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Robert S Young

What a great event!   
Yes, it was an interesting time, I recall all freshmen boys were required to spend time in the pool. The no swim suit policy sort of made sense, I can't imagine trying to keep hundreds of swim suits clean and "unspoiled". I'm sure in today's climate it's pretty shocking as well. 
Thank you and the rest of the women who participated.

Michelle Milkovic (Weiner)

Andy...  Lane typically has about a 50/50 gender split for general enrollment which is around 4500 now, but specifically in the "Women in Literature" classes there's usually one lone (and possibly very savvy) young man surrounded by female students. ;)

Edward Mc Carthy

I recall total enrollment was 6,000 give or take back then in our day.  Can you imagine in todays geo-political climate and political correctness, attempting to force kids to swim naked!!!    And I also recall....that pool water was NOT even close to comfortable as in damn cold.   And the tile floors were disgustingly slimey and everything reeked of chlorine.  Although, all of that was part of what made Lane, uniquely Lane.  And none of us are any worse off for it all.   Ahhhh, the fond memories.  

Timmy Wong

I remember we had to take swimming class and pass as a graduation requirement.  We had to be able to swim the width of the pool to pass the class.  Before getting into the pool we had to shower and come out to get "inspected" where they rubbed your wet wrist. If there was any dirt or whatever on your wrist you had to go back and shower again.  It was a pain in the arse but required for graduation.  I believe the no swimsuit rule was because they did not want the fibers from the swimsuits clogging up the pool filter.  

OHHHH, the fun times we had at LTHS!!

Michelle Milkovic (Weiner)

For a "deeper dive" into why the naked swimming, you might enjoy this...

Baring It All: Why Boys Swam Naked In Chicago High Schools - WBEZ Chicago

Gregory Groeper

Isn't it funny... an article about Lane 'Women in Literature' - which mentions as an aside at the end that the girls were fascinated by the boys having to swim naked - becomes a thread about Lane Boys Swimming Naked! LOL We certainly were forced to 'measure up' one way or another. I think that's why they kept the water so damned cold.

I guess we're still not 'over it' ;-)

Grace Tanaka (Danziger)

Per C Pearson

Did anyone else get to the Lifesaving level in swimming? If I remember this correctly you had to swim the length of the pool underwater. If you made it, you were supposed to put a large black star with a magic marker on the top of of your swimming cap so the coaches could see who was a capable swimmer.

Lifesaving was a double hit of trauma. You were naked and now you had to touch another guy. Teenage horrors!! One test was, the “Victim” had to float on his back and lightly tread water with his legs spread. The “Rescuer” had to swim and push the victim by his knees to the other side of the pool. I wish they could have just tossed lifesavers and called it good. Thanks to Greg Znajda for bringing his swimming cap to the 40^th reunion. He did keep it all those years!

Michelle Milkovic (Weiner)

Grace, girls could not take swimming during our tenure at Lane as there were no locker facilities... oh... and the naked boy issue.

There was a girls swim team and I'd post the picture but Ria might kill me.  I think they used the girls bathroom across the hall to change. Good times. 

This was not unique to Chicago, we just have the best stories and story-tellers!

Robert Cole

Per,

I remember the lifesaving designation in swim class. I remember...

• Tread water, then surface dive in the deep end to pick up a rubber dive brick on the bottom of the pool.
• Swimming a length underwater, carrying the brick.
  Didn't Lane have a pool that was longer than most, too? Like mayb 50 yds instead of 25?
• Treading water for 30 minutes in the deep end without touching the bottom or the sides. But, Coach Lewis used to go to lunch and come back, leaving his sadistic lifeguards in charge, so it was quite often a lot longer than 30 minutes!
• Demonstrating that you could do a 4-length IM... 1 length of freestyle, back, fly and breast strokes. Not competitive. But, you'd bettter be at least fast enough to satisfy Coach.
• Demonstrate the required lifesaving techniques.

It was so rigorous, not only did we get the "black star" but it qualified you for Red Cross Senior Lifesaving certification.

My father had attended Lane in the 40s, and was a lifeguard and (mildly) competitive swimmer for many years and said NO ONE ever had to do as much in High School as Lane did. I guess that's why Lane had a championship swim team for a bazillion years.

