Figure 1.--

I was born in upstate New York in 1928. We lived in the country north of Syracuse. New York as you may know is a very cold place during the winter--especially upsate New York. I attended elementary school in the 1930s. While after nearly 70 years I no linger remember all the details precisely, I do remember very clearly the long over the knee stockings that I had to wear during the winter.

Short Pants

As a young boy I wore short pants, even during the cold winter months. At school, the older boys mostly wore knickers, but a lot of us younger boys wore short pants. Normally we wore our shorts with ankle socks and kneesocks. Many of us at the time wore short pants because we were younger boys and shorts were considered appropriate for us. This mean that we not only wore short pants in the warm summer months, but continuued wearing them even in the colder months. We changed stockings, however, as it got colder.

Long Stockings

I remember wearing long black or brown cotton or wool stockings with short pants until the age of 6 or 7 years during the cold winter months. Many boys did so until they switched to knickers.

Length

The thing I hated most about the long stockings was that they were not long enough for my the short pants. It meant that they did not cover all my legs below my short pants. In our cold New York winters it was very uncomfortable. Of course, since they were always too short there was bare flesh between the stocking top and shorts. I envied my sisters who were snug and warm in their much longer stockings. I have no idea why my stockings, and those of all the boys were always too short and incredibly ill fitting. Our shorts never covered the stocking tops, even at the point where the single garter for each stocking was attached. At that age, when both boys and girls wore long wool stockings, it was assumed that long stockings were proper for both sexes. It was hard for us boys to understand why we were outfitted in such dreadful stockings and garters, while the girls enjoyed much longer and warmer stockings fastened tauntly by four garters. Perhaps it was all designed so that the boys would hate the stockings which they would soon shed, but the girls would love them because they would wear them all their lives. The design succeeded for me and I am sure for most of the boys, especially those who were the last to shed these dreadful stockings.

Color

My long stockings were usually black or various shades of brown. I think we wore both light tan and dark brown as well as black stockings. I had no preferences about the colors--as long as they were not white or some rediculous girlish color.

Girls usually wore white stockings. But I remember that my sisters had other colors too such as red, pink, yellow and blue for "occasions". My mother knit some very pretty patterned stockings for my sisters. I never wore white stockings; they were only for girls. But I wish I had-they were so much longer and would have felt good in the cold weather.

Material

I wore both cotton and wool stockings--cotton in cool weather, wool in cold weather. But as I have said neither were ever long enough. With wool you could roll in the snow and get them wet, but they were still warm.

Age

It was very common for boys up to the age of 6 or 7 years to wear short pants and long stockings. By then there was very serious rebellion by boys against what the began to see as wearing girls clothes.

Of course, the girls continued to wear stockings at least on some occasions. The big event for them came some years later when they switched from the cotton or wool stockings of childhood to shear womens' stockings.

Teasing

Of course, not all boys switched to knickers at the same time--it depended on your mother. Some mothers didn't take their sons pleading for knickers very seriously. Of course for us boys it was a matter og great urgency. So when you went to school or at play, some boys were in stockings and shorts and others in knickers. The last boys to make the switch were the object of some ridicule in which, I might add, the girls happily participated.

At our school, boys and girls often played together, especially the younger children. I remember one incident when all but one or two of the boys had switched to knickers. A girl walked up to one of the holdouts whose garters were plainly visible below his shorts attached to his ill fitting stockings. She took one of his garter straps in her hand and led the embarassed boy around the group saying to each "Oh, look at Johnies garters, aren't they cute." The ribbing was really pretty cruel. Fortunately, I escaped the worst of it. The girls at our school could be tough, and they knew we couldn't pop them like we could another boy who tried the same stuff or retaliate in kind.

Stocking supporters

The stockings were each held up by a single garter in front suspended from a crude garterbelt made by my mother. The stockings were never long enough and were not covered by the shorts so that the garters were plainly visible. It could also be cold. I remember protesting to my mother that the stockings should be longer but to no avail. I resented this because my sisters' stockings were all much longer and moreover fastened with four garters which were completely concealed because their stockings were so long. I suppose my mother reasoned that my sisters would be in stockings their whole life and should do it right from the beginning. But it didn't matter for me.

I wish that I could remember now how the garters were mounted. I am very hazy about this point. I am quite sure that the stockings were not pinned to the underware, but the garters may have been. I also have some recollection of a crude garterbelt made by my mother for the two garters. I have no recollection of a bodice from which the garters were suspended.

My sisters had garterbelts with four adjustable garters. They were 2 and 3 years older than I. They would commonly come to breakfast wearing their wool stockings rolled above their ankles, and then pull them up the legs and attach the garters just before going out into the snow.

Conventions

Normally, I only wore the long stockings in colder weather. I would occasionally wear them for special occasions when I dressed up, but this was only in the cold weathermonths--events like Christmas dinner

Photographs

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of myself as aboy. I did have some but they got chucked long ago. I remember clearly one picture of me sitting in shorts and dreadfully fitting black stockings with the garters plainly visible and thigh showing between the stockings and shorts. I grimace to even think about it now.

Knickers

In any event, I was very happy to graduate to knickers and turn the stockings over to my little brother for a repeat performance. I don't remember exactly what socks I wore with my knickers; some kind of knee sock. The knickers covered the top of the socks.

Even after switching to knickers, I still wore short pants during the summer--but not to school any more. I do remember wearing short opants for play during the summer, but never again with long stockings. It would have been war.