Figure 1.--This unidentified mother and her son look to be on vacation during the summer in the late-1950s. The boy looks to be about 10-years old. He wears a white shirt ad bow tie with light colored beltless shorts. He has white ankle socks and leather shoes. We only see German boys commonly wearing ankle socks in the 1950s, but we also see long stockings and knee socks.

The choice of hosiery was partially affected by the type ofpants worn. Germans were mostly wore ankle socks with both long and short pants. We note quite a number of images of boys wearing ankle socks with short pants and also long pants. Here both age, seasinality, and chronology were factors. Of course the tyoe of hosiery is often not apparent when the boys are wearing long pants. We do not see boys commonly wearing ankle socks with knee pants or knickers. German boys commonly wore short psnts during the 1920s-50s. We only see boys commonly wearing ankle socks in the 1950s, but we also see long stockings and knee socks. By the 1960s we no longer see long stockings and knee socks bdcome less common. Here a factor was thst we see many more boys wearing long pants, especially during the winter. This gradual shift to long pants, even by younger boys, was quite pronounced by the 70s when shorts became increasingly casual summer wear. Most boys wore long pants with ankle socks. And we see fewer boys wearing knee socks, even with shirts. This of course was at least in part because shorts were only being worn during the summer.