Retro RFH Softball Gals’ Gym Suit Guffaw

RFH Girls Softball circa 1954
Photo/RFH Yearbook

Just when you think you’ve moved past an RFH gym suit PTSD trigger, another rears its horrid head.

This time it’s with a flashback to the 1954 RFH Girls Softball Team. But these unknowing girls wearing it with a smile, you could say. They wear it well, really, mostly because they had no way out of that fashion nightmare, so, being true unbeknownst sports, they dressed it up.

Fast forward to 2022 and the game is still on for RFH girls. And they’re still sporting smiles and cheer for the RFH team, as always, minus the fashion backward misery.

Yes, they’re playing the field this spring. Who knows? Maybe a visit back to this gym suit uniform trauma will catapult the team to a big win next game against Red Bank Catholic. Then again …

We’ve revisited the trauma of the RFH marshmallow, full diaper-looking blob of the 1970s gym suits. Well, this yearbook shot of a proud bunch of RFH Girls Softball Team players takes it back to a new level of trauma — the (this era) skirted, short-sleeved suit.

We remind ourselves that these girls are still smiling bright, despite the beauties’ unbeknownst disdain over those on-the-field outfits. And they do wear them well. But there are scars from the experience. When reminded, they’re still full-on confessing the horror of the suit.

Trust us … and those girls, like the others of the eras of gym suit trauma, get the trigger and also start fessing up about escape fantasies, like those forged, well-crafted and conspiring mom notes about laundry mishaps and too-dirty-to wear or missing suits. Bravo, moms!

Being a girl was not so easy back then or even now, but it is worlds easier and more fashionable, to boot, these days.

Ponder this, for instance: Let’s face a scary fact. Back then, the 1950s, and even through much of the 1970s, girls weren’t allowed to wear pants to school. Yes, it’s true. Evidently, that rule, no matter the not-so-skirt appropriate activity, was not to be broken.

Game on! Tell us your gym suit horror story.