[sebbie]

A Fondness for Speedos Part III

Growing up, I was, well, more than a little nerdy. My family lived on a Midwest farm and our nearest neighbors were a half mile away. I had friends in school of course, both boys and girls, but I was not particularly close to any of them. I was more than something of a nerdy loner too.

However I did have relatives, some of them aunts, uncles and cousins who lived in a more urban world on the West coast. Part of what they did was to make road trips to the Midwest where my family and other families (more aunt’s uncles and cousins) lived. They would hop in the Oldsmobile or Pontiac and think nothing of driving over 1200 miles in a long two days. One of the trips occurred around 1960. I would have been nearly 13. Two male cousins came along, one a year younger than I, the other about 18 months older. I will call the younger cousin G and the older cousin D.

City kids coming to visit country kids was always an interesting time. We were used to engaging in farm activities that the city kids found fascinating. We were around farm animals pretty much all the time, and some of the farm animals were also pets. The city cousin G was on the “cusp” of puberty at the time. My own body was changing rapidly and my mind was filled with questions I dared not ask. Even at that age I was interested in what my cousins would be wearing. The city cousins were into sports (later on, G became a High School wrestler, but he was also a swimmer).

Both G and D arrive wearing the latest snug-fitting jeans in a sand color, the ones I described previously. They were lucky, I thought. I really wanted a pair too.

The farm was also not far from a lake which is actually part of a dammed river. The local aunts and uncles had cabins on the lake and it was routine for everyone to go down to the lake and get in some boating, swimming and whatever. Of course I was wearing my red plaid swimsuit as I described. I was, well, curious as to what my city cousins would be wearing. It didn’t take long to find out! Both D and G were in swim briefs. The brief G was wearing was bright blue with three whit pin stripes on each side. He looked great in it. Keep in mind that I was a gawky, nerdy looking. Even at that age G was built like an athlete. The suit fit him really well—as in it was way tight on him. Seeing G in this suit really got me fixated on wearing swim briefs. I suspect G had worn this suit for some months and was on the edge of growing out of it. That is why it fit him so well.

(to be continued)