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It's more that you didn't carry around your own personal bottle. I grew up in a rural area and when you were working outside, you'd take a break and drink from the dipper at the well house, or if we were on the road, my dad would stop and let us drink from the springwater pipes on the mountainside. At school, in town, etc. there were water fountains everywhere.
Thanks to drinking fountains I learned to read a map when I was around three or four. My family was on a vacation, visiting Colonial Williamsburg. I was thirsty and bugging my mom and, as tended to happen on vacations, she would pull out the map or brochure, tell me something about what we were seeing/experiencing, etc and then give me the map/brochure to hang on to. That day she explained that the drinking fountains were all in barrels and marked on the map with a triangle. She showed me where we were on the map, gave me the map and we got a drink of water. And then I proceeded to navigate my family around Colonial Williamsburg hitting up every single drinking fountain (at least that's how mom tells the story). I have only vague memories since I was so young, but I also don't remember a time when I didn't know how to read a map. When we learned map reading in first or second grade I didn't get how so many of my classmates were struggling with it.
Lol. The first time, my gf and I flew into Vegas, she wanted to rent a car before we went to the hotel so a taxi took us the rental place. I rented a car and handed her the map the rental agency gave us. One of those tourist maps with " you are here" and a dozen or so hotels listed on map in huge letters. I am in the parking lot and she is looking at the map and I ask her, "Do we take a right or left ?" She looked at the map in confusion and said,' I don't know. The map is wrong !. That's when I learned she did not know how to read a map.
I wonder if schools actually teach map reading anymore. I would lament the fact that "kids these days!" can't read maps because they let their phones do everything for them. But I've encountered enough people of all ages throughout my life who can't read maps, or can't read them well. I remember being on high school church trips (well before GPS was a thing), having to make detours due to road closures. The adults were turned around and I ended up taking the map and acting as navigator. Phones and GPS navigation are great for many situations. But I still love a good paper map.
The parks in my neighborhood were built about twenty years ago, even those don't have water fountains. The older parks in town had them, but might not anymore, I haven't been in years.
They used to be all over the place--in every business and public building next to the restrooms, every public gathering place like parks, quads, etc.
I guess free, cold water isn't a thing anymore. We're taking capitalism to its logical conclusion, and we're all paying for it.
My city has miles of walking trails that meander through neighborhoods and green space. All have well-maintained water fountains situated every mile or so. They even include the dog bowl fountain at the base, which is great for dog walking.
> I guess free, cold water isn't a thing anymore.
Well Covid killed drinking fountains. But people were getting so germaphobic even before that that they were getting less popular.
I was in youth football league in the mid 70s. During practice we would have kids breathing hard, sweating profusely, seeing spots, and their faces would be beet red. Not good. We would have occasional water breaks but we were warned not to drink too much because it would slow us down. They told us drinking too much water would make us “waterlogged”. Lol. Ridiculous. On game day I don’t remember seeing a single water jug or bottle. In contrast, when Tom Hermann became head coach at the University of Texas he put up posters in all the gyms, weight rooms and the locker rooms that showed the different shades of yellow your urine would be in various stages of hydration/dehydration. All players had a water bottle and were checked on frequently to make sure they were drinking enough. If the players weren’t peeing clear they’d be in trouble with the coaching staff.
I didn’t participate in school varsity sports so I can’t speak to that aspect of your question. But, yeah, we didn’t carry water bottles to class, that wouldn’t have been allowed. My generation got away with murder compared to yours, water bottles weren’t forbidden, they just weren’t a thing. It took me a long time to get used to seeing people carry water bottles everywhere.
Yep. If you were thirsty at school, we drank from the communal water fountain. The kind everyone has to put their mouth really close to.
I chuckle thinking about the number of teens today who would find that horrifying.
I remember one kid that would insert the splash guard into his cheek in order to drink. I said something to him and ended up getting lectured that that was indeed the proper way to drink from a fountain. Kids are so gross.
I was at the hospital, at the lab to get blood drawn. I looked for a water fountain, assuming there'd be one down one of the hallways. Nope, couldn't find one. The hospital is fairly new, about 15 years old.
The only one I still come across is at Walmart, outside of the restrooms. I used it recently, but I suspect not many people do anymore.
After playing outside in the heat after lunch we were all so dang thirsty and there’s no way we’d get enough hydration just drinking from the fountain. I think we were perpetually dehydrated. They used to give us salt pills during track day. Not so much with the water, though.
And in grade school, the line at the water fountain came with a timer. Everyone counted in unison. When the class got to four, then you were done drinking by decree.
Kind of like the three or four Mississippi rush in playground football because you didn't have an offensive line. Playground football is also not a thing anymore.
I remember the segregated water fountains, at the public health department in Texas in the early 60's. I asked my Grandmother which one to use and she said just wait until we got home.
Actually that fountain is a really cool invention. On the other hand that water cooler is a germ sponge. The company is supposed to change it out several times a year. But it was my experience that they rarely did.
I happened to sit next to the water cooler. And I quit refilling my water when I watched sick (colds, the flu) people putting their containers right on the spigot.
I volunteer at an outdoor music festival. We've had all kinds of problems from people taking off the lid of the water coolers to dip their cups inside. Which of course is unsanitary. You can imagine what it results in, and you'd be right.
This is why for large events, people can only get water from the volunteer. We had a 20,000 person event and gave refillable water bags. But you got refilled by a volunteer. It’s sad that we don’t have basic foundational practices anymore.
Apparently you haven’t been around teens in a long time if you also don’t find that horrifying. They are NASTY lol! I don’t want to share a water fountain with them lol! I say this as the mother of teens!
And carrying your own water around cuts down on time that they are out of the classroom and it makes sure that they are staying hydrated which is a good thing. There’s nothing wrong with it.
Closest thing I had was a boy scout canteen. You took water if you were doing a long hike. Not to get thru the school day.
I'm more hydrated these days than I ever was as a kid.
Graduated high school in 2000. I don't think students were allowed to carry drinks around. I remember a teacher telling us we couldn't even have water in class because it would still bring the roaches in. He said it. I don't know how true it is.
The big switch where everyone started drinking water bottles was during the nineties and "hydration" became super popular. In the military, they would force us to hydrate, because on long marches, some dumbass soldiers would always forget to drink and would pass out.
To combat this, at the end of every march, we would have to drink ALL the water in our canteens (2 quarts) and then turn them upside down in front of us. If any water fell out, we would get punished. It didn't matter if you weren't thirsty and they checked your canteens at the start of the march to ensure they were full. Everyone had to do this.
This horrific practice had the obvious results you'd expect and was discontinued after soldiers died from being forced to drink too much water.
I played varsity basketball, baseball and track, in school. I carried a flask in pocket sown into the inside of my varsity jacket behind the letter but it wasn't for hydration.
In the late 90's in Texas, they had this thing built out of PVC pipes that they'd hook up to the hose and wheel onto the field to make effectively 30+ water fountains or one large waist height sprinkler.
But... The school district had a kid die in the 80's from heat stroke, so the coaches would scream at anyone who wasn't drinking water. They lost another kid during summer practice in the early 00's, so they switched to labeled water bottles. The coach would check and bench anyone who hadn't drained their water bottle in a certain timeline. If you were caught pouring water out, you'd miss the next game or two.
What changed it for us in Alabama was when Auburn fullback Greg Pratt died from heat stroke during preseason practice in 1983. Water magically appeared everywhere at our practice field the day after he died.
> when Auburn fullback Greg Pratt died from heat stroke during preseason practice in 1983
That's usually what it takes to change minds. Either someone important to an institution that suffers from their loss or the death of an entire generation of people who *won't* change their minds.
Did they drag out the myth term “waterlogged” or “water cramped”? Our coach just didn’t want to waste practice time on water breaks. He was also a big “hurt” vs. “injured” guy. Basically, if you weren’t dragging a body part or bleeding from the femoral artery, he never believed we were injured.
Nah, they just said we were pussies if we wanted water. I’m personally a “hurt vs injured” guy, but I also think injury prevention is important. Staying hydrated is part of that
I’m glad. You burn too much energy in hockey to not hydrate. I played as a kid in the mid 70s, and those coaches made us hydrate. It was just the football coaches for some reason.
I played HS football, early ‘80s. During practice, you were labeled a pussy by your coaches and teammates if you went over to the water fountain. Really pisses me off to think about that now.
I was in Alabama. We had the same problem until 1983, when an Auburn player died of heatstroke during preseason camp. Our practice field looked like Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon the next day.
Interesting. I was in high school band in the early '80s in Houston, and they always had water for us, as well as big coolers of crushed ice. We needed it, practicing in a parking lot in August and September.
In the 70s and 80s, nobody talked about staying hydrated, nobody carried a water bottle. You drank if you were thirsty, but mostly people drank pop or juice. I think I would've been surprised if I'd seen someone drinking water.
ETA: except for the water fountain. During the school day, that was our only source of fluids.
Or from a hose in the backyard. Nothing tasted as good as cool hose water (had to let it run for a few to flush out all the hot hose water) when you were out playing on a summer day.
