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HBC has only limited information on regional differences at this time. We do believe that short pants suits in America were also more common in the South with its warmer climate. Short pants suits may have been less regionally influenced. Age and social-class factors seem more important. This is, however, more complicated than it may seem. Short pants suits seem most common with affluent families, especially those with a European, especially British outlook. And well-to-do Americans with a British outlook were in the mid-20th century concentrated in the Northeast, especially in the urban areas running from Washibngton, D.C. through New York to Boston. Many of the country's best known private schools are also located in this area. We also see boys from well-to-do families in other areas wearing short pants suits, but not as commonly. Mothers seem to have generally preferred the shorts while the boys by the time they were 7 or 8 years old wanted longs, escpecially by the mid-1950s. This gradually age became an increasingly important factor. Long discussions ensued between moms and their sons on the subject. Boys did not wear short pants suits to school. We can see that in school portraits. There was even a Beaver episode illustrating this. Boys at private schools, however, might wear short pants suits, amd many of these schools were located in the northeast. This appears to have occurred irrespective of region and climate. The American media may have been a factor here. Beginning in the 1930s, Hollywood began to often costume brats, who were often scripted in wealthy families, as they appeared in movies in short pants suits.
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