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I recall wearing long stockings from my earliest menories at age 5 year. I did not wear long stockings much, but many of my friends did. Thus I know a good bit about the subject. Ironically I wore them at an older rather than a younger age. Starting in about 1938 the short trousers worn by boys bec ame shorter and shorter. I recall from my own childhood the shorts worn in the 1930s and 1940s. Shorter trousers were considered sporty, and boys liked being sporty in that period. The Nazis discouraged the wearing of long stockings with shorts because the custom seemed too girlish, and we therefore see few pictures of Hitler Youth uniforms with long stockings, although they were occasionally worn for warmth even within that movement. In my memory, beginning in the 1930s, most boys held up their long stockings by two elastic straps with button-holes worked into them. Older children often had the elastic straps with the more modern button-and-wire clasps sewn onto them. Younger boys and also some older boys had sewn onto the tops of their stockings two white laundry buttons which buttoned onto the elastic straps. My three sisters never wore long stockings (much to their disappointment they later told me). My brother and I wore them occasionally.
I recall wearing long stockings from my earliest menories at age 5 year. I did not wear long stockings much, but many of my friends did. Thus I know a good bit about the subject. Ironically I wore them at an older rather than a younger age.
Starting in about 1938 the short trousers worn by boys bec ame shorter and shorter. I recall from my own childhood the shorts worn in the 1930s and 1940s. Shorter trousers were considered sporty, and boys liked being sporty in that period.
The Nazis discouraged the wearing of long stockings with shorts because the custom seemed too girlish, and we therefore see few pictures of Hitler Youth uniforms with long stockings, although they were occasionally worn for warmth even within that movement.
In my memory, beginning in the 1930s, most boys held up their long stockings by two elastic straps with button-holes worked into them. Older children often had the elastic straps with the more modern button-and-wire clasps sewn onto them. Younger boys and also some older boys had sewn onto the tops of their stockings two white laundry buttons which buttoned onto the elastic straps. This arrangement was less elegant but more childlike. But the button separated from the stocking less easily than the mechanical supporter clasp, which made the game of undoing another boy’s garter a bit fairer and more sporting. The hose supporters (or straps) were usually fastened to a Leibchen or also an undershirt, although there were probably also garter belts that I cannot recall but have heard described. If the stocking became separated from the garter clasp, the elastic supporter strap usually snapped upward so that it was embarrassing to find it again and have to reattach it to the stocking top, because one had to reach far up one’s trouser leg to retrieve the loose hose supporter strap. This activity would be noticed and cause a certain amount of embarassment. With other children the stockings were held in place by tight rubber rings around the upper thigh or attached by safety-pins to some part of the boy’s underwear. Sometimes a boy (if he had no garter attachment on a strap) had to pull his stockings up again and again and push them under his trouser-legs. If this was his problem, he was continually busy with pulling up his long stockings which would never stay properly in place.
One of the main problems with long stockings and short trousers was the bare area between the tops of the stockings and the hem of the shorts, which left the upper part of the thigh cold and exposed. This uncovered gap became more and more of an issue as the shorts became shorter, and stockings consequently had to be knitted longer to avoid it. The hose supporter clasps or white buttons on the tops of the stockings were sometimes visible––a sight that sometimes embarrassed older boys and caused teasing. Older boys often rebelled against long stockings, but younger boys (about 8) still had to wear them. Boys began to feel that long stockings with exposed garters and stocking tops were too unmanly.
My three sisters never wore long stockings (much to their disappointment they later told me). My brother and I wore them occasionally. There were important regional differences regarding long stockings with short pants. Also families within the same region differed in their opinions on the subject and differed also about appropriate ages. I come from a rather wealthy family, and I got long stockings only once for a few weeks in the autumn at the age of 11 or 12 on the recommendation of a child physician. I wore the long stockings quite willingly. A few of my school mates wore them, although it was beginning to become less common than when we were younger. To my embarassment, however, the stockings mother purchased didn’t come up far enough under the legs of my short trouser. I wore them also to school, where most boys occasionally wore long stockings, usually brownish ones, if they did not wear a special kind of long trousers called “assault trousers”. With some of these boys I played games such as “lightning” (snapping the elastic of a boy’s hose supporter), and the girls made fun of boys who had to wear garters like their own.
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