom to buy.." television pitches of the Fifties, not necessarily confined to the commercials, but often in the shows themselves. I think that you've mentioned both Captain Kangaroo and Buffalo Bob shilling for their sponsors, Lizzie. It got toned down considerably in the 70's, but by then, buying habits were conditioned.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Buffalo Bob sold more Wonder Bread and more Hostess Cakes in the fifties than any other junk-food spokesman in the history of television.

 

[Stearmen]

The explosive growth in convenience foods in the postwar era probably also had a lot to do with the bloating of the population in the early and mid fifties. While processed foods existed and were heavily promoted before the war, it was the war era itself where they really caught on -- it was so much easier to throw a box of Kraft Dinner together than it was to make a meal from scratch when you had war work and similar obligations to deal with. Habits formed during that period escalated sharply once the war was over and the Boys were quick to take advantage.

The "Deep Freeze" craze of the late forties also contributed. A lot of people who went out and bought deep-freeze units in 1948 and 1949 envisioned themselves as smart shoppers who were going to fill those freezers with whole sides of beef, but what they ended up being filled with more often than not were Birdseye Frosted Foods and, eventually, Swanson TV Dinners.

And finally, the packaged snack-food industry exploded during the fifties. Whereas before the war potato chips were a novelty food you might have at a picnic, after the war they became absolutely omnipresent. Whereas before the war you'd find a local brand of chips in little wax paper bags or tin cans in an obscure corner of a neighborhood store, by the mid-fifties entire supermarket aisles were being devoted to packaged snacks.

I guise it goes to show you, PE was a good thing! I only remember a handful of over weight kids. Then again, I could probably count on one hand the number of TV diners I had growing up, same goes for fast food, and sodas were a big treat.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ever eat a hyper-sugared cereal with a cartoon character on the box? Those didn't exist before the war, but they absolutely exploded with the coming of television. And the Boys saw to it that they were displayed on the bottom shelves in the new supermarkets, at exactly the right height to be spotted by and made the target of nagging by children.

The Boys also began pushing "family size" bottles of soda in the fifties, the better for serving the kids at the table. This took a long time to catch on, so they diversified into "fruit flavored" sugary drinks presented under the illusion of being "healthy. Coca-Cola made a big hit with its "Hi-C" line of fruit drinks containing much more sugar than actual fruit juice or Vitamin C. "Hawaiian Punch" was another such fake-healthy sugar beverage that found its way to many Boomer tables.

 

[Fading Fast]

Ever eat a hyper-sugared cereal with a cartoon character on the box? Those didn't exist before the war, but they absolutely exploded with the coming of television. And the Boys saw to it that they were displayed on the bottom shelves in the new supermarkets, at exactly the right height to be spotted by and made the target of nagging by children.

Just finished a bowl of Corn Pops (used to be Sugar Corn Pops - only change, the name) and have been eating them since I was a kid in the late '60s. There might have been one, but I don't remember the cartoon tie in for Corn Pops. I did buy Super Sugar Bear cereal because of the bear once, but didn't like them (too sweet - Corn Pops are sweet, but not as sweet as the heavily sugared ones).

 

[LizzieMaine]

Sugar Pops usually went with a Western theme -- before and after Second Amendment Pete here, they usually featured actual human cowboys of various kinds, which were always hot stuff with young Boomer boys. For a while they also had Woody Woodpecker, presumably to appeal to the junior anarchist crowd.

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^ I don't remember that guy (as you alluded to, the "sugar" gun hits on a few politically sensitive issues by today's standards), but now that you mention it, I vaguely remember some sort of cowboy tie-in. And say what you want - Tony the Tiger is pure genius from a marketing perspective, though his cereal is way too sweet for my tastes.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Tony was the first of the modern style of cartoon cereal mascots. Snap, Crackle, and Pop go back to the thirties, and Mickey Mouse endorsed Post Toasties around the same time, but neither of those brands of cereal were specifically targeted at children, nor were they particularly sugary. Superman and Tom Mix endorsed Kellogg's Pep and Shredded Ralston, respectively, on radio, but they weren't prominently featured on the box, and their cereals were not targeted to -- or even especially palatable to -- kids.

Tony, on the other hand, was specifically created to sell a cereal specifically designed to a child's taste, to be sold thru television directly to children. (They were, of course, originally called SUGAR Frosted Flakes, but SUGAR disappeared in the '80s, even though the cereal is still just as sugary as ever.)

The all-time most nauseating sugar cereal prize goes to Pink Panther Flakes, a product of the early seventies which was basically corn flakes caked with Strawberry Quik. The Pink Panther, naturally, endorsed this product, and it's just as well he was traditionally a silent character, because what could you possibly say about such a cereal?

 

[Fading Fast]

Tony was the first of the modern style of cartoon cereal mascots. Snap, Crackle, and Pop go back to the thirties, and Mickey Mouse endorsed Post Toasties around the same time, but neither of those brands of cereal were specifically targeted at children, nor were they particularly sugary. Tony, on the other hand, was specifically created to sell a cereal specifically designed to be sold thru television to children. (They were, of course, originally called SUGAR Frosted Flakes, but SUGAR disappeared in the '80s, even though the cereal is still just as sugary as ever.)

The all-time most nauseating sugar cereal prize goes to Pink Panther Flakes, a product of the early seventies which was basically corn flakes caked with Strawberry Quik. The Pink Panther, naturally, endorsed this product, and it's just as well he was traditionally a silent character, because what could you possibly say about such a cereal?

Good to see he was able to "re-invent" himself as a pitchman for Owens Corning Fiberglass after his cereal gig fell through.

And, yes, that does sound like one nasty tasting cereal (I don't remember that one at all).

 

[LizzieMaine]

I admit to my eternal shame that I ate a great many boxes of Pink Panther Flakes during the brief time it was on the market. And then I ran around the house with my pupils fully dilated, whirling my arms maniacally and screaming out one continuous YAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH until my mother hit me with a wet towel and sent me sprawling to the floor.

I then moved on to "Freakies," which were, if it is possible, even more heinous.