Figure 1.--Here we see boys with the two different styles of book bags that were popular in the 1980s, the briefcase and sports style. |
|
The day children at prep schools often bring briefcase satchels or book bags to school--mostly the traditional over the shoulder style. Virtually all boys had proper leather satches in the 1960s, but a reader tells us that this was less common for the girls. These satchels had disappeared by the late 1970s when we began our project. Of course in the 1960s there were far fewer coed schools. This wasn't a rule, just a convention. Styles changed and after World War II brief cases became much more common. Another change occurred in the late 70s and early 80s and vinyl sports bags became all the rage. Here schools generally did not set rules, but just allowed the children to follow the prevailing fashion. We note prep scchool boys in the 80s with satchels and sports bags. At senior schools the boys seem to all have the sports bags, but quite a number of prep boys still had the satchels.
The day children at prep schools often bring briefcase satchels or book bags to school--mostly the traditional over the shoulder style. Virtually all boys had proper leather satches in the 1960s, but a reader tells us that this was less common for the girls. These satchels had disappeared by the World War II era. WE see boys in the 1950s wearing briefcase-style satchels. I'm not entirely sure when they first appeared, but we notice them by the 1950s. Styles began to change in the 1970s and we begin to see sports bags, viny bags with logos. By the 80s these vinyl sports bags became all the rage.
We are not sure what type of school bags the girls used. Of course in the 1960s there were far fewer coed schools. The differences were not a rule only a concention.
We notice English boys wearing over the shoulder school bags in the early 20th century. They do not seem to be nearly as common as in Germany. Perhaps English teachers did not assign as much homework to the boys. The style we often saw at prep schools were the brief-case style satchels. They were used mostly at day schools where the boys needed to bring books and paper home for their hoime work. The other common styles were vinyl sports bags, but these seem more popular at sebior schools than the prep schools. This varied from school to school. As with other items a fad popularized by the older boys often set the trend at the school. They could prove udseful even at boarding schools, but this was less true at prep schools which had smaller grounds with all the facilities located in close proximity.
Here schools generally did not set rules, but just allowed the children to follow the prevailing fashion. We note prep scchool boys in the 80s with satchels and sports bags. At senior schools the boys seem to all have the sports bags, but quite a number of prep boys still had the satchels. A factor here is thsat the older boys were often more deeply involved in sports and these bags were handy in caring around sports gear. to
