Figure 1.--Summer was a time when I wore plimsols and here I am wearing a white pair. In this photograph I am also wearing white ankle socks anf dark grey knee-length short trousers.

I mostly wore short trousers as a boy. I had several different types of shorts in different materials and colors. I don't ever recall wearing grey flannel shorts, but I wore those made from worsted, Terylene and serge materials and I vividly remember these fabrics had quite a pronounced twill to it. One year my mother bought me a checked dark green sports jacket and a much lighter pair of lovat green short trousers in Terylene to go with it. At one time short trousers in lovat green were often as popular as those in grey. I also remember a pair of side buttoning shorts which I thought rather unusual at the time. I'm not sure where they came from, but I recall wearing them.

Common Wear

Like most boys who gre up in te 1950s I wore short trousers for very much of my boyhood years. I didn't get into long trousers until I was in my first year at secondary modern school. My graduation to long trousers came around Easter time 1959.

Types

My earliest recolection of any clothes I wore was when I was three-year-old. I still wore blue rompers even then, but these were gradually replaced by my first real shorts. I can't remember the fabric they were made from, but I do recall they were of the bib front type, they could very well have been shortalls? Another pair were kind of like German lederhosen with a halter and I wore these unitl I went to the infant school.

It was kind of tradition that around Easter time you got your new clothes, which you wore on Good Fiday morning. Of course, there were other times throughout the year when I needed some extra new clothing. Suits were bought at Easter or for weddings etc, but my Mum often bought me the occasioal pair or pairs of short trousers for school.

I'm sure my Mum had a liking for Harris Tweed and she often bought me a number of pairs of shorts in this in this material. Some were brown but more often than not they were green. I kind of liked Harris Tweed myself and I was often fascinated by the herringbone pattern on the fabric. Why I thnk Mum liked Harris Tweed was that the seat of the shorts was very hard wearing, whereas the seats of some shorts made from much thinner materials would often become thin and before to long a hole would appear in the seat. Many's a time I saw a boy with a hole in his trousers.

I can never understand why I never wore grey flannel shorts. These were very popular for boys and you often saw them going to school wearing them and a number of my friends often wore them. However, I did have a two pairs of blue flannel shorts with the same appearance as the grey ones. One of these pairs had white flecks through the material.

There was one pair I wore which had a very fine houndstooth check through the fabric The hounndstooth was in black and the rest of the fabric was kind of grey-green. It wasn't unitl you got up close to the shorts that you could discern the houndstooth check pattern. If you were quite a distance form the shorts, then the check pattern made them look black.

The blue serge shorts I wore often came as part of a suit which I'd previously worn. As did several pairs of navy blue worsted that I also had. What I liked about my navy blue shorts was the contrast between the dark navy blue and the brilliant white of their cotton linings. The only downside of wearing serge and the worsted shorts was that they were notorious for exhibitng a prounced sheen on the seat. Similarly when they were ironed, my Mum had to be careful not to put a sheen on the material.

must tell you about a grey worsted pair I had, these had a pinstripe through them and I really liked these and have fond memories of them. What I remember about these shorts was their lining. What I remember was how close the lining came to the hem of the legs of the shorts. Most of all the shorts I wore had about a good inch of the outer matrial from the hem to where it met the lining. The lining of these pinstipe shorts came very close to the hem and at one point you could just see it peeking below the hem.

Another style of shorts my Mum favoured me wearing was corduroy and I liked them from the moment I first wore them. The matrial in those days was velvet corduroy and it had a very discernable sheen to it. I admired corduroy and would spend ages running my hands down the wales, especially when I was sitting at my school desk, sometimes I would put my thumb nail between the ridges and I couldn't help thinking how much the hem of my corduroy shorts put me in mind of a saw with its serated effect.. Another thing I liked about the fabric is its sturdyness, it is a tough material and my corduroy shorts seemed to hang well on me. Of course, when new the material had a quaint smell to it. I hate to say this but the smell often put me in mind of the smell of manure. The down side of corduroy is its remarkable shrinking properties, and my shorts would become quite short when they had been through the wash sevaral times. Another thing with washing them too much is that the fabric lost much of its sturdyness, and the white lining would become stained as the dye ran out of the fabric.

I became very fashion concious even at the tender age of 9 years when I started to wear corduroy shorts. If I wore a pair brown corduroys I always wore a brown Harris Tweed jacket, the same with a pair Green corduroy shorts, these were complimented by a Green Harris Tweed jacket. I also had corduroy outfits which comprised of shorts and a corduroy jacket, there's a very fine picture on the English School Uniform Materials: Conventions for Corduroy Garments page of a similar outfit I used to wear. Of all the shorts I ever wore I've got to say the corduroy ones were my favourites.

Sports Jacket Outfit

One year my mother bought me a checked dark green sports jacket and a much lighter pair of lovat green short trousers in Terylene to go with it. At one time short trousers in lovat green were often as popular as those in grey.

Side-buttoning Shorts

I also remember a pair of grey side buttoning shorts. I'm not sure where they came from, but I recall wearing them. They buttoned up at the side, but they still had a fly front to them. I was about 11 at the time I wore them and I thought it was most unusual that they should button up like that. They were just normal Terylene/worsted shorts very much like my other shorts that I wore. Although they were of the normal school shorts colour of blue-grey. The shorts did open at the side, I seem to recall that they opened at both sides and not just one. Which meant the front of the shorts resembled a flap when you either put the shorts on or took them of. Each side had no more than three buttons and both sides had a tab which was also fastened by a button. Tey looked just like normal shorts save for the side opening, they had the usual fly at the front and took a bit of getting used to buttoning them up at the sides. The easiest way I found to do it was to fasten the buttons at the waistline and then do up the other three buttons on either side. Another thing was also trying to get used to unfastening the side buttons when taking the shorts off especially when you had to do it in a hurry as you naturally went to the usual place where the clasp should be at the front of the shorts. I thought those shorts most unsuall and I've never understood why they were made that way. I'm wondering if perhaps the store where my Mum bought them from had purchased them from a continental supplier rather than a British one as perhaps this was the style of shorts worn by boys in Europe rather than Britian? One other thing I vividly remember about my side opening shorts was that I left my fountain pen in the pocket and ink had run from it into the white lining and this had left a blue stain on it.

Anthony

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Created: 5:45 AM 1/22/2005
Last updated: 5:45 AM 1/22/2005