Figure 1.--A British reader noticed differences in the uniforms the two boys here are wearing and has discussedthe details as well as some related aspects of tge clothesche wore as a boy. |
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A British reader has provided us some insights to the uniform items the boys here are wearing. Bill has provided us a wondurful assessment of his school experiences which included quite a bit of information on the uniforms he wore as a school boy in the 1960s abd 70s. He noticed a variety of details about the uniform items the prep school boys here are wearing. And recalled more of this own experiences. He noted the variatiojs in the uniforms and the pink-colored trim. Pink was not very popuilar with the boys.
Bill has provided us a wondurful assessment of his school experiences which included quite a bit of information on the uniforms he wore as a school boy in the 1960s abd 70s. As I mention, as a boy I always preferred kneesocks to short socks and always kept them neatly pulled up too (as I did even in Germany when I wore them with my school shorts rather than the new ankle socks and lightweight shorts that Mum had bought me). That was partly through habit because keeping our socks up was important to Mum and our schoolteachers - for some reason they saw untidy socks as a sign of juvenile deliquency in the offing!
Anyhow that brings me to anther subject.With turnover top kneesocks garters were always essential to keep them up.Making us new garters was always part of Mum's "back to school" routine. My brother didn't like them as he said they hurt and although that is true (they left a red ring on your leg if you had been wearing them all day especially when new!) I got used to them and still preferred that to wearing ankle socks whether at school or not.The only other type of garter were the cub ones that my brother wore and they had green flashes or "tabs" as they called them on them and Mum bought them from the cub shop, rather than made them herself. As I wasn't in the Cubs I never had them but I did notice on HBC that some schools had garters with tabs. This new page is about blazers but the boys are wearing garter tabs (different colours probably to denote their "house") [HBC note: Yes, different houses is precisely what the different colored garter tabs represented.
Incidently, are the boys in the image above from the same school? They are wearing the same jumpers with pink trim yet different coloured ties and differently coloured hoops on their socks (pink on the left and maroon on the right). The blazers are of a different shade too but that (like the cords) could be due to aging. My blazers were black so stayed so but our grey cords (which were not schoolwear) and my green ones faded over time with washing and so on). [HBC note: The difference in the uniform here are that the school was changing the uniform. The boy on the right has some of the new items.]
Well I hope for the boys' sake that the boys were changing from the pink trimmings to the maroon ones. I would have hated to wear pink as a boy (nearly as bad as the white kneesocks I mentioned and at least my hated check shorts were of a green/black/white pattern with no pink in sight!). Most boys I knew would have been the same - traditionally blue was a boys' colour and pink for girls and Grandmothers had to wait until they knew which gender was expected before buying the wool to knit new baby clothes although I know some boys whose Grans wanted a girl and knitted pink bonnets and so on in anticipation and when it turned out to be a boy they wore them anyhow. But being a baby it didn't really affect them until much later on when their Mum's got out the Family photo album to show to their girlfriends! [HBC note: Indeed the school was changing from pink to burgundy. The school was just beginning the cjange so the boys for the remainder of the year were allowed to wear the old pink items. And as Bill explains, the boys did dislike the pink. This was an all boys' boarding school with some day boys. During the day when we chatted with the boys, several boys expressed a decided dislike for the pink in their uniforms and were quite happy about the change in the color scheme.]
While on the subject of garters and kneesocks something else occurred to me that might be of interest. I already commented some time ago that when the new "self supporting" kneesocks came out they didn't have turnover tops so cubs had to turn them down at the top to accomadate their uniform garters thus shortening them to well below the knee. I am referring to what I wrote earlier on a page about Cub knee socks. Looking again the boy on the left is in fact wearing the green Cub tabs. (You can just see them.). They are not turn-over-top socks and he has not turned the socks down like the boy third from left as I mentioned before. The mystery of this might be that I recall Cub shops selling pieces of card with "garter" tabs attached. My brother never had them as we had proper turnovertop socks (plain grey for his Cubs without the school colours on) but I suppose that boys who did have non-turn-over-top socks could slip these pieces of card down the inside of tops of their socks and so show the tabs on the outside even though these were not attached to an elastic garter like the proper ones which had always been worn with knee socks traditionally.
The only kneesocks that I ever wore (was made to wear!) which didn't have turnovertops were a white pair that my Grandmother bought for me one Christmas. That was awful as for us white socks were for girls and grey or khaki for boys but my Mum made me wear them both Christmas Day and Boxing Day and it caused a lot of trouble that year! I have seen (on HBC again) some Scout bands that had the Cubs wear white knee socks but that is with their green garter tabs and have turnover tops so are not so bad. The ones my Grandmother bought me did not have turnover tops so I didn't wear garters and kept trying to push them down to hide them. As they were new the elastic holding them up (woven in to the top of the sock themselves) was still quite strong so Mum didn't believe me that they had fallen down by themselves and after the thrid time she saw them pushed down I had smacked legs and a warning to keep them up! She just didn't understand how embarrassing it was for me to be wearing them and nor did Gran but my brothers and cousins did and enjoyed every moment of my ordeal! That got me into further trouble both from Mum and my Grandfather and all over a pair of socks but to me it was important to at least make my protest known as I would never have voluntarily worn white kneesocks!
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