Figure 1.-.

I don't remember being particularly fashion consious at this age 10-11 just wanting to feel comfortable and having fads like my grey jeans, wearing my grey school shirt--which was of a flannel-type material and very comfortable to me (if I did come home after school I'd only change out of my school shorts for jeans pull on a favourite jumper if needed over my shirt. I liked to wear the jumper tied round my waist and head out with my mates. We wore khaki shorts and sandals in the Summer - with short or long socks - if I wore long socks I allways wore my school garters with them. In the Winter I wore jeans. Like I've said before when we were kids we never used to plan things much – where we'd play etc. or who with. We'd just turn up on the bombsite or in the park and see what was going on and if there was nothing doing we'd head off somewhere else in search of adventure. I've also written about how, outside of the school holidays, Saturday and Sunday afternoons were our main play times and how, from the age of about 9, when I first met him, until 11, when we moved to another part of London, my main playmate was Michael. In the summer of 1970 we were rehoused to another area of London. I got in with a group of local boys through playing football in the local park. If not wearing the football strip, this group had a sort of "summer uniform" of t-shirts worn with brushed-denim shorts or shop-bought jean shorts. I asked my mum for some but she refused saying I had plenty of clothes - half of which were hand-me-downs from my brother.

Early Years

I don't remember being particularly fashion consious at this age 10-11 just wanting to feel comfortable and having fads like my grey jeans, wearing my grey school shirt--which was of a flannel-type material and very comfortable to me (if I did come home after school I'd only change out of my school shorts for jeans pull on a favourite jumper if needed over my shirt. I liked to wear the jumper tied round my waist and head out with my mates. We wore khaki shorts and sandals in the Summer - with short or long socks - if I wore long socks I allways wore my school garters with them. In the Winter I wore jeans or a pair of grey corduroy shorts with a thick hand knitted pullover. I also had a younger brother who attended the same school. For some reason I got into reading about the Amercan Civil War when I was about 10. It wasn't taught at school or anything--maybe it was from TV. I persauded my mother to buy me a pair of grey jeans which I wore with my grey school shirt and pretended to be "riding with Stonewall Jackson". All the other kids being the other side in blue jeans- wiered or what? I think I just wanted to be different.

Dressing Up

I hated any "dress up" occasions that forced me into something different or unfamiliar. One such instance was school occasions (prize days, carol concerts, trips out to museums) when a white shirt was stipulated for boys. Even in Summer I found these white shirts cold and comfortless. A minor change was not in the clothes but how we wore them. This occurred when for some reason my mother had got off work early and came to meet us from school to go on a shopping trip. This always involved her trying to restore us to the smartly dressed boys she'd sent out that morning and involved retying ties, tucking in shirts and pulling up socks followed by a hair combing. All very embarrassing for an 11-year-old in front of his mates. The major "dress up" occaisions were the thrice yearly visits to our grandparents in Yorkshire. For these my Mum always dressed me in a pair of "Prince of Wales check" shorts which I HATED.

Attitude Toward Clothes

The truth is also that I was quite possesive and even "faddy" (as my Mum would have it) about what clothes I wore at that age.I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I had had to share my clothes with my brother who was less than a year older than me up until then.I think that I told you that when my Mum took me shopping for clothes for the German trip it was the first time that I had had clothes bought just for me (by Mum that is - Gran was a different matter and I still have to tell you about that).I suppose I carried that attitude over into Germany - even though I would have fitted in more with the German boys if I had have borro! wed some of their clothes - and I'm sure that the German boy's Mother and his Dad (with that camera of his!) would have been delighted. Anyway - that's how it is.You get used to the feel of your own clothes

Locations

Perhaps I should say how Mum organised our clothing so as to make things run smoothly. It will help explain a little about how we functioned from day to day. There were three main locations for our clothes (four if you include the laundary basket!) depending on the clothes.

Clothing Items

A lot of my memories about clothes as a boy concern my school uniform. There were, however, some specific items other than school uniform that I do recall. The clothes I wore varied a good bit depending on just whereI plasyed and whether mum was about or not.

