Figure 1.-- Here we see a boy in a Watt Kindegarten during 1945 wearing short pants and long stockings. He looks to be about 5 years old. Many of his classmaters, both boys and girls also wore long stockings. |
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Swiss children of all age wore long stoclings. We see children from infancy wearing them. And we note boys into their teens, mostly early teens wearing long stockings. The age limit seems to have been when boys began wearing long pants. This varied over time and among families. We do not know a great deal about the 19th century. We believe that once kbee pants becae common during the lte-19th centurym that most boys wore long stoclings. We do have information on the 20th century. We note boys as old as 15 or even 16 years wearing long stockings. During the inter-War years boys through about 11-2 years of age virtually all wore long stockings. Often boys began getting long pants by about 13-14 years of age. After World War II in the 1950s we begin to see younger boys wearing long pants, but by this toime long stockings were declining in popularity.
Most 5-year old Swiss boys wore long stockings. We are not sure just when this became common during the 19th century. It was, however, standard in the 20th century until well after Worldf War II. Here we see a boy in a Watt Kindegarten during 1945 wearing short pants and long stockings (figure 1). His classmaters, both boys and girls also wore long stockings.
Almost all younger Swiss school boys wore long stockings during the winter. We do not know much about the 19th century, but this was the case in the 20th century, at least the first half of the century when long stockings were commonly worn. We see little difference among children about 6-10 years of age. Mothers were especally concerned with keeping younger choldren warm in the cold weather. There were other reasons for wearing long stockings, but warmth was especially important for the younger children. Some also worn them even when the weather began to warm up. Some of the children began wearing knee socks, but thers cointinued to wear the long stockings. Unlike older boys, the younger boys were ulikely to role down their long stokings if hey did not like them or the wearher turned warm.
Boys through about 13 years of age wore either knee socks or long stockings, often on a seasonal basis. A good example are unidentified boys at a Zurich schools in 1931.
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