Only one boy in our form, Kenneth, remained in shorts after the
long-awaited demarcation of reaching his 15th birthday. In fact,
he was to remain bare kneed almost until the
end of his schooling at 16. So despite ourselves having suffered the
taunts of others, he became the target of our mocking.
The poor guy was called, rather
unfortunately, Kenneth Short. He was often greeted "Hi Shorty Short Pants!"
Like all of us he was embarrassed and probably even more so when he was the
only one so dressed. Trying to work out actual dates, I think, he must have
been around 16 years old before he eventually got his longs, unusual even in
those days.
It may sound a little unkind, but I remember Ken as a very ordinary
individual. He was medium height, with a typical, for the time, cropped
schoolboy hairstyle. As best as I can remember he was average academically
and not particularly sports gifted. He played games, cricket, football,
cross country etc. like all of us; because it was compulsory.
Ken was a quiet boy,
who always seemed to hover in the background, never really being one of the
'in crowd,' perhaps, because he was left the only one in short pants. As I
said, we eventually became friendly, but I cannot really remember why, but
as this friendship did not extend much beyond school, I cannot recall his
personal interests.
We taunted him exactly as we had been taunted. Nothing as cruel as
kids. A favourite winter pastime of my form, once out of shorts
ourselves, was to get Kenneth (or any of the younger boys still in shorts
that we could catch) on the ground and hoisting their legs into the air,
drop snowballs down the trousers leg. I had it done to me when I was still in shorts
and it wasn't very pleasant. I must admit that I enjoyed getting my own
back and doing it to the boys still in shorts after I finally got my longs.
I can remember Ken fairly well and,
although he seemed to just accept his lot, I seem to recall he was regularly
red faced. Actually when the novelty wore off, he and I became good friends
and I think I felt a bit sorry for him. We never ever discussed this issue
that I can recall.Like most boys in the M forms we came from a wide area and
Ken lived in a town some distances from me.
You may remember me saying I thought Kenneth's
parents were perhaps old fashioned, well Ken certainly wore braces, which
was unusual for a boy, even in those days. Also I think some of his shorts
had the two rear brace buttons attached to a piece of cloth which extended
above the normal waist band (this was more common in gents long trousers at the time, I
think.) It gave the effect of the trousers extending well above the persons
normal waistline.
As Ken lived out of
our town I did not really see much of him out of school, but like us, he
probably wore old school clothes for playing around etc.
I never met his parents, but,
guess his backgound to have been very like my own. Why his parents made him
stay in shorts I do not know. Indeed, I think it would be an interesting
question to post; why did any of our parents place us in short trousers when
they caused us such obvious embarrassment?
Somehow, but don't ask me why, I have the impression that
his parents were older than average. Kenneth seemed a bit old fashioned.
This could explain why he was kept in shorts for so long, perhaps his
parents wanted to hang onto their 'little boy.' Interesting parallel here,
that Graham, was also kept in short
trousers out of school for so long and, also with older parents.
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