Check shorts

The major "dress up" occaisions were the thrice yearly visits to our grandparents in Yorkshire. For these my Mum always dressed me in a pair of "Prince of Wales check" shorts which I HATED. The term was derived from the check pattern--a sort of grey/white/black/green. A very distictive pattrn which made me stand out. This check pattern was made popular by the Prince of Wales (future Edward VII) in the late 19th century. As HBC point out, Bertie as he was called in the family had a major impact on both both boys' and mens' clothing. It became a standard for hunting and outings in the country by the Victorian elite. Sherlock Holmes was often portrayed in a cape and deerstalker hat in this pattern. The shorts thmselves were the normal style for the time. I think some wealthier men wore Prince of Wales check suits. It may have been an expensive cloth. I only had the shorts. - I think my Grandparents must have bought them. Often I might fuss about what i wore, but once dressed quickly forgot about it. This was not the case of these checked shorts. The only shorts this was not the case with for me were the check shorts. was acutely consious of wearing them even when I'd forgotten I'd got them on as my brother would make a point of reminding me and anyone else who was around.It became a sort of family joke - even for my Uncle - but I didn't think it was funny! Nor did my gran who thought that they were one of the few items of clothing that were "properly finished" that came from the stores and not her sewing machine! She probably had bought them anyway.

Strap (suspender) shorts

Suspender shorts (or strap shorts as we called them) were probably less common in England than in other European countries but they were not unknown even when I was growing up even for school. I recall that some boys wore grey strap shorts for school when I started there and even one or two when I was in class 2 (8 and 9-year-olds). I think that these were more hand-me-down shorts from older brothers as I never saw school strap shorts on sale except for the younger boys. A lot of girls wore strap skirts for Winter and that is why boys who wore them got a hard time.

Terminology

I should mention a little about the terms we used both for our home clothes and school uniform items. This is important I think because I have noted differences with the terms we used and modern terms. Even as a boy I noticed differences between ters we used and the oes use by Mum and Gran. There is also differences between our terms and American clothing terms which can cause some confusion.

Play

There was a variety of clothing aspects concerned with play and the various places where I played as a boy while I was in primary schools. Here I remember some details not only anout my clothes, but also my mates that I played with. It's funny - my most vivid memories are of before that period - when we still lived in the old area and I was still at primary school.I missed that area (the park,the river,the bombsite) and my friends when we moved and I never really settled at my secondary school. I suppose it's because after we moved and then I got the paper round I chose my clothes (except for school) and paid for them too whereas before my Mum did so I had more to complain about, but I suppose so did she.

Our play

Like I've said before when we were kids we never used to plan things much – where we'd play etc. or who with. We'd just turn up on the bombsite or in the park and see what was going on and if there was nothing doing we'd head off somewhere else in search of adventure. I've also written about how, outside of the school holidays, Saturday and Sunday afternoons were our main play times and how, from the age of about 9, when I first met him, until 11, when we moved to another part of London, my main playmate was Michael. My mum and Michael's mum got to know each other too after an incident on the bombsite when I got a nail through my foot and Michael's mum took me to hospital and then my mum came down from work – but that's another story.The thing is that since then we'd hate it if they met on the street when we were with them as they'd talk for hours – normally about us and what we'd be getting up to which was embarrassing – especially as some of Michael's sis! ters would be there too.

Play sites

We lived in West London which wasn't so industrial as the East End but the River was still filthy then and it stunk (they've cleaned it up a lot now). My mum didn't like us playing down by the river - but then she didn't like us playing on the bombsite either but she never outright banned us.

Bombsite

Park

We had a nice park near our home and school. We used it a lot as children. Mum would also take us there after school in the warm weather to use the paddling pool. My brothers like it more than I liked it. There was also a sandpit. I noted the HBC page on sandboxes and I can tell you a little about the subject as far as England is concerned. I already told you about the paddling pool in the park near us that my Mum used to take us to after school sometimes in the Summer. Well next to the paddling pool was what we called the "sandpit". It was quite a large area of sand sunken a couple of feet below the path around it and it had a concrete rectangular block in the middle that kids used to climb up on and jump into the sand.

The beach

Close to us was an open bit of the river which we called a “beach”. In fact it was just thick grey mud with a few gravelly bits near the road at the top. This was a great place to go as most of the River was closed in by walls and houses or factories on our side of the river (the North) so you couldn't get at it or even see it. On this beach would be washed up all sorts of things – mainly wood and plastic or polystyrene junk – but sometimes you would find something really interesting. I once found a child's plastic doll and it got my imagination going as to where it had come from and I wrote a story for school about that that everyone liked. We also used to write messages in bottles (they were glass bottles then but they still floated) and imagine them being carried off to anywhere in the world. The best thing about this place, though, was that there was an island just a few yards from the shore. At low tide you could wade over through the mud onto the island and really have some good adventures. It never happened to me but a couple of times kids did get trapped on it at high tide and have to be taken off by police launch and then there'd be all sorts of dire warnings from parents not to play down there and calls to fence it off. There was also an old rotting wooden boat down there which we'd have loved to get onto. It never floated as it was stuck on the bottom but you couldn't get to it even at low tide as it was off to the side away from the beach next to the high embankment wall of an old brewery and the mud between the beach and it was too deep even for us. It did however have a great thick mooring chain that anchored it too the beach and we'd often dream of climing up that and getting on to the boat. The trouble is the chain was so thick you couldn't even get your hands around the links – I doubt if even an adult could – so no-one to my knowledge ever did. The main thing though was the island. I'll tell you of one incident which is sort of about clothing and how it affects what you do and how what seems the “correct clothing” for certain activities to an adult is not so for kids.