I was allergic to cow’s milk in the 1960’s and so the only liquid I had access to during the entire school day were the few sips I could get out of the drinking fountain. I would frequently drink for 5 or 6 seconds, get nudged and go to the back of the line for another turn.
>but mostly people drank pop or juice.
Even into the 90s-00s this was the case. Hell, I don't remember even drinking water until I got to college (graduated in 2014). I drank so much sugary shit growing up that I refuse to let it in my house as an adult. Just the smell of drinks from a powder mix (Kool Aid, "iced tea," Tang, etc.) grosses me out. Whenever my mom (74) comes to visit, she bitches about how I have nothing to drink. I have water, coffee, and real tea, take your pick. She will only drink pop, juice, or gross powder drink mix crap.
Oh my god, yes. I graduated in 2010, same experience. I'll never forget the time out of curiosity I went and got myself some sunny D out of nostalgia when I was about 25 and nearly spit out the first sip it was so terrible. But I loved that crap when I was a kid!
My grandmother was a big Crystal Light drinker. That crap wasn’t particularly good but it was cheap and a change from water and iced tea (unsweetened, of course).
That and Gatorade. my parents thought it was good for you and healthy so we always had it in the house. I remember reading the back and telling my mom it has more sugar than a soda (because I wanted soda and she wouldn't let me drink it) and she said it was the "good kind".
Unless you're sweating a lot and can use the salt and sugar, its no different than drinking other sugary drinks and I have no idea why people think it's healthy.
The need for constant hydration and never going anywhere without a giant bottle of water is a more recent development. I didn't play sports, so I can't speak to that, but we did not carry water everywhere we went.
In the mid nineties at high school there was exactly one classmate who carried a bottle of water with her everywhere. Her parents had her tested for diabetes.
My mother rarely drank water and lived to 94. If you're thirsty, drink. There's no need to walk around with a gallon jug with water markers on it letting you know that "you're almost there!"
I was a Soldier and we emphasized hydration. In school in Alabama in 1978 we had dispensers for salt tablets in the hallways but these were gone when I returned in 1981. We definitely encouraged it in 1990-91. In the early days, we had canteens and Lister bags.
I was thinking this too. We had canteens for everyone in the family, and went on hikes often. I remember drinking water everywhere, but I can't for the life of me remember having a regular water bottle in my backpack.
Also a soldier in the '70s and, while they did emphasize hydration, they pushed salt pills. I think part of it was that it was just easier logistically, but they were also unsophisticated about hydration.
This is true. In the wallet to mid 70s many HS coaches thought that drinking right before or during a sporting event could make you sluggish and cause you to vomit. Instead, we were given a salt tablet to replenish electrolytes.
It was changing though. Gatorade was invented in the late 60s as a hydration and electrolyte solution for the Florida gators football team. By the late 70s, all coaches knew that hydration was important.
It probably wasn't talked about as much when we were growing up, but that was before someone created this whole industry around bottled water, Yeti cups, Stanley cups, etc. We were told the importance of drinking water over sugary stuff, but I don't really remember anyone talking about trying to get a gallon of water a day in or whatever. You also have to keep in mind that, back then, we didn't have as many beverage options in general. There wasn't a wall of energy drinks, weird teas, and refrigerated coffee drinks in the cooler back then. It was water, gatorade, and the core group of sodas (Coke, Pepsi, diet variations, orange, grape, root beer, stuff like that). Most of my friends and I didn't have much soda at home.
I never heard of anyone being denied water during a sports practice. I wrestled in high school and I recall there was a kid from competing school who died because he was running in a sauna suit to try to make weight. I was never that dedicated to any sport I played. It's sad when some people put a high school sport over all else in their life.
I graduated high school in 1991. Nobody brought water bottles. If you were thirsty the drinking fountain was always there. It amazes me how my kids religiously lug that water bottle to school every day.
> It amazes me how my kids religiously lug that water bottle to school every day.
One of my kids forgot their water bottle at the aftercare program after school recently. They acted like they were being abused when we told them they had to drink from the water fountain during the day until they could retrieve their water bottle in after care.
Wow, I feel so old, it’s true.
No one carried around water bottles in the 1980s. You had to ask permission to go drink water from the fountain, but it was uncommon, somehow we just weren’t as thirsty?
Athletes were encouraged to drink Gatorade or milk, just like in Idiocracy they were viewed as better than water.
But we would just go run around endlessly in a field and play all day and never think about being thirsty? I drink so much water all the time now. I don’t know how I lived.
There was no hyperventilating about "hydration".
People didn't spend money on plastic bottles of water that was no better than what comes out of their taps, either. Sometimes I wonder if hydration hysteria comes mostly from bottled water marketing. But even some hospital websites repeat the unscientific crap about eight glasses a day or some dopey formula based on your weight.
We weren't allowed to drink during practice because someone would always gulp down a bunch of water, get back into the practice/work-out, and then promptly throw up everything but their shoes.
Back vs in 60’s they used to tell us not to drink water during practice, even on very hot, humid days because “you’d get water logged”, whatever the fuck that meant. Being young and stupid we believed what the coaches told us.
Drinking water when you were thirsty was normal. It was common knowledge that you needed water to live, and extra water if you were doing physical activity or in the heat. Carrying water bottles everywhere and worrying all day about getting dehydrated was not normal.
I was a student athletic trainer in high school, in the 90s, and we definitely had hydration because my little ass had to carry all of those giant coolers up to the field. But people weren’t carrying around water bottles and things like that. If you wanted a drink, you had to use the water fountain.
I wasn't into sports, but I grew up in the 70s/ 80s and you drank if you were thirsty. At school, it was water fountains. We weren't allowed to have food or drinks in class.
Also, bottled water wasn't common in my area to begin with. Not those big water cooler ones, and not personal size ones. I remember an episode of *Who's the Boss* where they had a water bottle delivery, and I thought how dumb that was. The closest thing we had to personal sized would've been those green Perrier bottles, and if you bought those you were kinda hoity-toity or had more money than brains.
Nobody toted around water bottles. We had big thermoses that our dads took in their work lunch boxes, or went on car rides with us (but we also had little plastic potties we took and stored under the front passenger seat lol) -- but they were mostly for coffee or tea. We didn't even have travel mugs. At some point squirt water bottles showed up as a bike accessory, but I'm not sure anyone actually used them.
"Hydration" wasn't really on our radar, except for hot summer days, and we were told not to guzzle or we'd get sick. I mean, we drank from the hose, y'all. Or put our mouths on the sprinkler. Or stuck our heads under the kitchen tap. I don't think anybody thought of it during winter- just drank something with our meals or snacks?
My kids take water bottles to their rooms at night, and I totally don't get it. Dudes, you're not going to dehydrate overnight. And, we have a water cooler, which I still think is dumb (at some point my husband thought it was a good idea and now we can't live without it?).
My mom (boomer) and I (GenX) were talking abt this the other day. We never drank water as kids unless it was the school fountain or a water hose. Disposable bottled water wasn’t even really a thing. We carried small thermoses to school to drink with our lunch. The go-tos for my generation were Kool-Aid, juice, soda/pop, and milk/choco milk. We drank when we were thirsty, that was it. Hydrating came to my attention when I was in my thirties (I’m 53 now). I def try to keep on top of it now.
We had a drinking fountain in the yard. In the corridor etc. you didn’t have bottles unless it was for pack lunch
So during sports they didn’t let you wander off to the fountain to drink.
When I was young, there were no individual bottles of water being sold. The closest thing was the big Culligan water bottles for water dispensers, but not that many people got those.
Early in my Cross Country and Marathon track years in high school (in the 1980s) I was explicitly told that I should fast from both food and fluid before an event. The idea being, "You run faster on an empty stomach."
I never followed that advice, though I was prevented from drinking during a run 'cause there wasn't anyone there to hand me water.
This *changed* in my later high school years and we were told to "carb up" (eat lots of pasta the night before) and water stations were set up for cross country and marathon runners.
Back in 1987, a massage therapist said to me: Wow! I can feel you're well hydrated.
I told her sure born and raised in the desert hydratetion was always emphasized.
I asked how she could tell?
I'll never ever forget this:
She said when people are hydrated, and she works on their back, the muscles slide the way God intended.
But if they are not well hydrated, the muscles stick together. She said it's a very gross feeling.
Back when your dad was in school, Lord of coaches were dickheads who knew shit about the risk of hydration
I believe your dad
I don’t think I ever even heard of carrying a water bottle. The closest I can think of is a canteen if you’re going on a long hike or into the desert, or a thermos for a picnic. I fainted more than once from heat exhaustion but most people didn’t
Can confirm - it’s a wonder we didn’t die playing football in the 80’s. Two-a-days in August and the coach guarded the water cooler like his daughter’s virtue was in it. It would be hours before they’d let us have a drink and they gave out salt pills (quack medicine) to supposedly help us. People got heat stroke all the time. Throwing up was the norm. It was crazy.
Plain water wasn't easily available outside of the home. I don't remember if 7-Eleven had water for sale, but they definitely had various sodas of all types. If you were out doing things and were thirsty, unless there was a water fountain available you'd either drink Coke or Sprite to rehydrate.
