Fitness and Freedom
I've peered at the photo below for hours. It was probably taken on Eastbourne beach in 1920 when ten year old mum was recovering from Spanish 'flu. The pandemic killed between 20 to 50 million people worldwide and nearly killed her. She remembered feeling ill to the point of death.
She's wearing soft, casual clothes and gym shoes; - beachwear that her own mother would never have been able to use. Behind her, daintily picking their way across a boardwalk, is a group of women whose coats are fairly free-flowing - not too much evidence of corsetry, buttons and rigid belts here. Perhaps they're going to use one of the old bathing machines behind them? By this time, these contraptions had mostly fallen out of use and those remaining became changing huts.
Fast forward to 1934. My mother had trained as a PE teacher and joined the staff at her college as soon as she'd graduated. The students' summer camp was based in Middleton-on-Sea and my mother doubled as teacher and photographer. They used the beach and the barnacle-encrusted breakwaters for their apparatus to do the sort of activities being promoted by the new Women's League of Health and Beauty. These graceful, free spirits had gained more freedom than their strait-laced Victorian mothers could have dreamt of. Here they are doing the sort of tightly choreographed, synchronised movements that were becoming popular across the world at the time; loved equally by communist and fascist regimes as well as by Hollywood.
She's wearing soft, casual clothes and gym shoes; - beachwear that her own mother would never have been able to use. Behind her, daintily picking their way across a boardwalk, is a group of women whose coats are fairly free-flowing - not too much evidence of corsetry, buttons and rigid belts here. Perhaps they're going to use one of the old bathing machines behind them? By this time, these contraptions had mostly fallen out of use and those remaining became changing huts.
Fast forward to 1934. My mother had trained as a PE teacher and joined the staff at her college as soon as she'd graduated. The students' summer camp was based in Middleton-on-Sea and my mother doubled as teacher and photographer. They used the beach and the barnacle-encrusted breakwaters for their apparatus to do the sort of activities being promoted by the new Women's League of Health and Beauty. These graceful, free spirits had gained more freedom than their strait-laced Victorian mothers could have dreamt of. Here they are doing the sort of tightly choreographed, synchronised movements that were becoming popular across the world at the time; loved equally by communist and fascist regimes as well as by Hollywood.
PS Mum tried to get us to do these sort of exercises...not only were they hard but made us cripplingly stiff the next day. Have got to admire the gymnasts above!
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