Figure 1.--This happy looking primary school class in 1963 was the second year class. The children are 8-9 years old. Noitice the British-style school caps. There are no ties, but somne boys wear suit jackets. Some boys are dressed more like American boys. Notice the jeans. Sandals seem, however, more popular than sneakers. Our reader tells us, "Iīm the second boy from the left, sitting on the ground! (not wearing the basketball shoes with my favourite bands on! The ones Iīm wearing here are a lower variant of basketball shoes and they are probably blue, which werenīt writer-friendly, nor having the space for writing either!)

A Swedish reader who attended school in the 1960s tells us, "I was born in 1955, so back in 1963, I was 8 years old (Second class in Swedish schools - we start at 7 in Sweden!) Here is my class picture from May 1963. At my school, we were not required to have uniforms, but it became quite popular among us boys to wear a mixture of the uniform and ordinary clothes! I guess, I was to blame for that partially - me and my best school mate invented a new fashion - blue jeans (of course, as you stated cuffed at the ankle) and the school jacket (grey flannel) To go with this; American basketball shoes! Later on we used our felt pens to put on the names of our favourite pop bands and singers, like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Elvis! My mother DIDNīT appreciate the scribblings on my new shoes, thatīs for sure!" The Swedish photograph is interesting, in part for the mixture of styles. Note the rather British looking school caps as well as the American looking jeans and sneakers. One boy even wears a San Francisco "T" shirt.

Created: 7:22 PM 12/29/2004
Last updated: 7:22 PM 12/29/2004