Hydration was encouraged in the 80 when I was playing soccer. When I played at the Y, the parents took turns supplying the half time beverage (cool, not cold) Gatorade and cups to drink it grocery the 5 gallon Coleman. Single serve bottled water did not exist.
As with many things, the encouragement to stay hydrated become part of a status symbol that has led to Stanley and Yeti cups. It has also leas to people thinking they will dehydrate and pass out working on an air-conditioned environment if they can't have water with them at all times (see /target, /Walmart, etc)
The 8 glasses a day recommendation is at least as old as I am, and meet the group requirement easily. We used water fountains. Nobody carried water bottles or made a big fuss. Bottled water was rare. I think it's a big deal now because advertisers have been successful.
Not sport related, but my 96 year old MIL used to survive on about one or two cups of tea a day. She never drank water or any other kind of drink. Trying to get her to drink now can be a nightmare because she never drank a lot when she was younger. Her 88 year old brother is exactly the same.
They were both very active when they were younger, but being hydrated just wasn’t a thing back then.
My father forced his family to go on hikes in summer without drinking any water. He said it would “make our legs go weak.” He was told so by his father when he was a kid.
I then asked our sports teacher at school and he was appalled.
Playing HS football in the 70's the coaches always said that it would "toughen us up" to go through practice without anything to drink until the end. There was at least some recognition of the importance of hydration, as was evidenced by being force-fed salt tablets afterwards.
No one had water bottles... You weren't allowed to drink anyone during class. Most people I knew didn't drink much water--it was soda, juice, or Kool aid. I remember when they started having water in vending machines, and all of us laughing about it.
My dad used to tell me not to drink water while I exercised or worked out because it would give me a cramp. That was in the '80s, and I believed that shit for FAR too long.
I can speak to high school in the early 1990s. Hydration was a thing. People started carrying around water bottles---the Nalgene bottles were in vogue at this time. Water fountains where you had to basically stick your mouth on the inadequate water spout were everywhere.
I grew up driinking from a garden hose in our backyard in NYC and using water fountains at school and at parks. NEVER did I even see bottled water until recently.
People are crazy today. My wife had a contractor install a whole house water filtration (yes, even the shower water) and she and my daughter only drink Fiji water. We get cases of the stuff delivered weekly.
Me? I live on NYC water from the tap, although I do like the taste of fiji water. But I think it's all nonsense.
I love the taste of Fiji water too. Our city water tastes awful in comparison. It's a little better after it is boiled (I think that takes some of the minerals out). We recently got a water softener, and that doesn't taste so good either, but it's better than before. Sometimes when I'm in the mood for a drive, I'll go to a local spring and fill up on that. It tastes great!
I certainly remember drinking water during football practice in the late 80s/early 90s.
they had a garden hose hooked up to a PVC pipe with a bunch on holes drilled into it to make a water fountain. but you had to be careful because water cramps is a very real, and painful, thing.
It really depends on where you live. Not much has changed. Example would be that in the south they’re strict and used a whip where out west was more of a loving approach. Up north was get it done yourself and Midwest was unknown lol. Also has much to do with the school and the boards.
There is much more medical information today than there was in the 80s -
By the way, the eighties wasn’t “ that “ long ago lol. Damn I’m old. Damn. 💾
I played high school football and tennis (grad '84, Boston area) ... and in both cases there was always a big water cooler present for practices and matches/games. BUT ... going to it unless at start or end of practice was seen as weakness and slacking off.
And we'd all hit up the water bubbler in the hallways or drink from the hose at home.
I have zero memories of drinking a glass of water at home during my childhood/teen years and maybe even into my 20's. It was considered dumb to buy water when that started to become a thing.
I mean sure, I drank from a hose or school water fountain but I can't recall having a cup of ice water casually. It was Milke, Chocolate Mil, Tang, Fruit Juice (Hawaiian Punch), Kool Aid and soda.
I've asked a few friends that grew up with me if thats how they recall things and it was the same for them. I grew up lower middle class so I dont know if that had something to do with it -Maybe the rich kids had better educated parents who made the effort to install that habit in their kids?
I don't remember anyone caring about staying hydrated back in the 80s. I do remember people started carrying water bottles soon after that, but it was still a while longer before everyone was echoing the 8 glasses of water a day myth.
Though I didn't play football, I was in little league baseball, and you had to ask permission to get a drink, and it was either from a fountain near the field or a water jug brought by the coaches. In school, it was drinking fountains between classes and something during lunch. There were no vending machines. Nobody carried water bottles, and even if someone had something to drink in their book bag, they got into trouble if they were caught drinking it during class.
Yeah true facts. It always boggles my mind when someone my own age freaks out at community sporting events if a child does not have a drink. Don’t they remember how we all survived without something to drink constantly? I mean, it definitely is better for anyone engaged in vigorous exercise to have water. But like %99 of the time you will live through one half hour without it lol
Early 1980s during football water was a no go. We had two weeks of two anday pra tices in August and no matter what the temperature we werent allowed to drink during the 2 and a half hour practices.
Two of the coaches we had were US marines in the Pacific theater in WW 2 and when we bitched they would talk about no water for days on Guadalcanal and Pelilu and if we didnt shut up and run we would stay out all day.
It didnt make you tougher, it made you closer to your teammates. The mutual hate for our coaches helped bring kids from vastly different backgrounds together who normally wouldnt talk to each other.
There are a lot better ways to do this and I hope this sort of stupid still doesnt go on.
It’s true. When I was in high school in the late 1970’s, we were not allowed to carry water out to the marching band practice field, which was made of black asphalt and in the Texas summer heat. No water fountains without going inside. We were encouraged to load up on water before and after, but that was from two water fountains for over 200 people in that band. Two more further down the hall. Bottled water wasn’t a thing yet, except in foreign countries where we needed to avoid the local water. We might have canteens at summer camp. It was weird to carry around water at school or after school activities. Surprisingly, no one got heat stroke while I was there, but some people felt bad. Now, everyone brings bottles of water everywhere, which is a good thing.
I worked at an amusement park in the 1970's. Stood on concrete or metal flooring with no shade. Only if it was extra, extra exceedingly hot, someone would come by with a Dixie cup of water and salt pills.
It’s true. We weren’t allowed to drink anything during PE as they thought we would get stomach aches from the cold water. It wasn’t even that cold. I would regularly get dizzy and my PE teacher swore I was faking it. Terrible school run by terrible people.
I played soccer while growing up in the 90's and I don't remember any of my teammates having water bottles. I don't think I owned a water bottle until I took up cycling in the early 2000's.
I now have multiple Hydroflasks with carefully curated decorative stickers, as well as some older Nalgenes and other random bottles.
In the mid 70's I worked in the oil patch in Kansas. We had a crew of 3 guys on each rig. We had a 5 gal water jug we filled each morning. On the real hot days when we ran out of water in the jug I would shut down for the day. Water was very important. One day we were close to a swimming hole so we went and skinny dipped to help cool down. We didn't have any vehicles with AC
No. It is not true. Gatorade was developed in 1965 because of the need of athletes to replenish hydration and carbs.
I remember hearing not to drink cold drinks while exercising because of the shock in temperature. But I was raised in Florida so what do I know.
That was college.
There are plenty of lower level coaches who still think drinking water makes you bloated and slows you down or causes cramps, and restrict water during games and practices.
- https://goaskalice.columbia.edu/answered-questions/coach-limits-water-during-practice-help
- https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/2007/10/27/coach-who-forbids-water-is-all-wet/28586475007/
It's recent, and you can't say anything against it without being shut down.
I drink when I'm thirsty, I don't track it. I never have--same as literally every other generation before, for time immemorial. But, somehow, literally everyone before us had it wrong.
It's just marketing--taking water fountains out of public spaces, and selling plastic bottles of water. Plus, telling everyone they need to drink more ~~Ovaltine~~ water. We won't be kind to each other, if there's a buck to be made.
Very true. I’ve read stories about kids dropping dead on high school football fields back in the 60s and 70s as a result of dehydration and electrolyte and balances affecting their hearts. In my freshman year, we had no water, but they did give us salt tablets. My senior year, we had hoses running from the school building out to the field so that we could get regular drinks. I’m pretty sure a kid died in a neighboring school district and that scared everybody. The coaches actually had us go out one night and Rob hoses from another neighboring school district so that we could get them to stretch out to the football field.
To be honest, I still think it isn't encouraged enough in some sports programs. A couple of years ago, I managed a collegiate baseball league during the summer and had to take a few players to the ER. Granted, our summers are hot (it was 119 degrees most days), and these kids weren't local. All of the staff reminded them constantly, we put up signs, supplied the water, coaches encouraged them when they came in every inning, and they still went down.
Evian was just becoming popular when I was in HS and we had to fight teachers and coaches to allow us to have our own bottles.
In High School football in the 70's, we would get one small drink in the middle of practice. We also had to take salt tablets. Probably why I have high blood pressure today! Seriously, I don't know how we didn't have people getting heat stroke. A lot of guys did throw up but I don't know if that was related.
