Going to the beach in 1938


I've never been to Atlantic City, New Jersey, but I've spent a lot of time on beaches. Well, I guess on the east coast it's called "the shore"? I really don't know. I grew up in Minneapolis, which has some wonderful beaches around the lakes, then I lived in Southern California, spending as much time as I could at the beach, and now I live in Arizona, which, to be fair, is all beach (but no ocean).

I found this wonderful photo on the Duke University site, and I thought that it would be fun to dive into it. Let's take a closer look!


Of course the first thing I'm gonna look at are the gorgeous bathing beauties! But of course I'm gonna look at everyone. Something that catches my eye is the swimming suits of the men. At first I thought that the man on near top center (above) wasn't a man, because of the straps on his back, but he's a man. Maybe his physique isn't as manly as the man on the right! I guess that I've just gotta look closer when I see straps on the back.


I'm not sure what's going on here on the left (above), and maybe I don't want to know. I've seen people wear bathrobes to the beach in old movies, but I've never seen it IRL (In Real Life). I always wondered why it went out of style, I would have found it comfortable after I got out of the water, especially the ocean in Santa Barbara, but it just "wasn't done" - not even for women. Hey! Look at the cool kids there, especially the one with the hat and the cigarette! I wonder if the shirt that the kid on the right is wearing is torn on the sides, or if it was just made that way?

My understanding of the acceptability of men going topless, even at the beach, was subject to interpretation back in those days, more than it would ever be at a beach nowadays. I never thought twice about not wearing a shirt at a beach!


Looks like they were very organized, with umbrellas, and chairs. The beaches I went to had none of those things, you just sat on a towel.


I hope that these people had a lot of fun, and didn't stay out in the sun too long. No one would have ever thought of sunscreen, in fact I can remember in the '80s and '90s that most people put stuff on their skin to make it tan (or burn) even more! I didn't do either, I was always too restless to just lie out and "work on my tan" - I remember my nose getting burned often, but that's about it.

Thank you for going to the beach (or the shore!) with me in 1938!
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