Figure 1.--Here we see the etance to a children's zoo somewhere in the United States. All we know for sure was that the slide was taken in 1966. Notice the boys wearing madras shorts. The also wear ligh-colored collared shirts, dark ankle socks and black leather shoes for a casual occassion. A reader writes, "I remember the madras craze. It did seem to start around 1966. That photo is quite typical of that era."

Boys commonly wote T-shirts with short pants along with sneakers. T-shirts were basic summwere wear. For casual occassions they were more likely to wear collared shirts. Younger boys might still wear blouses when dressing up. We no longer see many boys wearing knee socks with shorts. An exception here was younger boys still wearing short pants suits. This was primarily boys wearing Eton suits, but some boys still wore lapel jacket short pants suits. Another exception were Boy Scouts wearing the short pants uniform which was still worn with knee socks. Some mothers might buy kneesocks for caomp wear associating summer camping with Scouting. Sneakers had not yet replaced leather shoes. We still see boys wearing leather shoes and dark socks with shorts. The boys here in madras shorts and black siocks and leather shoes during 1966 are a good example (figure 1). We even see that at summer camp, although not so much as in the 1950s. Sneakers were mostly worn by primary-age children, but this would change significantly by the end of the decade. Boys wore the same kind of leather shoes commonly worn at school for casual occassions and play. This was the last decade that wearing leather shoes with short pants was still common. Boys by the 70s mostly wearing sneakers and white socks with short pants.

Created: 2:35 AM 5/28/2019
Last updated: 5:18 AM 5/28/2019