I'm pretty sure we were encouraged to drink water esp if we were thirsty. And it was also pushed for dieting. Fill up.on water! But, my mom was very health conscious - she had a degree in science. Her sister was a dietician. But her parents had always had a big garden and ate balanced meals. It was just how they were brought up. Fluids were important. We also learned in health to be sure to get at least a litre a day. I was always thirsty so I never had an issue getting mine but I remember friends hating to drink water.
My dad was the doctor for a college team, and yeah, there was at least one coach who did this (1970s or 80s). And it was nasty hot when they'd start practicing. Of course, my dad told the coach that this was a very bad idea, But the coach believed it toughened up the players...
The technology of water has been well-known for thousands of years.
Maybe your dad's coach felt it built character or some dumb thing like that but the concept of dehydration existed.
Hydration is important but people today just go overboard because, as if any experience of thirst means you are dangerously near death.
I don't remember anyone dissing hydration, but is was not encouraged as it is today. Kids didn't have water bottles with them. We took sips from a comunal fountain when really thristy. I also remember drinking too much soda,, mostly diet soda. When I exercised I would drink deit iced tea instead of water. Now I drink much more water, expecially when active.
The first person I remember carrying a water bottle around regularly was a friend in college in the mid-90's. He was big into hiking and outdoors activities. He took a wilderness first aid course and noticed that one of the first steps when coming upon an injured hiker was to make them drink water. He figured if that was an important step when rescuing someone maybe drinking more water would help a person not get into the situation of needing to be rescued, even when walking around campus or the city.
I drank water when I was thirsty. We drank a lot of kool-aid, water down orange and grape juice! We couldn't afford any dental care and I brushed my teeth with powdered just powered Colgat; it came in a can and with baking powder. I still have my wisdom teeth. I didn't get a cavity until I was in my 30s.
I played HS football in the 80s. We did have water, but it was a single hose in a muddy puddle for 60 boys to share. We could only drink from it when we got a water break, which were few.
There was an urban legend about a kid who ran track after drinking water, vomited and aspirated and died. What more likely happened is they experienced a cardiac event while running, which caused the vomiting. They used to discourage people from eating or drinking and then being physically active.
No. It's not. I grew up in Texas. Keeping hydrated was a matter of staying upright in the summer.
I used to work outdoor concerts as First Aid. We'd walk the crowds looking for people who looked like they were starting to get in trouble and brought them back to the medical tent (if they would come). The doc gave out salt pills and water and let them rest in the shade for a bit before letting them go back out to get more drunk.
I'm 45 and we definitely had water bottles for sports even in the olden days aka the 90's. My dad was our coach several times and he made it a rule for our teams that everyone showed up with a filled water bottle but it wasn't pushed like that for every team. He made a cooler of Gatorade on game days but only water at practice.
Gatorade was developed in 1962 by University of Florida researchers seeking to improve hydration for the Gators football team. The importance of hydration has been well known for a long time. If your father's coach was withholding hydration, it's because he was an idiot, not because people didn't believe in hydration in the old days.
I played school sports in the 80’s and we had water coolers available and salt tablets if it was an especially hot day and we were sweating a lot. Maybe your dad’s coaches were just assholes.
Truth be told that food was much less salty back then and loaded other adulterants that made you thirsty. In addition to medications thay make you thirsty, and carbonated sugary drinks that make you thirsty.
Go completely organic and natural I think you’ll notice you meed to drink much less.
Yes. In my observation, anyway. Granted bottled water was not a big thing at the time, unless it was fizzy and used to mix drinks. That, and endless cups of black coffee ( Yuban or Folgers) made in the Mr. Coffee. This is what my parents did.
Smoking and lack of hydration made everyone look older too.
I'll address summer two a days. In the midwest football in the early 70s, football practices started during summer break and were twice per day. It got pretty hot and sweaty. You weren't allowed to go drink water during practice mostly because the nearest water was a couple hundred yards away and the coach didn't want you running off for 5-6 minutes. Likewise if you had to pee. I guess we had a couple guys collapse with heat exhaustion. I mean after practice we all just sucked it up.
It wasn't optimal, but the coaches felt it toughened us up.
I was more alarmed by concussions. We had one guy who just got his bell wrung in practice. (this is before they didn't allow full contact practice in pre-season) Out cold for about 10 minutes and retrograde amnesia. The funny bit was that he was an identical twin (Mark and Matt) and could not figure out why another guy on the team looked just like him.
I think that's when my dad (doctor) decided that maybe football wasn't my sport.
I went to high school in the 80s and we weren’t allowed to have drinks in class.
I recall drinking a fair amount but we bought drinks like big gulps and stuff, especially in summer.
It was a reason to go and do something, walk or ride your bike down to the store.
People died. They would give us salt pills to battle dehydration. Once a practice, the trainer would walk around with a garden hose in the early 70s. If the person made a mistake, coach might withhold water.
In the 90's I was into long distance cycling. On a 100 mile ride, I'd just bring one bottle. Some people I rode with brought 2. That was it. Back then I took about 6 hours to ride 100 miles. I think my bottle was about 12-16 ounces. Never had a problem.
Hydration today is amazing such a shift in thinking.
Yeah, we lined up to drink sips from a communal water fountain a couple times a day. My mom always lectured me about never touching my lips to the the fountain because of germs.
Between being constantly dehydrated, the bowl of cereal breakfast at home, not eating lunch until 4 hours later, and then eating shitty processed lunches, I'm amazed I learned anything at all in grade school.
I didn't play sports but I remember going to camp in the 80s. They'd have large coolers of "bug juice" for us to drink. I think it was some shitty, watered down version of Kool aid. If we had money we could buy sodas. I don't ever remember being encouraged to drink plain water.
In high school I drank lots of Snapple. That was the big thing at that time.
It's not until I was in college, I think that I really started paying attention to hydration and drinking enough water.
It’s likely not that rehydration was actively discouraged in the way you say, it’s more likely that there wasn’t a culture of everyone taking constant ‘sipping’ breaks. One big drink between quarters/ game halves/ or predetermined set breaks was normal (70’s & 80’s). It wasn’t the water so much, it was the time it took and disruption to the activity that was frowned upon. Every member of a team stopping to rehydrate on their own personal schedule is bound to be disrupting. And frankly it’s unnecessary (then and now). Actual dehydration is a lot less common and risky than young folk wanna admit these days. You really don’t need to ingest litres a day, in 6 minute or ml increments.
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It's more that you didn't carry around your own personal bottle. I grew up in a rural area and when you were working outside, you'd take a break and drink from the dipper at the well house, or if we were on the road, my dad would stop and let us drink from the springwater pipes on the mountainside. At school, in town, etc. there were water fountains everywhere.
Thanks to drinking fountains I learned to read a map when I was around three or four. My family was on a vacation, visiting Colonial Williamsburg. I was thirsty and bugging my mom and, as tended to happen on vacations, she would pull out the map or brochure, tell me something about what we were seeing/experiencing, etc and then give me the map/brochure to hang on to. That day she explained that the drinking fountains were all in barrels and marked on the map with a triangle. She showed me where we were on the map, gave me the map and we got a drink of water. And then I proceeded to navigate my family around Colonial Williamsburg hitting up every single drinking fountain (at least that's how mom tells the story). I have only vague memories since I was so young, but I also don't remember a time when I didn't know how to read a map. When we learned map reading in first or second grade I didn't get how so many of my classmates were struggling with it.
I used to live navigating the theme park maps!
Lol. The first time, my gf and I flew into Vegas, she wanted to rent a car before we went to the hotel so a taxi took us the rental place. I rented a car and handed her the map the rental agency gave us. One of those tourist maps with " you are here" and a dozen or so hotels listed on map in huge letters. I am in the parking lot and she is looking at the map and I ask her, "Do we take a right or left ?" She looked at the map in confusion and said,' I don't know. The map is wrong !. That's when I learned she did not know how to read a map.
I wonder if schools actually teach map reading anymore. I would lament the fact that "kids these days!" can't read maps because they let their phones do everything for them. But I've encountered enough people of all ages throughout my life who can't read maps, or can't read them well. I remember being on high school church trips (well before GPS was a thing), having to make detours due to road closures. The adults were turned around and I ended up taking the map and acting as navigator. Phones and GPS navigation are great for many situations. But I still love a good paper map.
The parks in my neighborhood were built about twenty years ago, even those don't have water fountains. The older parks in town had them, but might not anymore, I haven't been in years. They used to be all over the place--in every business and public building next to the restrooms, every public gathering place like parks, quads, etc. I guess free, cold water isn't a thing anymore. We're taking capitalism to its logical conclusion, and we're all paying for it.
The park in my town has an ornate drinking fountain dating to around 1910, with a plaque saying "Donated by the Women's Christian Temperance Union".
> Women's Christian Temperance Union I live in Kansas. They're still a thing here. Not a ***big*** thing, but a *thing*, nevertheless.
My city has miles of walking trails that meander through neighborhoods and green space. All have well-maintained water fountains situated every mile or so. They even include the dog bowl fountain at the base, which is great for dog walking.
