Figure 1.--.
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Figure 1.--.
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A HBC contributor provides us this insight into the play clothes he wore as a boy in the early 1940s:
I was in the Fifth Grade in 1940. I can remember a typical day toward the end of the school year in May. I was 10 years old. I can remember exiting my Fifth Grade class into a very warm afternoon. I wore a long-sleeved striped polo shirt, corduroy knickers and diamond-patterned knee socks. Some of my classmates wore flannel or corduroy slacks, no one had turned up in shorts yet. I remember rolling down my stockings,
pocketing the round garters which secure them to the knickers bottom cuffs. Though it is really warm, pulling knicker bottoms up over your knees was just not done in Fifth Grade!
At home, I found play clothes already laid out on my bed. A short-sleeve polo shirts, blue twill shorts, with ankle socks and Ked sneakers to complete the transition. I hesitated momentarily to put on short pants for the first time for the year. The shorts left over from last summer were a little on the small side. But no one said anything about it at home and out in the vacant lot, enough of the other
guys were also wearing shorts, some made from cut-off knickers, to avoid
serious teasing.
The warm afternoon quickly passed, with some serious war games against
the Nazis, who are trying to capture Paris. The Germans are beaten, just like Dad did in the World War (it has not yet been downgraded to just World
War I.)
After returning home, I submitted to taking a bath before dinner, on the reward of something new to wear at supper. The surprise is navy dress slacks, and a neat blue sport shirt. Mom and Dad made approving comments,
when I came to the table, though Sis wondeed loudly whether I was ready for long pants yet. The radio weather report, following the summaries of
Hitler's Blitzkrieg through a hapless France, indicates an even warmer day
for the morrow.
Preparing for bed, I wondered if it might be safe to wear short pants
to school, if the dress slacks are too good. To be the only kid in short
pants would make for a lot of ribbing, though Liz Baker in the next desk
might say I had real cute knees...! Thus I passed a typical 10-year old
transistion era in both apparel, world history and social order.
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