SpeedoCyclis

Back in the 80s I can remember men in underpants or swimming trunks openly mowing lawns and washing cars.

Lol ! I don't think you were neighbours of mine and I wasn't watching you, but it is funny how times have changed. Sometimes I think it is just my mind playing tricks. I do think there was a bit of a traditions of shirtlessness in steel and mining areas - blokes working in hot conditions, communal showers etc. Shirtless in Farah slacks - you have just reminded me again of that man on the Dartmoor coach tour in '85 !

Maybe I'm strange, but I've always been fascinated by those plain starter stud earrings (gold plated). I don't know what it is but I'm fascinated by a man with those in one or both his ears and have been since I was 9 or 10 years old (30 years ago). I particularly like to see them on "conservative"-looking men who you wouldn't expect to see wearing earrings !

Well, the wet armpit hair at Abbeydale Road Tesco puts me right off my own tea ! Ladies - I never did see a lady topless in a public situation, but the closest we get is:- A summer evening in 1982 / 3. I was cycling along the busy country road between Greasbrough and Wentworth. Walking along the grass verge was a woman (to my teenage eyes, she seemed late 30s or 40s). She was heading towards Wentworth wearing only a bikini top and bottom. It did not bother me in any way, but it did not seem a wise move on her part. Around this time there had been a murder of a woman at Castleton and police were appealing to anyone visiting beauty spots not to go scantily-clad.

Shirtless in places that are a little too public!! The Puritan side of me says that it is highly inappropriate but the Libertarian side says live and let live; we get such a short summer that a little partial nudity is no bad thing - though it can shock at times. Shirtless in a supermarket is something that might be tolerable for a very quick visit in a holiday resort but I can't imagine it for a day in Cole Brothers (showing my age) ! Incidentally, there is a nudist resort in the South of France called Cap d'Agde where totally naked shopping and eating out is acceptable. But that is different ! As a 16 year old in 1985 I stayed in Torquay with my parents. On one of the days down there we all took a day-long coach tour of Dartmoor and Exmoor, stopping at places like Dartmeet and Lynmouth. On that trip was a man with his 2 kids and their grandparents (his own parents, I imagine). Now he was shirtless for the whole day with no evidence of so much as a t-shirt even in a bag ! He wore grey Farah-type trousers and no top everywhere we went with his hairy chest proudly on show. I suppose I felt a bit awkward about it, and my own parents certainly did not feel that it was appropriate behaviour on a bus trip. He didn't look rough or anything, in fact his parents looked rather old-fashioned types, and his trousers were of a smart and tidy variety. Strange, I suppose. He certainly DID NOT seem aware that he was challenging convention in any way.

Good on you, Jongo Trunks are back in style at the Peace Gardens in 2009 !

Thanks in particular to INCOMER for confirming most of what I could remember ! I'm sure he can confirm that in those days no-one minded seeing a bloke in Speedos around his home or garden. People probably walked around the streets of seaside resorts like this too, but my memories of that are hazy (if there at all). I can remember going on a coach day trip from Torquay to Dartmoor and Exmoor in 1985 and there was a man on there with his 2 kids and their grandparents - he wore grey Farah-type trousers but had no shirt on all day - didn't even seem to be carrying one with him at all. My parents found it "inappropriate"

My theory was : 1. In 70s and 80s guys were just less fashion concious; 2. Speedos didn't have a "gay" stigma; 3. People didn't holiday abroad so much and with our limited summer weather guys just didn't specifically buy shorts. They would often have trunks to go to the pool - so on the rare occasion that it got hot, they just wore there swimmers as shorts instead.

lol !! Told you it was true, thanks for backing me up. I just wish I could get away with it as a tall and not too flabby 40 year old without passing teenage girls giggling at me ! Those 70s and 80s guys got it all ! I can remember (blue collar area of North Sheffield): 2 men gardening in brief pants - including weeding front gardens ! Another washing his car One up a ladder painting guttering 4 guys in a park at Rawmarsh playing football with one in Speedos and trainers only If you went out to "mining" areas around Barnsley and north of Rotherham shirtless men became more and more commonplace. Maybe a legacy of pit baths !!

On Glenn Timmins. He lived at School Road in High Green until at least 1985. He was at Ecclesfield School. We were on nodding terms but I did not know him well. Friendly enough chap.

Maybe it was the area I grew up in? Maybe it was just the late 70s and early 80s? BUT I can remember grown men in my neighbourhood wearing only swimming trunks (even Speedo type) or even just underpants to do chores outside the house and in the garden. Is it just my imagination? I can remember people dressed like this to weed the garden, mow the lawn, wash the car, even paint the guttering ! Take your mind back to 1983 and remind yourself what your neighbours were or were not wearing. Seems hard to believe today, but it was true.

Well.... I first noticed a male with a pierced ear was standing outside Sheffield Station, as a 9 year old, in hot weather in August 1978 when a young man (probably about 16) came out. He wore a small hoop or sleeper in the left ear and, to a point it shocked me. At that point I really did think that earrings were ONLY for women. From then on, I noticed single left earrings getting more and more popular on men and teenage lads. Usually either one of these small sleepers or what we now think of as a starter stud. After a while, my initial horror turned to envy. My parents would NEVER have let me have a pierced ear and I wasn't about to challenge convention. About 1985 trends moved on a bit. It become fashionable to have both ears pierced, but still with just small studs or sleepers. Then all of a sudden (late 80s/early 90s) a pair of dirty great "curtain-hook"-sized hoops was in. There was a lull in male ear piercing, I would say, until the last 5 years when the "Beckham effect" came in with pairs of "diamond" studs taking hold everywhere. I suspect that David would not be pierced at all had Victoria not forced him down to Asprey's of Bond Street to get his done. Am I pierced? Yes, just the once in the left side. Rarely worn these days and usually very small !

I went there from 1980 to 1985. Mixed memories, I suppose.

Hi I remember a lad at school called Glenn (or Glynn) Timmins. He was in the same year, so born 1968 or 1969. Wonder if this helps you at all?