Figure 1.--This snapshot taken by my mother shows me 3 or 4 years old wearing typical bib-front summer shorts. It would have been about 1942. This of course was before I started school.
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Figure 1.--This snapshot taken by my mother shows me 3 or 4 years old wearing typical bib-front summer shorts. It would have been about 1942. This of course was before I started school. |
I was born in 1939. I can remember a bit about my early years and when I started school in New York state during 1944. We eventually moved to Pennsylvania. I particuilarly recall a blue wool sailor suit mother bought for me. It was kind of like my dress outfit as I didn't have a suit. I wore it a few times to school.
I recall that standard summer wear, for play, was mostly shorts and some sort of
T-shirt until I was 7 years old.
I went to a one room country school near Amsterdam, New York. Most people think of New York City when they see New York. Actually much of New York state is quite rural. This was a one room country school where all eight grades were in one room.
My mother selected short pants for me to wear to school. If I remember correctly, they were play shorts of a light weight cotton material. I wore regular leather shoes with ankle socks, we never wore knee socks.
I was surprised that when I got to school, none of the other boys except one was wearing shorts. My neighbor who was 2 years younger then me always wore short pants to school
in the lower grades. I met my friend when I was in the second grade. We lived about a mile from each other out in the country. His parents sent him to the public school in the city
and I attended a local one room country school. I remember that he wore shorts
all the time for play and also to school during the warm season. He wore
shorts all through the lower grades 1 through 8. Since I did not attend the
city school I would not know if there were any other boys dressed in shorts. but
I'm sure that they did.
The girls of course at the time all wore dresses. Nothing was ever said by any of the other boys or girls. I do recall that the girls were very nice to me. As winter came on we both stopped wearing them and I don't think we wore them as spring time approached. No one ever wore knickers.
For whatever the reason might be I just did not want to wear shorts to school. I wore them at home to play in but before the school year was out I was no longer sent to school in short pants. My arguement against wearing them was that most of the boys at school did not. Her argument was, "Well, they can't afford them,". That arguement did not impress me.
Figure 2.--Here I am in my blue sailor suit looking very patriotic. This snapshot would have been taken in 1944 when I was 5 during my first year in school. It was during World War II. |
I did not have a dress up suit at that age but I did have a sailor suit. It was a heavy blue wool sailor suit with long pants my mother bought for me. It came complete with a littleccap which had a short stramer. I remember that the sailor suit was sort of scratchy because it was wool and not so very comfortable. I only wore it the first year to school and I was 5 years old starting the school year and 6 at the end of the school year. I never wore it again. I think that I wore the sailor suit to school once or twice and then switched to shorts until later in the season. I was the only one to wear a sailor suit to school in the first grade. Would you believe that when I was 18 I did join the Navy and wore the wool uniform of that service.
When I started the second grade I was able to wear long pants.
It was a different one room school and none of the boys wore shorts. Before I finished the second grade we moved again where I went to another one room school and none of the boys wore shorts. Most of the kids were from farm families and wore long pants mostly jeans.
Boys did not wear shorts for the remainder of those 12 years of school except for gym class in the city schools. We did not have gym class in the country schools. All children from the one room country schools had to go to the city schools starting in the ninth thru 12th grades.
I think more boys are wearing shorts now days. I saw that in Pennsylvania when I used to live near Philadelphia. In Pennsylvania about 50 percent or more were wearing them to school but they were not
uniforms.
I now live in the deep south, Louisiana, and wear shorts every day. The weather is very hot and humid during the summer and so shorts are very comfortable and most everyone wears them. Many schools in the area require that the students wear uniforms and shorts are optional. I noticed that a lot of boys and girls would rather wear shorts to school and also after school.
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