Figure 1.--Camp shorts were primarily a casual style, but primary-age boys did wear them to school. Here we see a boy pictured as going to school on a Cat Stevens '45 rpm record. Click on the image for a more detailed disussion.

Camp shorts were primarily a casual style, but primary-age boys did wear them to school. A reader has provided us this image of a boy pictured as going to school on a Cat Stevens '45 rpm record. The cover illustrates a variety of American school fashions.

'45 Records

Our younger readers may not knoe what a '45 was. This was a small record with a very large center hole. It was a way of releasing singles, although a second pices of lesser interest was on the recerse side. It was mostrly bought by teenagers who just wanted a single song rather than a whole album. They were thus relativeky inexpensive and played on low-cost phonographs.

Cat Stevens Album Cover

Our reader writes, "This is a picture to verify that boys did were camp shorts to school. This picture is on a record cover of a 45rpm that cat stevens made in the 70s called "Down by the Old School Yard". You can see the right bellow snap on the pocket as well as the metal utilty clip, and the fact that the shirt is tucked in and he is holding books on one of those school book belts. It looks like he is running it could be running to school or running after getting out of school. Also notice he is wearing a long sleave plaid shirt those type of shirts were very common when I went to school. Also notice the sneakers they look like keds sneakers. It also looks like he is wearing a baseball cap."

Clothing Iluustrated

The albnum does illustrate a variety of American school fashions, but it seems rather a mix of items made up for a phjotographic shoot rather than a real image of a boy going to school in the 1970s. The boy's long hair does look correct for the 1970s. The plaid shirt was also a popular style as were camp shorts. Pairing the long-sleeve shirt wioth camp shorts, however, does not look quite right. Generally boys wore camp shorts at the beginning of the school year (September) before the weather turned cool and at thge end of the school year (May-June) when the weather warmed up. Normally camp shorts were worn with short-sleeve shirts. Boys switched to long pants and long-sleeve shirts at about the same time. Also the sicks di not look eight, boys commonly wore knee-length tube socks with camp shorts in the 1970s. Also the sneakers do not look right. These black high-tops were very common for American boys in the 1950s, they were, however, not very common by the 1970s. Boys more commonly wore low-cut running shoes. Finbally books on a book strap were not at all common. Thid looks more like a fearure from the 1930s.

Created: 3:03 PM 10/26/2004
Last updated: 3:03 PM 10/26/2004