Figure 1.--

The United states is a nation of immigrants. Often parents of new immigrants would send their children to school in the clothes the boys wore to their schools in the countries they had immigrated from--usually European countries. The reaction of the American children varied. Some schools commonly had foreign students. Foreign students were not, however, common at most schools. Usually the boy quickly convinced their parents to buy more approprite clothes, but some parents did not like American clothing styles and insisted on the European styles. Some information is available on these experiences. There were some similar incidents with American boys who had lived overseas.

Boston (The 1950s)

An American growing up in Boston has provided the following recollections.

Writing about my youth, looking at photos, remembering, I realized that things do not fall into neat catagories. A few boys on the verge of their teens in 1955 were still in dress shorts. Foreign kids and even kids from other parts of the country dressed very differently than boys in Boston. We had no MTV to guide us. Even American Bandstand had yet to appear.

Boston in the early 1950's was international enough to have European kids whose families were spending time in the city and maybe not large enough to support seperate lycees. I remember French (and other European kids) in sixth form(seventh grade) in Latin School. Their clothes, (elegant suits with short pants) like so many things about them (incredible acuity and total obedience to their parents) were at once sophisticated and childish.

My recollection is that on opening day of school there were some eleven and twelve year old boys still in shorts. I believe this was tolerated by the rest of us in the foreigners who knew no better. The few American boys still dressed that way were taunted. And I don't think anyone was wearing shorts after a couple of weeks. Transfer students would still appear wearing them.

I don't remember anything special about most of these kids. There was a Lithuanian kid, in the country a brief time. Very smart. He wore shorts and had bangs which were also unheard of at the time. My recollection is of him playing basketball in long pants and short hair.

I don't recall knowing the foreiggn kids very well. I did know an Americannkid in my early teens, his family had just returned from Engand where they had lived for a while. He was very embarrassed at a picture his mother insisted on keeping in their living room. It was him in a traditional English school uniform, school cap and shorts and hadn't been taken that long before.

The worst incident, I recall was a couple of years later in fourth form when a Mormon boy transfered in. At gym class (a great trial for a mid-year transfer student anyway) at a time when most American boys wore white briefs, he was discovered to be wearing the traditional tunic-like Mormon under garments and tormented so badly that his parents took him out of the school.

Created: November 26, 2000
Last updated: November 27, 2000