WHAT WE WORE FOR SWIMMING

 


My husband’s relatives.  On the left is his grandmother, Daisy May Elizabeth Young.  I think that’s her sister next to her.  Not sure who the third gal is?


The three gals having fun

My Mom, Lillian Adelle Whitney, in 1925 when she was 7 years old.  Ah, those good old itchy wool bathing suits.

Here she is a few years later – still in a wool bathing suit but looking a little different in it! J

Here she’s pictured in a different bathing suit of a kind of heavy sateen fabric in a printed leaf design with L-R: my Aunt Frances, my Grandma B. Harriet (Hattie) Bell Smedley Bradley, and my Granddad B. Frank Herbert Bradley in 1941.  Nine years later I was wearing my Mom's suit.

 

Maybe you remember it from this picture which I used in a post not that long ago. :[]  It looked a little different on 10-year old me.

Anyway, back to my Mom – this time in a green & white striped cotton bathing suit.  I’m not sure why, but as a little girl, I loved her in this suit and when I was older and choosing my own bathing suits I looked high and low for a green & white striped suit like this but could never find one just right.

So this was me at age 7 in a little kiddie cotton two-piece standing with my brother in front of our tent at Meeks Bay, Lake Tahoe.

Here I am with the older of my younger sisters five years later at age 12 ready to dive into the Russian River wearing a lime green/chartreuse colored bathing suit in some kind of shimmery fabric.  It was sheered up the center to make it fit.  

 About that suit: one day when I was swimming in the local swimming pool, the sheering stitches up the center broke leaving the suit hanging on me like a bag.  I was so embarrassed!!!  

These are my younger sisters in 1957 at a beach near Santa Cruz, CA.  The youngest was 8 at the time, the older, 11 or 12.  I don’t remember much about my youngest sister’s suit.  It was pretty much a kiddie thing.  But my other sis’s suit was really pretty.  It was a one-piece in cotton with red flowers on white and I remember wishing I’d had an attractive suit like that when I was her age instead of the lime green/chartreusey thing that betrayed me at the local swimming pool.

At 16, however, I had one of my favorite bathing suits of all time – a “Catalina” in pink & white cotton with ruffles and little gingerbread men all around.

The following year in 1957 when we were 17 is when I met my future husband on a beach at Lake Tahoe while wearing a black swimsuit with a white lacy ruffled top.  We were married 11 years later in 1968 and all the numbers connect this year.  We met 68 years ago, and recently celebrated our 57th Anniversary. J

For the summer of 1959 I had a black swimsuit in a kind of satin’ish material with gold thread running through.

In 1960 I had a light green suit.  A couple of years later I had a white suit trimmed in navy blue.  Then it was back to black suits of one style or another for a while.  In 1979 I had a red suit with white polka dots but no picture of it.  After I was married I was the one taking the pictures most of the time so I was rarely in them myself anymore.  These days I like tankini suits with a bathing suit top and swim shorts beneath.  Easier to get in and out of, and they cover up more! :) 

My youngest daughter at age 5 in a cute little orange print two-piece at Lake Tahoe and yes, the water is very cold there.

Thirteen years later, hello!  She opted for warmer water in Hawaii – still in a printed two-piece, but looking rather different in this one. J 

:-> 

La Nightingail

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