Robert Cole

Swim class wearing "nothing but a swim cap and a smile!"

One winter the heater broke down in the pool and Coach made us swim anyway. Shivering. Lips turning blue.
"Suck it up buttercup."

James Anton

Robert, the 30 minutes in the deep end was required to pass the class. Calling the lifeguards sadistic, you are being too nice. I would race through the showers to try and get my 6 lap warm-up done in time for class only to have a lifeguard straight from shop class wipe his hands on my shoulders and tell me to shower again. Yeah, it's the one Lane experience I would like to forget or better yet, wish I never experienced.

Marion B Bastle

Lisa Yee (Abrams)

It's funny that you mentioned ROTC and those uniforms. I entered sophomore year 2 weeks into the school year because I moved from Elgin to Chicago and they told me there was no more room in the girls gym so I was forced into ROTC. I was not very athletic and couldn't do one single push up and the boys made so much fun of the girls because I recall just having to wear black skirts and my jacket was so long it covered my skirt making it look like I nothing underneath. I only stayed in ROTC that year. But also hated those bloomers we had to wear. 

Michelle Milkovic (Weiner)

Thanks to Marie Costa McJilton, we have a record documenting our beloved gymsuits. I guess there was plenty of humiliation to go around for all of us!

Robert Cole

I was in Mr. Rafac's drafting class. 2nd floor, right above the Auto Shop. He used to let us climb out the windows and sit on the roof of the Auto Shop, smoking cigarettes and watching the girls gym class outdoors. What a great teacher!

The joys of being a teenaged boy, with male teachers, in an almost all-boys school.

When my son was looking at colleges he looked at Wabash College, an all-male school in Indiana. Said, "why would I want to go there? No girls." I told him, "Where there's a will, there's a way." It was my Lane Tech experience. My dad went to Lane in the 40's and  he said St. Scholastica was a very popular place to hang out.

My mother-in-law went to DePauw back in the day. She said the all-male Wabash College used to charter busses and send them to DePauw on the weekends to bus in women!

Gregory Groeper

Happy Mother's Day to All 

whom have labored out of Love 

to continue our human race! 

John Simmers

Michelle Milkovic (Weiner)

They do still use it John. No live ammo and also for archery.

Lisa Yee (Abrams)

Thank you very much, Greg.

Michelle Milkovic (Weiner)

Okay... I know we had a false alarm 2 years ago but this time I saw the airline ticket confirmation. Theresa Dubose (Boelter) is coming to Chicago this summer and we are planning an informal meet up for our division and any other students who had her for art or study hall. She'll be here for 3-1/2 weeks between mid-June and mid-July. Give me a shout if you are interested and if you have a preference on dates . Joan and Marion, I know you are in. Bill Ystrom and probably Art Clafford too.   michellemweiner@gmail.com

Michelle Milkovic (Weiner)

The artists were Frank Coronado, Bill Ystrom, Sue Ziokowski, Marion Bastle & Rory Fiedler. My favorite is Tom Boudreau blowing the bubble. That would have disqualified the picture from being published had it been a real class photo, (same for Ms. Boelter's shirt)  

Not sure how we got so many art majors in one division but I think there were similar situations with music.  Maybe because we were already on the 4th floor for classes they figured they could keep us together and assign all the 4th floor lockers to us. It was a slog, that's for sure.

All art majors are welcome to join us this summer. More deets to follow.

Gregory Calvimontes

Gregory Calvimontes

Robert Cole

Has anyone considered what the school or CPS has to say about this?
After all, it is representing the Lane Tech Indians and that is not the school mascot anymore. I assume there were concerns about the name that caused them to change it.

Would anyone go to Gordon Tech's 50th reunion and get a Native American sanctification-blessing?

Then, are there religious concerns? "Sanctification-blessing" may imply a religion to some people.

Remember, as much as we may agree or disagree... it is no longer the Lane Tech Indians. 
They may not want the school to continue to be represented this way.
We have to be sensitive to public image. And the legalities of CPS and the school.
There are a LOT of people out there who may have strong opinions on this.

I used to run a business that did science education for elementary school children. We developed a really cool science show based on the Harry Potter movies when they were big. We had to pull it from the public schools here because some parents complained it was "promoting witchcraft." You have to be sensitive to ALL people's opinions.... agree or disagree.