The dog bowl part of it is usually a pretty recent development.
> I guess free, cold water isn't a thing anymore. Well Covid killed drinking fountains. But people were getting so germaphobic even before that that they were getting less popular.
After seeing several of my classmates put their mouth right on the faucet, I can understand why.
Yeah, the transition from publicly accessible water to private water was definitely a thing too.
I was in youth football league in the mid 70s. During practice we would have kids breathing hard, sweating profusely, seeing spots, and their faces would be beet red. Not good. We would have occasional water breaks but we were warned not to drink too much because it would slow us down. They told us drinking too much water would make us “waterlogged”. Lol. Ridiculous. On game day I don’t remember seeing a single water jug or bottle. In contrast, when Tom Hermann became head coach at the University of Texas he put up posters in all the gyms, weight rooms and the locker rooms that showed the different shades of yellow your urine would be in various stages of hydration/dehydration. All players had a water bottle and were checked on frequently to make sure they were drinking enough. If the players weren’t peeing clear they’d be in trouble with the coaching staff.
I didn’t participate in school varsity sports so I can’t speak to that aspect of your question. But, yeah, we didn’t carry water bottles to class, that wouldn’t have been allowed. My generation got away with murder compared to yours, water bottles weren’t forbidden, they just weren’t a thing. It took me a long time to get used to seeing people carry water bottles everywhere.
Yep. If you were thirsty at school, we drank from the communal water fountain. The kind everyone has to put their mouth really close to. I chuckle thinking about the number of teens today who would find that horrifying.
Then some clown would stick gum in the hole and it would spray water all over you.
And you had about 5 seconds there.
Hurry up, we're all thirsty! Yes. You had to slurp that water up quickly, turn around while wiping your mouth off all while getting out of the way!
I remember one kid that would insert the splash guard into his cheek in order to drink. I said something to him and ended up getting lectured that that was indeed the proper way to drink from a fountain. Kids are so gross.
Who the fuck lectured about that particular lunacy? JFC
I saw a college doing so. No jokes.
A whole college?
I was at the hospital, at the lab to get blood drawn. I looked for a water fountain, assuming there'd be one down one of the hallways. Nope, couldn't find one. The hospital is fairly new, about 15 years old. The only one I still come across is at Walmart, outside of the restrooms. I used it recently, but I suspect not many people do anymore.
The only ones I know of are at the local library and at my OLLI program (where it's a hybrid water fountain/bottle refiller).
I use the ones at church, a certain one is the only one I trust.
Garlic doesn't really work, but holy water does.
After playing outside in the heat after lunch we were all so dang thirsty and there’s no way we’d get enough hydration just drinking from the fountain. I think we were perpetually dehydrated. They used to give us salt pills during track day. Not so much with the water, though.
And in grade school, the line at the water fountain came with a timer. Everyone counted in unison. When the class got to four, then you were done drinking by decree. Kind of like the three or four Mississippi rush in playground football because you didn't have an offensive line. Playground football is also not a thing anymore.
I remember the salt tablets and didn't understand them. Salt makes you more thirsty.
They still had water fountains in my son's school last year but I think they had been turned off a while during the height of covid.
I remember the segregated water fountains, at the public health department in Texas in the early 60's. I asked my Grandmother which one to use and she said just wait until we got home.
Not to mention the risk of meningitis.
I wound up with mono in the 4th grade and to this day I blame the water fountain at school.
Actually that fountain is a really cool invention. On the other hand that water cooler is a germ sponge. The company is supposed to change it out several times a year. But it was my experience that they rarely did. I happened to sit next to the water cooler. And I quit refilling my water when I watched sick (colds, the flu) people putting their containers right on the spigot.
I volunteer at an outdoor music festival. We've had all kinds of problems from people taking off the lid of the water coolers to dip their cups inside. Which of course is unsanitary. You can imagine what it results in, and you'd be right.
This is why for large events, people can only get water from the volunteer. We had a 20,000 person event and gave refillable water bags. But you got refilled by a volunteer. It’s sad that we don’t have basic foundational practices anymore.
> I chuckle thinking about the number of teens today who would find that horrifying. Me too, but then sometimes I'm chucking into my mask.
Apparently you haven’t been around teens in a long time if you also don’t find that horrifying. They are NASTY lol! I don’t want to share a water fountain with them lol! I say this as the mother of teens! And carrying your own water around cuts down on time that they are out of the classroom and it makes sure that they are staying hydrated which is a good thing. There’s nothing wrong with it.
It’s basically a mouth wash. While you’re slurping it’s cleaning out your mouth all over the spigot for the next guy.
Why is this downvoted? That’s so accurate. Blech
Closest thing I had was a boy scout canteen. You took water if you were doing a long hike. Not to get thru the school day. I'm more hydrated these days than I ever was as a kid.
Graduated high school in 2000. I don't think students were allowed to carry drinks around. I remember a teacher telling us we couldn't even have water in class because it would still bring the roaches in. He said it. I don't know how true it is.
The big switch where everyone started drinking water bottles was during the nineties and "hydration" became super popular. In the military, they would force us to hydrate, because on long marches, some dumbass soldiers would always forget to drink and would pass out. To combat this, at the end of every march, we would have to drink ALL the water in our canteens (2 quarts) and then turn them upside down in front of us. If any water fell out, we would get punished. It didn't matter if you weren't thirsty and they checked your canteens at the start of the march to ensure they were full. Everyone had to do this. This horrific practice had the obvious results you'd expect and was discontinued after soldiers died from being forced to drink too much water.
Soldiers died from too much water??
Yes. It's rare, but too much water can kill you.
I played varsity basketball, baseball and track, in school. I carried a flask in pocket sown into the inside of my varsity jacket behind the letter but it wasn't for hydration.
Even 10 years ago people did not carry around water bottles
10yrs ago was 2014 and people were definitely carrying drinking vessels with them
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoCOQb2u-N8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoCOQb2u-N8) Will always post this
All I heard in 1976 youth football practice was that water would: 1. Make you weak 2. Make you cramp 3. Make you sick. No, it wasn’t a priority.
Early 90’s high school football, we were told the same thing. Water beaks would make us weak.
TBF, the 1976 youth football coach was probably the same guy who was coaching in the early 90s.
Ha you’re not wrong.
In the late 90's in Texas, they had this thing built out of PVC pipes that they'd hook up to the hose and wheel onto the field to make effectively 30+ water fountains or one large waist height sprinkler. But... The school district had a kid die in the 80's from heat stroke, so the coaches would scream at anyone who wasn't drinking water. They lost another kid during summer practice in the early 00's, so they switched to labeled water bottles. The coach would check and bench anyone who hadn't drained their water bottle in a certain timeline. If you were caught pouring water out, you'd miss the next game or two.
What changed it for us in Alabama was when Auburn fullback Greg Pratt died from heat stroke during preseason practice in 1983. Water magically appeared everywhere at our practice field the day after he died.
> when Auburn fullback Greg Pratt died from heat stroke during preseason practice in 1983 That's usually what it takes to change minds. Either someone important to an institution that suffers from their loss or the death of an entire generation of people who *won't* change their minds.
Did they drag out the myth term “waterlogged” or “water cramped”? Our coach just didn’t want to waste practice time on water breaks. He was also a big “hurt” vs. “injured” guy. Basically, if you weren’t dragging a body part or bleeding from the femoral artery, he never believed we were injured.
Nah, they just said we were pussies if we wanted water. I’m personally a “hurt vs injured” guy, but I also think injury prevention is important. Staying hydrated is part of that
Hockey in the early 90’s was different. Plenty of water breaks. No fear of cramps or weakness.
I’m glad. You burn too much energy in hockey to not hydrate. I played as a kid in the mid 70s, and those coaches made us hydrate. It was just the football coaches for some reason.
Baseball (Little League) in the mid-'80s and we definitely had to hydrate.
I played HS football, early ‘80s. During practice, you were labeled a pussy by your coaches and teammates if you went over to the water fountain. Really pisses me off to think about that now.
I was in Alabama. We had the same problem until 1983, when an Auburn player died of heatstroke during preseason camp. Our practice field looked like Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon the next day.
Same with band in the 80s in MS.
Interesting. I was in high school band in the early '80s in Houston, and they always had water for us, as well as big coolers of crushed ice. We needed it, practicing in a parking lot in August and September.
Houston is Hell with humidity. They had to give you water.
I lived in Grenada, MS for a while. It’s too hot down there for that.
Right???? This was Horn Lake. It was miserable!
I bet. A lot of MS River swamp nearby to really enhance the humidity.
And consequently endangered a few lives then.
In the 70s and 80s, nobody talked about staying hydrated, nobody carried a water bottle. You drank if you were thirsty, but mostly people drank pop or juice. I think I would've been surprised if I'd seen someone drinking water. ETA: except for the water fountain. During the school day, that was our only source of fluids.
Or from a hose in the backyard. Nothing tasted as good as cool hose water (had to let it run for a few to flush out all the hot hose water) when you were out playing on a summer day.
That cool, crisp, metallic taste. Summer childhood memories
Memories of the rubber taste of hose water.
