***
My name in Shawn and I am from a town in Northern New York called
Lockport.
Unlike many American boys, I personally wanted too and did wear short
pants at every opportunity. At school, I was usually the only kid at 8
and 9 years old wearing shorts
to school. There were others but they were usually in kindergarden or
1st grade (in those days, 5 or 6 year olds). My Mother didn't seem to
care and the other kids would sometimes make comments but that went away
and I never let it bother me. I was wearing what I wanted. I even
started a trend of sorts when a few other kids my age started to wear
them to school.
By age 11 in 1963, I only wore short pants in the summertime. That was the
year I went to Europe.
I spent the rest of that year in Europe with my Grandmother. Unlike
my mother, she
insisted on short pants suits which all the boys my age wore. She was French
and the suit and shorts she brought for me had really short pants.
In 1963, when I was 11, almost 12, my Grandmother made arrangements with my
parents to take me to Europe after the school year. Grandma was French
and her own Mother came from Greece. She lived in Germany throughout the
War and she had been in the States for about 5 years. My Grandfather, who
was German, died during an Allied air attack during World War II. He was a
wealthy landowner and a German Officer who transferred much of his money
to Switzerland prior to the War. (Guess he figured on failure from the
start.) At any rate, he left my Grandmother with a substantial amount of
money.
We departed in late August abroad a French cruise ship named the
Emperor. Airplanes had not become as common as they are now. We
departed in the early AM bound for France. The ship was quite
large and I noticed there were lots of kids on board. They were mostly
a lot younger than myself and today I figure it was probably because most
schools were about to start in both America and France. I had received
special permission to skip the first 2 months of school because of the
trip. It was still summer and my mother packed most of the clothes that I
had, which included shirts, shorts, socks, pants, and shoes. I remember it
was hot out and I was wearing my only suit, which was a regular American
boys dark gray suit. Once we departed and settled in, my Grandmother,
who�s own Children were all grown seamed totally concerned with my
clothing.
When I
wore a coat (usually well above the knees), they made me look like what a
5-year old in America wore. But I
fitted right in. I never wore knee socks, just white and black ankle socks
and always with leather shoes. Tennis shoes were not commonly worn in
France at the time. I had a pair of sandals but only wore them on holiday.
We also went to Greece to visit with Grandmother's family. I remember in Greece
that I wore a sort of shortall with suspenders and sandalls. Every outfit
I had included suspenders rather than a belt. Also
While in Greece I don't think I wore socks except for a couple of times.
All of my pants were really short. I was the only blond haired boy
there and my skin was much lighter than the other boys. They knew I
was different and that made me quite popular. By the end of the year I
was speaking Greek perfectly. I also remember that while shopping, the
clothing stores in Greece did not have boys clothing with long pants.
Even the older kids (I would say thru about 13 or 14 years old) wore
shorts for all occasions.
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