Chicken Fat!!

Back in the 60’s, girls always wore skirts or dresses. So did female teachers. So it was a real treat when President Kennedy sent this cute little exercise record to all the schools, because on the days we all went to the cafeteria for exercise, girls were allowed to wear  SHORTS UNDER THEIR DRESSES! That’s because there was a section in the exercise routine where we were all on our backs with legs in the air doing “the bicycle” and you sure didn’t want your panties to show!

As non-athletic as I was (and still am) I did enjoy Chicken Fat days. I LOVED the song and the exercises were fun and not out of my league (like those evil pull-ups!) And having more physical freedom at recess time because I was wearing shorts was awesome!

This clip is a shorter version, but has some interesting info about the record. It also shows what we kids wore in the 60’s.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af2j59zzX3Q

The longer version is what we did at school. It was a pretty good little workout.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFofqe26t-4

And if you’re interested, here is a link for the words.

http://dmdb.org/lyrics/chicken.fat.html

It was a real joy to find this on youtube. I had no idea that it was Meredith Wilson who wrote the song, and that it was the truly wonderful Robert Preston who sang it. It did my heart good to hear this again. And it would do my heart even more good if I did the exercises, but I’m afraid some of them are beyond my physical capability anymore.

So…hands on hips! Begin!!