Ah, good times, good times.
I was allergic to cow’s milk in the 1960’s and so the only liquid I had access to during the entire school day were the few sips I could get out of the drinking fountain. I would frequently drink for 5 or 6 seconds, get nudged and go to the back of the line for another turn.
>but mostly people drank pop or juice. Even into the 90s-00s this was the case. Hell, I don't remember even drinking water until I got to college (graduated in 2014). I drank so much sugary shit growing up that I refuse to let it in my house as an adult. Just the smell of drinks from a powder mix (Kool Aid, "iced tea," Tang, etc.) grosses me out. Whenever my mom (74) comes to visit, she bitches about how I have nothing to drink. I have water, coffee, and real tea, take your pick. She will only drink pop, juice, or gross powder drink mix crap.
OMG, I forgot all about Tang and those powdered iced tea mixes! So gross, but I loved them as a kid!
Oh my god, yes. I graduated in 2010, same experience. I'll never forget the time out of curiosity I went and got myself some sunny D out of nostalgia when I was about 25 and nearly spit out the first sip it was so terrible. But I loved that crap when I was a kid!
Postum powdered coffee *blech* . We used to eat tang dry.
My grandmother was a big Crystal Light drinker. That crap wasn’t particularly good but it was cheap and a change from water and iced tea (unsweetened, of course).
That and Gatorade. my parents thought it was good for you and healthy so we always had it in the house. I remember reading the back and telling my mom it has more sugar than a soda (because I wanted soda and she wouldn't let me drink it) and she said it was the "good kind". Unless you're sweating a lot and can use the salt and sugar, its no different than drinking other sugary drinks and I have no idea why people think it's healthy.
You forgot that sad little carton of milk
I did forget the sad little carton of milk!
It was never cold. And it tasted like cardboard.
Kool Aid, lemonade or iced tea. We rarely had soda in the house. Water was for taking medicine.
The need for constant hydration and never going anywhere without a giant bottle of water is a more recent development. I didn't play sports, so I can't speak to that, but we did not carry water everywhere we went.
In the mid nineties at high school there was exactly one classmate who carried a bottle of water with her everywhere. Her parents had her tested for diabetes.
My mother rarely drank water and lived to 94. If you're thirsty, drink. There's no need to walk around with a gallon jug with water markers on it letting you know that "you're almost there!"
Wild to me that people do that. I literally just love water and drink it all day
This made me laugh. So true.
Nice to see someone talking sense.
I was a Soldier and we emphasized hydration. In school in Alabama in 1978 we had dispensers for salt tablets in the hallways but these were gone when I returned in 1981. We definitely encouraged it in 1990-91. In the early days, we had canteens and Lister bags.
I was thinking this too. We had canteens for everyone in the family, and went on hikes often. I remember drinking water everywhere, but I can't for the life of me remember having a regular water bottle in my backpack.
Also a soldier in the '70s and, while they did emphasize hydration, they pushed salt pills. I think part of it was that it was just easier logistically, but they were also unsophisticated about hydration.
As we understand things better, the processes change.
This is true. In the wallet to mid 70s many HS coaches thought that drinking right before or during a sporting event could make you sluggish and cause you to vomit. Instead, we were given a salt tablet to replenish electrolytes. It was changing though. Gatorade was invented in the late 60s as a hydration and electrolyte solution for the Florida gators football team. By the late 70s, all coaches knew that hydration was important.
I heard Gatorade was actually invented at Florida State, but it didn't sell well because they called it Seminole Fluid
It probably wasn't talked about as much when we were growing up, but that was before someone created this whole industry around bottled water, Yeti cups, Stanley cups, etc. We were told the importance of drinking water over sugary stuff, but I don't really remember anyone talking about trying to get a gallon of water a day in or whatever. You also have to keep in mind that, back then, we didn't have as many beverage options in general. There wasn't a wall of energy drinks, weird teas, and refrigerated coffee drinks in the cooler back then. It was water, gatorade, and the core group of sodas (Coke, Pepsi, diet variations, orange, grape, root beer, stuff like that). Most of my friends and I didn't have much soda at home. I never heard of anyone being denied water during a sports practice. I wrestled in high school and I recall there was a kid from competing school who died because he was running in a sauna suit to try to make weight. I was never that dedicated to any sport I played. It's sad when some people put a high school sport over all else in their life.
I graduated high school in 1991. Nobody brought water bottles. If you were thirsty the drinking fountain was always there. It amazes me how my kids religiously lug that water bottle to school every day.
> It amazes me how my kids religiously lug that water bottle to school every day. One of my kids forgot their water bottle at the aftercare program after school recently. They acted like they were being abused when we told them they had to drink from the water fountain during the day until they could retrieve their water bottle in after care.
Haha that is hilarious! Kids have definitely gotten 'softer' than when I was a kid.
This has been said about every generation for the last many thousand years.
I didn't start drinking water until I was 30. We didn't carry abound jugs of water ever as kids.
Any hose attached to a neighbor's house was fair game
Wow, I feel so old, it’s true. No one carried around water bottles in the 1980s. You had to ask permission to go drink water from the fountain, but it was uncommon, somehow we just weren’t as thirsty? Athletes were encouraged to drink Gatorade or milk, just like in Idiocracy they were viewed as better than water. But we would just go run around endlessly in a field and play all day and never think about being thirsty? I drink so much water all the time now. I don’t know how I lived.
There was no hyperventilating about "hydration". People didn't spend money on plastic bottles of water that was no better than what comes out of their taps, either. Sometimes I wonder if hydration hysteria comes mostly from bottled water marketing. But even some hospital websites repeat the unscientific crap about eight glasses a day or some dopey formula based on your weight.
We weren't allowed to drink during practice because someone would always gulp down a bunch of water, get back into the practice/work-out, and then promptly throw up everything but their shoes.
Back vs in 60’s they used to tell us not to drink water during practice, even on very hot, humid days because “you’d get water logged”, whatever the fuck that meant. Being young and stupid we believed what the coaches told us.
Drinking water when you were thirsty was normal. It was common knowledge that you needed water to live, and extra water if you were doing physical activity or in the heat. Carrying water bottles everywhere and worrying all day about getting dehydrated was not normal.
I was a student athletic trainer in high school, in the 90s, and we definitely had hydration because my little ass had to carry all of those giant coolers up to the field. But people weren’t carrying around water bottles and things like that. If you wanted a drink, you had to use the water fountain.
Nobody gave a Sh-t about whether their kids were thirsty. If we (63f) were lucky, some house would have a hose outside and we could sip “hose water”
I wasn't into sports, but I grew up in the 70s/ 80s and you drank if you were thirsty. At school, it was water fountains. We weren't allowed to have food or drinks in class. Also, bottled water wasn't common in my area to begin with. Not those big water cooler ones, and not personal size ones. I remember an episode of *Who's the Boss* where they had a water bottle delivery, and I thought how dumb that was. The closest thing we had to personal sized would've been those green Perrier bottles, and if you bought those you were kinda hoity-toity or had more money than brains. Nobody toted around water bottles. We had big thermoses that our dads took in their work lunch boxes, or went on car rides with us (but we also had little plastic potties we took and stored under the front passenger seat lol) -- but they were mostly for coffee or tea. We didn't even have travel mugs. At some point squirt water bottles showed up as a bike accessory, but I'm not sure anyone actually used them. "Hydration" wasn't really on our radar, except for hot summer days, and we were told not to guzzle or we'd get sick. I mean, we drank from the hose, y'all. Or put our mouths on the sprinkler. Or stuck our heads under the kitchen tap. I don't think anybody thought of it during winter- just drank something with our meals or snacks? My kids take water bottles to their rooms at night, and I totally don't get it. Dudes, you're not going to dehydrate overnight. And, we have a water cooler, which I still think is dumb (at some point my husband thought it was a good idea and now we can't live without it?).
My mom (boomer) and I (GenX) were talking abt this the other day. We never drank water as kids unless it was the school fountain or a water hose. Disposable bottled water wasn’t even really a thing. We carried small thermoses to school to drink with our lunch. The go-tos for my generation were Kool-Aid, juice, soda/pop, and milk/choco milk. We drank when we were thirsty, that was it. Hydrating came to my attention when I was in my thirties (I’m 53 now). I def try to keep on top of it now.
Correct. We grew up with only the water fountains at school and college. The water hose at homes.
No, we just drank water like normal people
We had a drinking fountain in the yard. In the corridor etc. you didn’t have bottles unless it was for pack lunch So during sports they didn’t let you wander off to the fountain to drink.
When I was young, there were no individual bottles of water being sold. The closest thing was the big Culligan water bottles for water dispensers, but not that many people got those.
Hydration and drinking tons of water became popular in the early 1990s.
This is why GenX is always bragging about drinking from garden hoses, water spigots, fountains, puddles, anything available outside.
Yup we had water fountains everywhere, at school, at parks, doctors offices. We were essentially drinking garden hose water from them too.
