Eldergays, explain the Chicken Fat song. Did it fat shame you or other kids back in the day? Did you hate it?

I don't remember there being a single overweight child in my entire elementary school.

So maybe the song worked, R1?

I loved it. It got my blood flowin'.

If they only knew that by 2021 90% of the country was the size of a house and the other 10% were either anorexic or addicted to steroids!

Apparently, the school version is over six minutes long, lol.

1962 gym class.

There was one "heavy" girl in class everyone called fat (and she was legitimately a 'hormone' or other issue, she did NOT eat much, and was constantly on a diet). She wasn't fat by today's standards, but everyone mocked her.

I remember this damn song, and having to do it. I was a skinny nerd and found the push-ups and the like really difficult. But I also remember Carter's "Physical Fitness Program" and having to get to the point of doing 50 push ups, and squat thrusts, and running back and forth between two lines within a specific time limit, I have no idea what those were called.

I remember the gym teacher wheeling the record player into the gymnasium, plugging out in, and dropping the needle. I was fine with it; hey at least it wasn't team sports, I always got picked last.

Never heard of it.

Apple used it in one of their commercials.

Jack LaLanne had it on his TV exercise show, so I'm told.

BTW, chickens aren't fat.

There was one kid in my entire school that was fat. She was probably twenty pounds overweight at the most. Not even that. Every other kid was skinny and healthy.

About the 1960s President’s exercise plan, that wasn’t great for everybody. My sister legitimately had a serious health issue and couldn’t do a lot of the exercises. The PE teacher threatened to fail her, which would have brought her grade average down low enough that she couldn’t get into college. They didn’t have any alternative class she could take. My sister did try to do some of the exercises, but they were actually dangerous for her. She had serious health repercussions from trying to do too much. The teacher was basically claiming she was lazy or a crybaby when she actually had a doctor’s note. He thought there should be no exceptions, because if the Kennedys had overcome health trials, so should everybody else. No exceptions.

When my mother found out, she went to the principal’s office and scorched his ears off. Miraculously, they coincidentally found another class she could take instead.

If there weren't that many fat children in those days, what was Kennedy's concern?

I wonder what he'd think if he came back from the dead and saw how fat people are now.

Ancel Keys was the antichrist. He's the reason we have so many fatsos today. He inspired the bad diet advice given out here.

[quote]If there weren't that many fat children in those days, what was Kennedy's concern? I wonder what he'd think if he came back from the dead and saw how fat people are now.

And I thought Marilyn Monroe had some junk in the trunk!

Fat Children = Yet Another Class Marker, sort of like names

Schools catering to the upper middle classes are far more likely to have issues with anorexia than obesity

No one I know remembers this "song," and neither do I.

Obesity was less prevalent among younger white and blacks both, although it was still more prevalent in black and indigenous American populations compared to whites, as now. For numerous reasons reflecting our nation's biases.

R16, cite your data.

Wow that song hurts my soul. Kennedy deserved to get assassinated!

So did the whole school do exercises together, like morning calisthenics, or was this used in gym class?

I worked with a woman who told me she used to dread hearing that song played in her gym class when she was in grade school.

I think we have found a song to play at the next Trump rally

WW x 100 for you, R22!! lmao

"running back and forth between two lines within a specific time limit, I have no idea what those were called."

I think they called those "wind sprints" at my school.

They even sold it to us. I used to have the 45. Being fat was of no concern at that point in my life. I ate whatever I wanted and as much and remained a beanpole. There were very few fat people and it was so rare they must have had some sort of physical problem. They couldn't have been eating more than me.

R24, I think that run is called the shuttle run. I remember doing it in school too. You had to run between cones and pickup and drop off bean bags at each cone.

There weren't many overweight students, were there? I just realized that. We stayed outside all day and our bikes were the way we got around. Rode them all day, hiked through the woods to get get to the local store, 2 miles away, which was fun because of the hot guys who rode by in cars flirting with us jail baits. Played baseball, basketball, dodgeball- I'm gonna slam your ass hard with this ball till you cry ball. Ran through creeks barefoot. The guys wore those loose shorts and we got a glimpse of their beautiful balls, lol. Smoked weed in the woods near our homes so our parents could not catch us, because my mom wasn't about to go trouncing in the woods in her pumps. Compare that to now. Different, nicer, healthier world. I miss it so. I know, I know, Mary! ( But it's true)

R27, hot guys flirted with young boys? How come that didn't happen in my town!

They used to play this song as a warm up in gym class in elementary school in the early 1970s.

My mum had the record and would exercise to it in the living room. "Give that chicken fat back to the chicken and dont be chicken again...no, dont be chicken again." God, at 57 that tune is burned into my memory forever. But ask me where I left my car keys a few minutes ago...

R13, Kennedy was a WWII veteran. At the beginning of WWII, there were a lot of men who had to be rejected for the draft because they were too short or underweight. That happened because people’s growth was stunted from the Great Depression. In Germany, Hitler had been preparing for war for a while. He established the Hitler Youth in part to send kids to farms and build them up so they’d be fit soldiers. I read at the beginning of the war, British troops were commonly very thin and unhealthy looking, probably partly from the Depression, partly polluted air from coal dust. The Germans looked like supermen next to them. They had been living on farm food and heavy exercise for years. Kennedy was probably aware of that and wanted better prepared soldiers for future wars. A lot of the P.E. exercises kids did then were based on Army training, jumping jacks, climbing rope, running track, push ups, sit ups and pull ups. All based on strengthening endurance and building core muscles. He was training an Army. It was not fun stuff, it was almost all hard and fostered a lot of competitiveness. People who couldn’t keep up were told they weren’t trying hard enough.

About the Kennedys themselves, Jack Kennedy had serious health problems himself. He badly injured his back during the war and suffered for it the rest of his life. He had back surgery at some point. He had Addison’s disease and other health issues. Teddy Kennedy had back issues too, I’m not sure about Bobby. They came from a very athletic family and played touch football as a family. Their parents’ attitude was just deal with injuries and ignore them as much as possible, it’s a sign of character to overcome them. That doesn’t work for everyone, which is why they gradually had to get rid of the program. Some people just couldn’t do it.

[quote]Schools catering to the upper middle classes are far more likely to have issues with anorexia than obesity

No one had ever heard of anorexia or bulimia in the 1960s. Or peanut allergies, fibromyalgia, or being picked up and dropped off at at school every day, for that matter.

Not American - what is a “chicken fat”?

[quote] I ate whatever I wanted and as much and remained a beanpole. There were very few fat people and it was so rare they must have had some sort of physical problem. They couldn't have been eating more than me.

Were you eating real food - meat and 3 veg, sandwiches, fruit, milk and cookies - as opposed to snacky stuff like crackers, muesli bars, chips candy etc?

Chicken fat that pools in an air fryer is great for shaving.

I swore I never heard this despite being a kid at that time. But when I played it, I actually remembered the tune and the words...lol.

R31 Old Rose used to weigh the kids once a week to make sure no one gained too much weight.

All the girls smoked to control their appetites.

They hadn't invented high-fructose corn syrup yet.

I prefer this song:

SOCIALISM!