Figure 1.--.

I was reminded of my own schooldays when it was perfectly normal for boys to wear short trousers as part of their school uniform well into secondary school. I wore them until I was nearly 14 and a few other boys wore them longer than that. The last boy in my class to switch to "longies" did so at the beginning of the fifth form. Nobody thought anything of it really.

My Childhood

I grew up in the north of England.

My Primary School

There was no uniform at my primary school. Most boys wore short trousers at my primary, but there were no rules at all. It was whatever your mummy dressed you in.

The Secondary Modern

A lot of my friends after primary school went to a secondaty modern school. Boys there just wore a blazer and grey trousers, though quite a lot of boys didn't even wear these items. The school was not very strict about enforcing the regulations. A lot of boys in the younger forms also wore shorts like we did. It was the norm at the time. My memory that they "switched" sooner than we did, but I can't prove that.

My Grammar School

My school was a grammar school. I had done well on the 11 plus exam and had been selected to the grammar. This was in the early 1960s. Very proud we were too to have earned a place at the Grammar.

Uniform

We wore a black blazer with the school emblem on the pocket, striped house ties, short or long flannel trousers, grey knee socks, black shoes and, compulsory until the end of the second year, a school cap. We wore short trousers as part of the uniform.
p>I wore short trousers until I was nearly 14 and a few other boys wore them longer than that. The last boy in my class to switch to "longies" did so at the beginning of the 5th form. There was no problem with wearing shorts in forms 1 and 2. I think we were beginning to want to be rid of them in the 3rd form though there was never any open rebellion.

The school did not require that we wear short trousers. This was our parent's choice and a lot of the parents chosde shorts. The first year I'd say about 70-80 percent of us wore shorts. The second year shorts declined to about 60 percent. Beginning in the third form a lot of boys started wearing longs. I'd say only about 30 percent wore shorts at the beginning of the year, but many switched to longs that winter. By 4th form only about 5-10 percent of the boys wore shorts. In the 5th form boys no longer wore shorts.

Long Pants

The idea was mummy's pure and simple. What happened was that I had been chosen to be in a play put on by the local repetory company, actually quite a lot of us were but I was given a solo part including a singing role. I was a good singer as a boy and mummy was enormously proud of me. The long trousers were a surprise "reward" present. Actually I hated them, especially as I got a rash on the inside of my thighs where the flannel (no lining unlike my shorts) rubbed them. I certainly never asked for them and would have been very happy wearing shorts for a while longer. I suppose when puberty came I would not have liked wearing shorts but I was a late developer.

Boys' Opinion

We boys were all in favour of school uniform. I can remember discussing wearing shorts when we were in the 5th form once and saying that I actually preferred them and would not have minded if my parents had made me wear them longer. I was not alone, but I we were aminority. Nobody thought it was wrong for younger boys to wear them. I went to Australia and New Zealand earlier this year and there boys still wear shorts right through school. They look far better than ours in my opinion and ceratinly they did not mind wearing them at all.

Friends

I like to think I was popular with the other lads. Dickie, the boy I just referred to, certainly was. His father was the head of a secondary modern in the town and had a reputation for being very strict though I never met him so I don't know. Dicky, the son, was a very lively, likeable boy and never gave the impression that he had a tough time at home. He was the boy that wore shorts all through 4th form and did not start wearing longs until the beginning of the 5th form.

Fashions

I suppose we didn't mind wearing short trousers because we were looked on at that time as boys and not "young men". Much less were we looked on as an important segment of the clothing market which seems to be the fate of boys (and girls of course) these days.

After School Clothes

Because I came from a poor (financially) family, I always had to wear my last pair of shorts for play as soon as I got home from school. I also had some cord shorts. So, although I wore long trousers to school from just before my 14th birthday, I wore my shorts at home right until the time I left school at the age of 16. Again, there was nothing particularly unusual in that.

When I dressed up such as for church I would wear my school uniform.

Scouts

I was not a cub, but I was a Scout until I was about 14. We wore shorts there of course.