hotos of nude boys swiming stir feelings of nostalgia in us all, whether or not we have swum naked with youthful friends. Just before he died, my heterosexual uncle told me that when he was a boy back in the 1920's, he used to visit his grandparents and uncles on their farm. All the men in the family, including fathers, grandfathers, cousins, and his six uncles would go to the pond to swim nude. Before getting in the water, he said, the older men in the family would take switches (small branches from the trees) and chase the younger lads to the water beating them on their naked butts as they ran. The story amazed me and caused me to wonder how many homoerotic practices of history have been lost to time?

My only experience swimming nude was during the 1960's when the local YMCA allowed men to swim naked. The men would gather at the deep end of the pool and pretend to be catching our breaths while in fact we were all catching glimpses of each other's dicks including some hard ones. Nothing other than looking went on. We did now know the expression "eye candy," but we were enjoying it. Alas, it all ended with the coming of electronics. They installed a camera in the pool area and a monitor the lobby after which swim suits were required.