1950's Australian Orphanage Story

From the age of 8 through 15 I lived in a very large state run foster home in Sydney, Australia. It housed both boys and girls from the ages of 5 through 17, with an average population of 350 children, two thirds of which were male. Contrary to what one would be tempted to think, it was a very positive experience. We were loved and very well taken care of by our caretakers. And overall it was a very enlightened environment.

The home provided, besides housing, both schooling and recreation facilities. It was run so that both the boys and girls each had important responsibilities. The chief work of the boys was to assist in the upkeep of the yard and dorms, and the chief work of the girls was to tend to the younger children. Girls were given the responsibility of watching over the younger boys and girls, and of tending to their needs, and this included bathing and grooming.

When girls reached the age of 11 they were given the responsibility of caring for the 5 year old boys. 12 year olds took care of the 6 year olds and so on, with the 17 year old girls caring for the 11 year olds. At the age of 12 the children were then responsible, for the most part, to take care of their own personal hygiene.

There was a common feeling that it was okay for boys to be nude in front of girls, but not the other way around. And it all seemed to make sense and was perfectly ok as far as I was concerned. I suppose it all worked so well because we were all shown much love and treated as if each one of us was a very special person. So, for those of us who were there from a young age it was no big deal, but I remember a few boys who came to our home at a later age having a somewhat difficult time of it. There would be some balking and crying about having to strip and be monitored by girls during bath time, and at other recreational activities.

But everyone soon got over it because of the loving environment. The guys and gals would all join in and tell the new boys that it was no big deal being bathed by a girl, that everything was all right. And we were told so many times that it was right and natural because females are the natural care givers of our species, they give birth to humans of both sexes, so therefore it was no big deal for them to see guys in the nude. So for women, who are naturally the caretakers, mothers, and birth givers, male nudity was not so much of an issue as a given fact of life. And eventually all of these new boys stopped complaining.

Bath time was always a very warm and loving experience because the girls, who were sort of practicing at being mothers, were so kind and complimentary. They would constantly be giving us compliments and praising us with words like, "What fine looking young man you are!", "Let's get you nice and clean so you can be super proud of yourself."

In the evening bath time began at around 6:30 PM, with the youngest group of girls (the eleven year olds) beginning with the youngest boys (the five year olds), and progressed by age group. There were six or seven bathtubs and each would contain usually about three boys, all manned by a single girl. But the 10 and 11 year old boys were usually bathed one to a tub.

After the bath the girls would towel dry each boy and send him on to the bassinette tables. There the girls assigned would have the boys hop on the tables so they could check them for rashes and so on, and then oil them and sprinkle them all over with baby powder. Finally they would dress the boys. All the while the girls lovingly complimented and praised the boys.

All the while this was going on the boys older than 11 would enter the bathroom and hit the showers that were located in the other half of the bathroom. The showers lined the far wall and were in full view of the entire room. The bathing of the young boys went on from 6:30 to about 7:30, so if any of the older boys wanted privacy, they could shower after 7:30. But for most of us it seemed to make no difference whether girls were in the room or not.

I remember one occasion when I was older and showering with some of my friends in the back stalls when the youngest boys were being bathed by the 11 and 12 year old girls. One of the little boys fell and was crying very loudly. My friends and I ran to help the boy and the girls. We helped comfort the boy and waited until the house nurse arrived who checked the boy out and declared him ok. But the whole time it was simply no big deal to any of us that we were dripping wet and naked boys from the age of 14 to 17 standing around in front of a bunch of 11 and 12 year old girls. It just seemed perfectly normal and ok for girls to see boys naked, no matter what their age, since the girls were learning to be good at their roles as caregivers and mothers.

On Sundays we attended a sort of non-denominational spiritual meeting in which we were exhorted to show respect for our fellow beings and the planet, and to be the best we could be. It was meant to be a special occasion and we had to look our best. So every Sunday morning before breakfast all of us boys, of all age groups, had to form up in the bathroom into about 4 or 5 lines. We had to be naked, and because there was a lot to do there was to be no horseplay on Sunday mornings. The first grooming procedure was getting a haircut. At the head of each line of boys was a stool, and the girls who gave the haircuts seemed to be 14 years and older.

Because we got weekly haircuts, the procedure went relatively fast, our haircuts being more in the nature of a trim. Our sides were cut short but we had some length on top. Short buzz or crew cuts were considered too "adult" or "militaristic". When the girl finished our cuts, we had to stand up and brush ourselves off of any hairs, before we went into the showers, which was the next procedure.

Sunday's were the one day we had to be on schedule and couldn't dally in the showers, so we were encouraged to take a speedy shower. Then out of the shower, if you were 11 years or younger, you had to go to one of several girls who would towel you off, and then from there you had to go hop on another stool where a girl would dress and comb your hair, then apply baby powder, and, finally, dress you.

If you were 12 or over, once out of the shower you had to towel dry yourself off, and then go hop on one of the hairdressing stools, where one of the girls would apply either gel, crème, or pomade to your hair (each girl had the authority to decide what sort of style would be best for you). And the girls applied a little scent to the oldest boys, those 16 and 17. (Once when I was about 15 I asked if I could have some cologne too. The girl who had just combed my hair, and was about my age, said with a big smile, as she applied some cologne to my chest, "Are we feeling like a man today?" I smiled back and said, "Yes ma'am.") Then, if you were 12 or over, after getting your hair dressed and combed you would go back to your dorm and dress in your Sunday best.