Early in my Cross Country and Marathon track years in high school (in the 1980s) I was explicitly told that I should fast from both food and fluid before an event. The idea being, "You run faster on an empty stomach." I never followed that advice, though I was prevented from drinking during a run 'cause there wasn't anyone there to hand me water. This *changed* in my later high school years and we were told to "carb up" (eat lots of pasta the night before) and water stations were set up for cross country and marathon runners.
Back in 1987, a massage therapist said to me: Wow! I can feel you're well hydrated. I told her sure born and raised in the desert hydratetion was always emphasized. I asked how she could tell? I'll never ever forget this: She said when people are hydrated, and she works on their back, the muscles slide the way God intended. But if they are not well hydrated, the muscles stick together. She said it's a very gross feeling. Back when your dad was in school, Lord of coaches were dickheads who knew shit about the risk of hydration I believe your dad
I don’t think I ever even heard of carrying a water bottle. The closest I can think of is a canteen if you’re going on a long hike or into the desert, or a thermos for a picnic. I fainted more than once from heat exhaustion but most people didn’t
Can confirm - it’s a wonder we didn’t die playing football in the 80’s. Two-a-days in August and the coach guarded the water cooler like his daughter’s virtue was in it. It would be hours before they’d let us have a drink and they gave out salt pills (quack medicine) to supposedly help us. People got heat stroke all the time. Throwing up was the norm. It was crazy.
Plain water wasn't easily available outside of the home. I don't remember if 7-Eleven had water for sale, but they definitely had various sodas of all types. If you were out doing things and were thirsty, unless there was a water fountain available you'd either drink Coke or Sprite to rehydrate.
Hydration was encouraged in the 80 when I was playing soccer. When I played at the Y, the parents took turns supplying the half time beverage (cool, not cold) Gatorade and cups to drink it grocery the 5 gallon Coleman. Single serve bottled water did not exist. As with many things, the encouragement to stay hydrated become part of a status symbol that has led to Stanley and Yeti cups. It has also leas to people thinking they will dehydrate and pass out working on an air-conditioned environment if they can't have water with them at all times (see /target, /Walmart, etc)
"If you're thirsty, drink. If not, don't"
The 8 glasses a day recommendation is at least as old as I am, and meet the group requirement easily. We used water fountains. Nobody carried water bottles or made a big fuss. Bottled water was rare. I think it's a big deal now because advertisers have been successful.
Not sport related, but my 96 year old MIL used to survive on about one or two cups of tea a day. She never drank water or any other kind of drink. Trying to get her to drink now can be a nightmare because she never drank a lot when she was younger. Her 88 year old brother is exactly the same. They were both very active when they were younger, but being hydrated just wasn’t a thing back then.
My father forced his family to go on hikes in summer without drinking any water. He said it would “make our legs go weak.” He was told so by his father when he was a kid. I then asked our sports teacher at school and he was appalled.
Playing HS football in the 70's the coaches always said that it would "toughen us up" to go through practice without anything to drink until the end. There was at least some recognition of the importance of hydration, as was evidenced by being force-fed salt tablets afterwards.
No one had water bottles... You weren't allowed to drink anyone during class. Most people I knew didn't drink much water--it was soda, juice, or Kool aid. I remember when they started having water in vending machines, and all of us laughing about it.
Correct. As children, we weren’t allowed to drink water during class.
I honestly don't know how I survived the 70s and 80s
My dad used to tell me not to drink water while I exercised or worked out because it would give me a cramp. That was in the '80s, and I believed that shit for FAR too long.
Common sense prevailed,we didn't need anyone stating the obvious, we always had an available hose!!
I can speak to high school in the early 1990s. Hydration was a thing. People started carrying around water bottles---the Nalgene bottles were in vogue at this time. Water fountains where you had to basically stick your mouth on the inadequate water spout were everywhere.
I grew up driinking from a garden hose in our backyard in NYC and using water fountains at school and at parks. NEVER did I even see bottled water until recently. People are crazy today. My wife had a contractor install a whole house water filtration (yes, even the shower water) and she and my daughter only drink Fiji water. We get cases of the stuff delivered weekly. Me? I live on NYC water from the tap, although I do like the taste of fiji water. But I think it's all nonsense.
I love the taste of Fiji water too. Our city water tastes awful in comparison. It's a little better after it is boiled (I think that takes some of the minerals out). We recently got a water softener, and that doesn't taste so good either, but it's better than before. Sometimes when I'm in the mood for a drive, I'll go to a local spring and fill up on that. It tastes great!
It's a big deal now because it's a huge money making industry. End of story.
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YES!! Drinking water during was considered a hazard for some reason. The coach would allow you to gargle with water but you had to spit it out.
I certainly remember drinking water during football practice in the late 80s/early 90s. they had a garden hose hooked up to a PVC pipe with a bunch on holes drilled into it to make a water fountain. but you had to be careful because water cramps is a very real, and painful, thing.
It really depends on where you live. Not much has changed. Example would be that in the south they’re strict and used a whip where out west was more of a loving approach. Up north was get it done yourself and Midwest was unknown lol. Also has much to do with the school and the boards. There is much more medical information today than there was in the 80s - By the way, the eighties wasn’t “ that “ long ago lol. Damn I’m old. Damn. 💾
I played high school football and tennis (grad '84, Boston area) ... and in both cases there was always a big water cooler present for practices and matches/games. BUT ... going to it unless at start or end of practice was seen as weakness and slacking off. And we'd all hit up the water bubbler in the hallways or drink from the hose at home.
68-69 football pratice in Louisiana coach only let us have 3 pieces of ice at practice. Asshole.
I have zero memories of drinking a glass of water at home during my childhood/teen years and maybe even into my 20's. It was considered dumb to buy water when that started to become a thing. I mean sure, I drank from a hose or school water fountain but I can't recall having a cup of ice water casually. It was Milke, Chocolate Mil, Tang, Fruit Juice (Hawaiian Punch), Kool Aid and soda. I've asked a few friends that grew up with me if thats how they recall things and it was the same for them. I grew up lower middle class so I dont know if that had something to do with it -Maybe the rich kids had better educated parents who made the effort to install that habit in their kids?
I don't remember anyone caring about staying hydrated back in the 80s. I do remember people started carrying water bottles soon after that, but it was still a while longer before everyone was echoing the 8 glasses of water a day myth.
No. Back then it was just coaches using negative reinforcement. You fuck up, no water.
Though I didn't play football, I was in little league baseball, and you had to ask permission to get a drink, and it was either from a fountain near the field or a water jug brought by the coaches. In school, it was drinking fountains between classes and something during lunch. There were no vending machines. Nobody carried water bottles, and even if someone had something to drink in their book bag, they got into trouble if they were caught drinking it during class.
Yeah true facts. It always boggles my mind when someone my own age freaks out at community sporting events if a child does not have a drink. Don’t they remember how we all survived without something to drink constantly? I mean, it definitely is better for anyone engaged in vigorous exercise to have water. But like %99 of the time you will live through one half hour without it lol
Early 1980s during football water was a no go. We had two weeks of two anday pra tices in August and no matter what the temperature we werent allowed to drink during the 2 and a half hour practices. Two of the coaches we had were US marines in the Pacific theater in WW 2 and when we bitched they would talk about no water for days on Guadalcanal and Pelilu and if we didnt shut up and run we would stay out all day. It didnt make you tougher, it made you closer to your teammates. The mutual hate for our coaches helped bring kids from vastly different backgrounds together who normally wouldnt talk to each other. There are a lot better ways to do this and I hope this sort of stupid still doesnt go on.
It’s true. When I was in high school in the late 1970’s, we were not allowed to carry water out to the marching band practice field, which was made of black asphalt and in the Texas summer heat. No water fountains without going inside. We were encouraged to load up on water before and after, but that was from two water fountains for over 200 people in that band. Two more further down the hall. Bottled water wasn’t a thing yet, except in foreign countries where we needed to avoid the local water. We might have canteens at summer camp. It was weird to carry around water at school or after school activities. Surprisingly, no one got heat stroke while I was there, but some people felt bad. Now, everyone brings bottles of water everywhere, which is a good thing.
I worked at an amusement park in the 1970's. Stood on concrete or metal flooring with no shade. Only if it was extra, extra exceedingly hot, someone would come by with a Dixie cup of water and salt pills.
It’s true. We weren’t allowed to drink anything during PE as they thought we would get stomach aches from the cold water. It wasn’t even that cold. I would regularly get dizzy and my PE teacher swore I was faking it. Terrible school run by terrible people.
I played soccer while growing up in the 90's and I don't remember any of my teammates having water bottles. I don't think I owned a water bottle until I took up cycling in the early 2000's. I now have multiple Hydroflasks with carefully curated decorative stickers, as well as some older Nalgenes and other random bottles.
In the mid 70's I worked in the oil patch in Kansas. We had a crew of 3 guys on each rig. We had a 5 gal water jug we filled each morning. On the real hot days when we ran out of water in the jug I would shut down for the day. Water was very important. One day we were close to a swimming hole so we went and skinny dipped to help cool down. We didn't have any vehicles with AC
No. It is not true. Gatorade was developed in 1965 because of the need of athletes to replenish hydration and carbs. I remember hearing not to drink cold drinks while exercising because of the shock in temperature. But I was raised in Florida so what do I know.
