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The early-1940s are the Workd War II war years at least in Europe. America was still at peace in 1940 amd most of '41 until the Japanese carrier attack on Pearl Harbor (December 1941). The War years lasted until the Japanese surrender (August 1945). Unlike many other countries, life in America went on relatively unchanged, except for the the fact that large numbers of men were drafted andnd volunteered and were shipped overseas. Large numbers of young women replaced them in factories. Catholic Americans were for the most part more recent immigrants than Protestants. Most (except for the Irish) came from countries involved in the War, either Axis countries (Germany and Italy) or countries occupied by the Axis. Thus the War was especially traumatic for them. Except for Jewish immigrants, none more so than Polish Americans and than Italy surrenderd and was not only occupied by the Germans, but became a theater of the War. For American children, however, school and church contuinued largely unchanged. So Catholic children did their First Communions as they had in the 1930s. Most Catholics still lived in the major cities. The movement to the suburbs was just beginning. Thus their schools and churches were still in the cities. The children all dressed up for the event. White suits had become very popular. And we see quite a few boys wearing white suits, often short pants suits and white knee socks for their First Communions. We see boys wearing both knee socks and ankle socks. We also see both white shoes and saddle shoes which were partially white. The girls as before wore white junior wedding dresses. Not all boys wore the white suits, but it was fairly common.
Thus is the procession of First Communicants at St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia during 1941 (figure 1). Here we only see the bios. They are outfitted in white short pants suits and the girls were done up in white junior wedding dresses. At the times, most Catholics lived in the major cities. The children probably attended a Catholic school which oversaw their preparation explaining why the children are done up so perfectly.
We have no information on this First Communion group. It looks like the 1940s, probabnly the early-40s. It has a more suburban look. The Communicants are all mostly done up in white. The boys wear white suits or shirts, Thev guirls the junior wedding dresses. The front row with boys wearing short pants suits may be misleading. The boys in the back row do not all look like they are wearing suits. The group may not have attended a Catholic school and thus not so carefully prepared. We are not sure where the church was, but the trees in the background suggest the northeast. There are nuns and what looks like older girls in the back. We are not sure about the role of the older girls.
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