Y Blog? | Why I'm making these Y reviews

This is the first YMCA I ever was a member of; the Gleason Family Y in Wareham, MA

    When you have been to as many YMCAs (The Y as they now call it) as I have you start to notice some unique quirks. No two Y's are alike...and yet no two Y's are that different either. They have incredible nationwide branding. No matter how new their facilities are they all still carry over some sort of cold war era energy. And every single Y is set up like a maze. 

    YMCAs feel like some sort of nationally guilded institution in America like the post office or the library. They have become unofficial third spaces that offer refuge to members of all different backgrounds. Pre-pandemic the Y had been averaging at over 20 million memberships year over year for ten years. See, here is a nice old graph to prove it.

    Now that folks are itching to reconnect and the economy is (allegedly) bouncing back people are reinstating their memberships or maybe even trying out the Y for the first time in their lives. The Y is beloved, sacred, and taken for granted in most corners of the country. I firmly believe that in this next chapter of American reunification (because, let's be honest here, people are really getting sick of social media as their only social outlet and being in person is going to be "in" in 2024) the Y will have a significant impact on defining community for generations to come. Church/synagogue/spaghetti monster resturant memberships are down and we have to get our gossip from somewhere new and fresh, like the stale brown carpeted hallways of our local Ys.

    I didn't start this blog to just scream "rah rah YMCA!" every day with my pom poms shaking in the wind. I started this blog to review every Y I visit from here on out, to bring some context to the impact the YMCA has had on American culture, and maybe, just maybe, convince someone to join our little cult..-I mean community.

Each Y review will cover 5 different categories:

• Locker rooms 
• Primarily Men's locker rooms unless there is a universal/all gender/family locker room I can poke my head into or unless I can convince my fiance to let me know that the state of the women's locker room is
  
• Facilities
  
• Pool or no pool?
• How big is the basketball court?
• Are the rowing machines in the hallway rather in a room of their own?
• Buildings
  
• It's going to be a maze but how lost will you get? 
• Is the juice bar/cafe open? (probably not but here's hoping)
• Childcare? Domestic violence support offices? Mentoring? Food distribution?
  
•  Classes
• Zumba, zumba, zumba!
• Internet 101 for seniors?
• Some acti-yoga-stretcha-corenergy-step and slide class we've never heard of?
  
• Y-ldcard
• I'm leaving this open in case there is anything strange or new I notice about the Y itself or the town it lives in
• Maybe I'll add some pictures of their award winning stock photography here too

See you at the combination basketball court/rock climbing wall/gymnastics practice area.

-The Y Guy