The canal

Where they did ban us from was the canal. We never used to swim in the river – we'd been warned of currents and there was even a lifebelt on the beach which was never vandalised or anything as we'd been taught the importance of these things at school. There were swimming pools – but they cost money and swimming in the canal was more fun as there were locks and things. The Grand Union canal was about a couple of miles from where we lived so we didn't go up there much. When we did it was great. There's be other kids up there – kids who we didn't really know that well like we did those from our area – and we had a good laugh. However one of Michael's sisters found out and told his mum who told my mum and then we were told in no uncertain terms that the canal was banned. They were right – the canal was even more polluted than the river – and being stagnant water was never cleaned. I once saw a dead dog in it – so I suppose that was for the best.

Swimming pools

I was in a swimming club from when I was 10 and I used to go along wearing my club tracksuit top to the open-air swimming pool at Chiswick on really hot days. We never had the admission money but I used to tell them that I was training to be an Olympic swimmer and that Michael was timing me! They never believed us – but they used to let us in sometimes – especially as Michael started embellishing the story so convincingly that even I started to believe it. I think they found his stories amusing.

Laundry

One reason that I remember a good bit about my boyhood clothes is that mum had us helping with the laundry as soon as she thought we were able. Actually I didn't mind the washing, but when we got older we had to help with the irining as well. It was the ironing that I didn't like doing. Any way as a result, I got used to reading the labels closely. The labels stated the temperature to be washed at as well as the material which meant that you had to have the iron on a particular setting. Mum got a modern iron so it wasn't like the old "flat irons". Some clothes had to be "drip dry" which meant on the line outside or over the bath if it was raining and some of my little brother's clothes - some socks especially I remember - were of a wool/synthetic mix which meant they would shrink if they were put into the tumble dryer at the launderette. They had to be drip dried too. Labels had symbols on them - like an iron with a cross through it for non-iron clothes or a water symbol with the temperature to be washed at written next to it. I'm not sure how international these symbols were. I would say that most school jumpers today are made from synthetic fibres such as acrylic. These acrylic sweaters were even around when I was at school. I am pretty sure that my secondary school jumper (the "official" one with the school colours that I started in - shown on my passport photo) was acrylic. That was of a tighter knit than wool and I bet that very few school jumpers are hand-knitted at home today.

New Friends

In the summer of 1970 we were rehoused to another area of London. I got in with a group of local boys through playing football in the local park. If not wearing the football strip, this group had a sort of "summer uniform" of t-shirts worn with brushed-denim shorts or shop-bought jean shorts. I asked my mum for some but she refused saying I had plenty of clothes - half of which were hand-me-downs from my brother. After some sulking I came home one Saturday to find that she had cut down a pair of my brothers old jeans for me. She thought I'd be pleased but I burst into tears because she'd cut them longer than the shop-bought ones and had left an outside hem - which made it look as if they'd been rolled up. She hit the roof - 'can't say I blame her - she didn't have a lot of time or money and here's this ungrateful little....Anyway she told me then that from then on besides basics if I wanted any special clothes I'd have to buy them myself - something I took on board in a big way - but I didn't realise that then. I now relise that she was already thinking of having to buy my new secondary school uniform. I refused to wear the jean-shorts. I think they went to my younger brother and hung around in football shorts or (long) jeans. The "gang"'s older brothers were starting to wear "skinhead" gear - levi jeans or sta-pressed trousers worn with "Doctor Marten" boots and "Ben Sherman" shirts and braces. My mum wouldn't have been impressed but then she was out at work. I suppose that was the time when I became really "fashion-consious" - aged 11 - at the start of the 1970s. What this led to was me getting a job (a paper round) to buy the clothes dictated not by my mother but by other boys! Other than, that is, the school uniform--but it was a challenge to us then to try to subvert even these regulations ....

Bill