The strongest memories that I have about the clothes I wore as a boy was the short pants my parents insisted on. Back in 1960, a boy could head for an elite, private East Coast school in a navy blue blazer, bowtie, gray flannel short pants, and navy blue knee socks and provoke no reaction--or at least nothing that registered in his memory. That same boy in that same outfit a year later would cause a minor riot on the streets of a small Western town.

My Little Boy Clothes

I wore shortalls and suspender shorts when I was still a toddler. Shortalls were very popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s, especially after John John (JFK Jr.) appeared in them. Suspender shorts were also popular and a lot of dressy shorts for little boys came in that style. I can recall photos of myself in both. (Obviously I don't remember myself.)

My best suit was an Eton suit. I wore a cap with my Eton suit, but only when I was very small.

My parents were political liberals but "lifestyle" conservatives. When they went out in public, they dressed nicely, and they dressed their son nicely too. That meant shortpants suits or blazer-and-shorts; ankle socks in the summer; knee socks in the winter.

My recollection (and as I say, I would have to look at my father's slides to be sure) is that I wore an Eton suit until I was about 7. It was, of course, navy blue--the short pants were quite short and I think I wore either pale blue knee socks or white ankle socks. I also had a navy jacket and gray flannel shorts for winter wear, worn with gray knee socks. I had a summer weight blazer and much longer formal shorts for summer time --longer, I think, because they were intended to be worn with ankle socks. I also had a mustard yellow corduroy shortpants suit that I wore with yellow kneesocks, but I think I outgrew this by age 6.

I didn't wear really dressy shorts after 2nd grade, as you can read about in the page describing my Colorado experiences. I had a couple of pairs of school shorts which to my recollection were standard blue and brown and stopped a couple of inches above the knees.

My playshorts were the boxer type. That means they were very simple shorts. They were cut short with only an elasticised waist to hold them up as their were no belt loops. Also there were no pockets--an inconvenience during the summer. Mine were usually [color].

Private School in Washington, D.C.

When it came time to enroll me in school, they took me to the neighborhood public school; naturally, I was wearing my best clothes--an Eton suit with short pants and white ankle socks. The school was more than 50 percent African-American (we would have said Negro then); my parents, being good liberals and early partisans of the Civil Rights movement, had bought a house in an integrating neighborhood on the "wrong side" of Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C. (I played with the Negro children next door; as best I can remember, they wore shorts too.) The teacher took one look at my pretty blond head, nice little shortpants suit, and black oxfords and said to my parents "Can you possibly afford to send this boy to a private school? By the time I finish blowing the noses and cleaning the faces of the children I'm supposed to teach, it's time to send them home." If the nation's leaders had been listening to what she said, maybe a decade later during the riots after Martin Luther King was murdered, we wouldn't have had to watch our old neighborhood go up in flames on TV.

My parents put their ardent liberalism aside and took the teacher's advice. They didn't have much money--my father was a young assistant professor--but he signed up to teach a nightschool course so they could afford tuition at the exclusive Sheridan School, a co-ed kindergarden through fourth grade school near

Figure 1.--America boys from wealthy families were most likely to wear short pants and kneesocks in the 1960s.

Sheridan Square, hence the name. Most boys from Sheridan were expected to go on to St. Alban's, the best prep school in Washington (I assume the girls went somewhere similar). I was at Sheridan for Kindgarten and 1st grade.

My memories may be spotty, but thanks to my father's passion for making an exhaustive photographic record, I can say with assurance that the only times I wore long pants were for play in the winter. Otherwise, I always wore short pants--winter too (I had a nice English style overcoat that stopped just above my knees, and of course I wore knee socks in the winter). I'm not sure that every other boy in my class wore short pants every day as I did, but I believe enough of them wore shorts enough of the time that I did not feel the least bit self-conscious.

I do remember my best friend and seat-mate; like me, he was always in shorts, but then his father was the British Ambassador, so that may not say too much about the American situation. And it seems to me the class bully wore longs.

Long Pants

The first time I can remember short pants becoming an issue occured at the end of first grade when we put on a little show for the parents, including a dance. The boys were told to dress in navy blue long pants. I remember my mother being quite distressed--for two reasons; she thought I looked better in shorts, and it meant an outlay of money, since I didn't own any dress long pants. The only longs I had at the time were flannel-lined jeans which were strictly winter playwear. (Those flannel-lined jeans were very popular for boys in the 1950s.) So mom had to buy me my first pair of dress up long pants. It was actually a bit of a waste as I only wore them for the show.

Sheridan and Other Schools

I don't rember now whether boys at Sheridan continued to wear short pants after the first grade (my guess is that few of them did) for we moved. Other private schools in the Washington area required actual uniforms--a few included short pants and knee socks. At the time, however, I knew nothing about that. My father was offered a job at the University of Colorado, and we left Washington for Boulder.

Before moving on to my rather stressful and completely unexpected Colorado experiences there, I might note in passing something very interesting that I heard just a few weeks ago from friends. They have a son, now a tall, gangly 8th grader, at St. Alban's. They mentioned that St Alban's requires a uniform of school blazer and tie, but allows boys to wear shorts with the coat and tie, at least in the warmer months. My friends mentioned that their son likes wearing shorts with his jacket and tie, and they like the way he looks in them.


Author: Bruce McPherson

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Last updated: November 13, 1998