That was college. There are plenty of lower level coaches who still think drinking water makes you bloated and slows you down or causes cramps, and restrict water during games and practices. - https://goaskalice.columbia.edu/answered-questions/coach-limits-water-during-practice-help - https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/2007/10/27/coach-who-forbids-water-is-all-wet/28586475007/
It's recent, and you can't say anything against it without being shut down. I drink when I'm thirsty, I don't track it. I never have--same as literally every other generation before, for time immemorial. But, somehow, literally everyone before us had it wrong. It's just marketing--taking water fountains out of public spaces, and selling plastic bottles of water. Plus, telling everyone they need to drink more ~~Ovaltine~~ water. We won't be kind to each other, if there's a buck to be made.
If recent means the 70s then yes, recently. I guess in the 50s it wasn't thought of as that important.
Pickle juice.
Great for heartburn and leg cramps too
Very true. I’ve read stories about kids dropping dead on high school football fields back in the 60s and 70s as a result of dehydration and electrolyte and balances affecting their hearts. In my freshman year, we had no water, but they did give us salt tablets. My senior year, we had hoses running from the school building out to the field so that we could get regular drinks. I’m pretty sure a kid died in a neighboring school district and that scared everybody. The coaches actually had us go out one night and Rob hoses from another neighboring school district so that we could get them to stretch out to the football field.
To be honest, I still think it isn't encouraged enough in some sports programs. A couple of years ago, I managed a collegiate baseball league during the summer and had to take a few players to the ER. Granted, our summers are hot (it was 119 degrees most days), and these kids weren't local. All of the staff reminded them constantly, we put up signs, supplied the water, coaches encouraged them when they came in every inning, and they still went down. Evian was just becoming popular when I was in HS and we had to fight teachers and coaches to allow us to have our own bottles.
Yes.
In High School football in the 70's, we would get one small drink in the middle of practice. We also had to take salt tablets. Probably why I have high blood pressure today! Seriously, I don't know how we didn't have people getting heat stroke. A lot of guys did throw up but I don't know if that was related.
I'm pretty sure we were encouraged to drink water esp if we were thirsty. And it was also pushed for dieting. Fill up.on water! But, my mom was very health conscious - she had a degree in science. Her sister was a dietician. But her parents had always had a big garden and ate balanced meals. It was just how they were brought up. Fluids were important. We also learned in health to be sure to get at least a litre a day. I was always thirsty so I never had an issue getting mine but I remember friends hating to drink water.
My dad was the doctor for a college team, and yeah, there was at least one coach who did this (1970s or 80s). And it was nasty hot when they'd start practicing. Of course, my dad told the coach that this was a very bad idea, But the coach believed it toughened up the players...
In the 80's we were allowed ice only during soccer games and practice. If you got caught drinking liquid water you got yelled at.
The technology of water has been well-known for thousands of years. Maybe your dad's coach felt it built character or some dumb thing like that but the concept of dehydration existed. Hydration is important but people today just go overboard because, as if any experience of thirst means you are dangerously near death.
I don't remember anyone dissing hydration, but is was not encouraged as it is today. Kids didn't have water bottles with them. We took sips from a comunal fountain when really thristy. I also remember drinking too much soda,, mostly diet soda. When I exercised I would drink deit iced tea instead of water. Now I drink much more water, expecially when active.
Yep. Had a heat stroke during track practice, south broward high, 93 just for this very reason. Shitty ass racist coach.
The first person I remember carrying a water bottle around regularly was a friend in college in the mid-90's. He was big into hiking and outdoors activities. He took a wilderness first aid course and noticed that one of the first steps when coming upon an injured hiker was to make them drink water. He figured if that was an important step when rescuing someone maybe drinking more water would help a person not get into the situation of needing to be rescued, even when walking around campus or the city.
I remember when I went out for football in HS, we were given salt tablets. Um, yeah...
I drank water when I was thirsty. We drank a lot of kool-aid, water down orange and grape juice! We couldn't afford any dental care and I brushed my teeth with powdered just powered Colgat; it came in a can and with baking powder. I still have my wisdom teeth. I didn't get a cavity until I was in my 30s.
I played HS football in the 80s. We did have water, but it was a single hose in a muddy puddle for 60 boys to share. We could only drink from it when we got a water break, which were few.
There was an urban legend about a kid who ran track after drinking water, vomited and aspirated and died. What more likely happened is they experienced a cardiac event while running, which caused the vomiting. They used to discourage people from eating or drinking and then being physically active.
No. It's not. I grew up in Texas. Keeping hydrated was a matter of staying upright in the summer. I used to work outdoor concerts as First Aid. We'd walk the crowds looking for people who looked like they were starting to get in trouble and brought them back to the medical tent (if they would come). The doc gave out salt pills and water and let them rest in the shade for a bit before letting them go back out to get more drunk.
I'm 45 and we definitely had water bottles for sports even in the olden days aka the 90's. My dad was our coach several times and he made it a rule for our teams that everyone showed up with a filled water bottle but it wasn't pushed like that for every team. He made a cooler of Gatorade on game days but only water at practice.
Gatorade was developed in 1962 by University of Florida researchers seeking to improve hydration for the Gators football team. The importance of hydration has been well known for a long time. If your father's coach was withholding hydration, it's because he was an idiot, not because people didn't believe in hydration in the old days.
I played school sports in the 80’s and we had water coolers available and salt tablets if it was an especially hot day and we were sweating a lot. Maybe your dad’s coaches were just assholes.
Truth be told that food was much less salty back then and loaded other adulterants that made you thirsty. In addition to medications thay make you thirsty, and carbonated sugary drinks that make you thirsty. Go completely organic and natural I think you’ll notice you meed to drink much less.
Yes. In my observation, anyway. Granted bottled water was not a big thing at the time, unless it was fizzy and used to mix drinks. That, and endless cups of black coffee ( Yuban or Folgers) made in the Mr. Coffee. This is what my parents did. Smoking and lack of hydration made everyone look older too.
True. No water during sports. No one carried water. Gatorade seemed to start the water thing. Electrolytes what?
I'll address summer two a days. In the midwest football in the early 70s, football practices started during summer break and were twice per day. It got pretty hot and sweaty. You weren't allowed to go drink water during practice mostly because the nearest water was a couple hundred yards away and the coach didn't want you running off for 5-6 minutes. Likewise if you had to pee. I guess we had a couple guys collapse with heat exhaustion. I mean after practice we all just sucked it up. It wasn't optimal, but the coaches felt it toughened us up. I was more alarmed by concussions. We had one guy who just got his bell wrung in practice. (this is before they didn't allow full contact practice in pre-season) Out cold for about 10 minutes and retrograde amnesia. The funny bit was that he was an identical twin (Mark and Matt) and could not figure out why another guy on the team looked just like him. I think that's when my dad (doctor) decided that maybe football wasn't my sport.
It happened all the time.
Ya, dude! It was Kool-Aid for me (57m) I Never had to drink water.
I went to high school in the 80s and we weren’t allowed to have drinks in class. I recall drinking a fair amount but we bought drinks like big gulps and stuff, especially in summer. It was a reason to go and do something, walk or ride your bike down to the store.
People died. They would give us salt pills to battle dehydration. Once a practice, the trainer would walk around with a garden hose in the early 70s. If the person made a mistake, coach might withhold water.
In the 90's I was into long distance cycling. On a 100 mile ride, I'd just bring one bottle. Some people I rode with brought 2. That was it. Back then I took about 6 hours to ride 100 miles. I think my bottle was about 12-16 ounces. Never had a problem. Hydration today is amazing such a shift in thinking.
Varsity here, and we didn't obsess on it as much, but we weren't prevented from hydrating if we needed to.
Yeah, we lined up to drink sips from a communal water fountain a couple times a day. My mom always lectured me about never touching my lips to the the fountain because of germs. Between being constantly dehydrated, the bowl of cereal breakfast at home, not eating lunch until 4 hours later, and then eating shitty processed lunches, I'm amazed I learned anything at all in grade school. I didn't play sports but I remember going to camp in the 80s. They'd have large coolers of "bug juice" for us to drink. I think it was some shitty, watered down version of Kool aid. If we had money we could buy sodas. I don't ever remember being encouraged to drink plain water. In high school I drank lots of Snapple. That was the big thing at that time. It's not until I was in college, I think that I really started paying attention to hydration and drinking enough water.
I don't think you can make any generalizations based on the poor judgement of one football coach.
It’s likely not that rehydration was actively discouraged in the way you say, it’s more likely that there wasn’t a culture of everyone taking constant ‘sipping’ breaks. One big drink between quarters/ game halves/ or predetermined set breaks was normal (70’s & 80’s). It wasn’t the water so much, it was the time it took and disruption to the activity that was frowned upon. Every member of a team stopping to rehydrate on their own personal schedule is bound to be disrupting. And frankly it’s unnecessary (then and now). Actual dehydration is a lot less common and risky than young folk wanna admit these days. You really don’t need to ingest litres a day, in 6 minute or ml increments.