Because the Sunday morning haircut lineup took place right after we got out of bed, there were always some erections present, in boys of all ages. Nothing was ever said about it. It was ignored totally by our caregivers and the administrative staff (who were always present for the Sunday morning grooming ritual because it was a big deal at the foster home). The only ones who would occasionally joke about it would be us boys to each other. But even then most of us boys ignored it too and didn't make a big deal out of it. I know that for me it was never any sort of deal at all, whether I was erect or not.

One very interesting cultural sidelight of the place was that most boys who reached the age of 12 kept on applying baby powder to themselves after a shower. Even most of the oldest guys still used baby powder. We just lived in our own unique world where we thought that was what guys did. I think it was because we associated that with such good times and feelings of comfort. I know that when I was taken into a private foster home just before my 16th birthday my stepmother and stepsisters considered it very "cute" that I baby powdered myself. My stepbrother, who was my age, told me it was "weird". (I stopped using baby powder soon after when I realized no one else at my new school did it, and I had received a couple of comments about it.)

One time several boys were caught sneaking a look at the girls in the pool dressing room. The boys who were caught tried to explain their behavior by saying that since the girls got to see them in the nude, they didn't see why they couldn't see the girls in the nude. The boys were not disciplined, or chastened, or made to feel bad in any way, but on the following Sunday the "sermon" addressed the issue of why it was not a good thing for the boys to have done what they did.

We were told that women deserve the respect, service, and protection of men. If we wanted to be considered adults, then we had to treat women with full respect, and that meant honoring their privacy. It was not the same for men because men are strong and can naturally protect themselves from unwanted coercion. But we could not consider ourselves gentlemen if we showed such a lack of respect for women as those boys showed. Women should be honored, for they are our caretakers. Women deserved total respect, and the full protection of men. Men can take care of themselves, but women need men to support them in all things, and that includes protecting all aspects of them, including their modesty. And as far as nudity goes, it was again presented to us that women, being the sex that brings human beings, both male and female unto this planet, its not only no big deal for women to see men naked, but it is right and natural. It is their nurturing role that we honor by submitting to their loving care.

So there we all were. About 200 boys and young men all dressed up in our Sunday best clothes, cleanly scrubbed, our hair oiled or gelled and shining in the lights and neatly combed, and all of us smelling faintly like babies. Seated with about 120 females - girls, young women, and the adult administrative staff - many of whom just an hour before had seen all of us boys and young men present completely naked. And there was the speaker for the day telling us that such a situation was natural, right, and good.

Swimming classes at the home were taught by females, and classes consisted of both boys and girls, with the boys always nude, and the girls in one-piece bathing suits. After we reached 12 years old, boys’ and girls’ classes became separate, but we still swam nude.

The one thing that made the foster home gym class situation a little different from public schools in the area (mixed swimming classes were common in Sydney) was that the administrative staff had full access to the older boys dressing rooms and had no qualms at all about entering them at any time. I guess that was because it was a foster home and they were responsible for the care and well being of the residents and took their duties very seriously.

We had open dormitories. And girl monitors checked in on us throughout the day and the administrative staff handled dorm monitoring during the night. "Monitor" implies strict and watchful and authoritarian. That wasn't the case. It was just part of official oversight policy of the foster home system. The girls we all knew and liked, and we liked having them around. Especially since a lot of us had crushes on a number of them.

The only part of the entire experience that I had a problem with was resenting somewhat the way the girls had total control of how we were dressed, and I remember feeling this when I was both under the age of 12 and over the age of 12. So though we had more choices once we reached the age of 12, if we weren't dressed in a way that some girl considered to be appropriate or didn't show us off to our best we ordered to change our clothes.

I remember one time when I was 15 being somewhat humiliated when a caretaker girl of about 12 or 13 told me my green sweater did not match my clothes and I should change into a grey sweater. It was strange because she said it in the sweetest way and she was in no way being bossy, but it made me feel embarrassed.

When I got older I noticed that the young girls caring for the young boys really did seem like mothers in training, and to some extent they treated the boys they cared for like they were toy dolls, dolls to be played with. It wasn't a bad thing; it was just something I noticed.

I also remember a couple of times when I was young I was embarrassed because the girls would comb my hair in some way I did not like. But for the most part it was a totally loving environment.

As we grew up the fact that a lot of us boys developed crushes on some of our caregivers just made the situation seem all the more right or loving for us.

When I was finally sent to a private home just before my 16th birthday, I remember feeling strangely alone and unprotected by the fact that I now had privacy in all of my grooming and sports activities. So at first I tended to keep to rituals that I knew. I would keep the bathroom door open most of the time when I used it, and almost never closed my bedroom door.

One day soon after I moved in with my new family my stepmom and one of my stepsisters came into my room with some fresh laundry while I was nude after having just taken a shower. So I walked up to them to take the laundry. They were both, at first, very apologetic that they had walked in on me in the nude. Then, a bit later, surprised that I seemed to not care that I was nude. When they got to know me and understood me, and I understood them, then I could begin to adjust to my new life. I told my stepmom that I loved her and my new family, but I still felt kind of lonely. I told her that I hated having my bedroom door closed since it made me feel lonely. My mom understood and said I could keep my bedroom door open, but that I should always keep the bathroom door closed when I was in there.

FROM: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cfnm_lifestyles_allages/
USER: Tonyforte