Who remembers wearing short trousers at senior school
I did till I was 13,. Never see lads these days at senior school in short trousers
yvan6615 · 80-89, M
There is a confusion about the term senior school, In our american and canadian system the term designates the last year of high school or junior college.Students are generally 16 to 19 years old. Contrary to your statement, in the end of the 40's and in the 50's there was still some students of these ages in Canada and maybe in the U.S.A. who were wearing short trousers as a school uniform like today in some private schools in New-Zeeland and South Africa,
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sarahxjayne · F
@JulesJohnson well, amazingly my nephew has started to wear short trousers again! My sister is a conservative parent who is very protective and doesn't want him to grow up too quickly so he is back in shorts - traditional grey short trousers - at weekends. He was very blushy about it when he came round but i told him he looked very nice and smart. Wayne is 14 incidentally. He really did look adorable
Thirdformer · 70-79, M
@sarahxjayne Good for your sister - but why isn't she insisting that he wears them for school as well - or is his school one of those that don't allow that? If so, it's a shame. Quite a lot of English boys of his age after all have been campaigning over the last few years for the right to wear shorts in summer and many schools have given in to their demands. Wayne would be a lot less "blushy" about being in short trousers if some of his pals were wearing them as well.
Caned4doz · 61-69, M
I remember it very well. I went to a Catholic boy's high school. The uniform was very strict and the same rules applied for all boys regardless of their seniority. Summer uniform dictated shorts and long socks and the winter uniform required long trousers. There was very little tolerance for not wearing correct uniform. The shorts were typical for the time (mid 60s to early 70s) and came down to about mid thigh. I remember I would plead with my mother to buy new shorts as growth had the getting shorter and shorter very quickly!
yvan6615 · 80-89, M
@skimpyboy Some memories popped up to my mind after more than sixty years,As senior student still in shorts,my clasmates were not very appreciative of my personality, I think that most of the class were tacitely disapproving my choiceof wearing short pants so late in my teens, The most of them were distant, condescending and sometimes agressive towards me.I was different, eccentric, babyish or girlislh.in my short pants I was looking three or four years younger than my age and my mates were in majority junior students in short pantts of the same mental age. I felt secure and at ease with them.Moreover, without being to aware of it, I revealed myself as unruly and undisciplined and often deserved to be paddled,spanked or strapped still at 17-18 years old like a ten years brat. I was really embarrassed and shameful when I had to return to my class crestfallen, weeping and sobbing after a sound bare bottom spanking sometimes on the headmaster's lap. A that age I didn't yet make the distinction between affectivity and sexuality and between mental and chronological age. I am still bewildered for not having gone through this rite of passge on time i.e. switching to long pants like all the other normal lads..I think that Ihave never gone throug! Please tell me what you think about these memories. Thanks a lot.
Caned4doz · 61-69, M
@yvan6615 The teenage years are a turbulent time. I can remember feeling envious of those lads my age who seemed to be self-assured and confident, whereas I thought of myself as immature and uncertain. I tried my best to appear normal (whatever that meant). As for the shorts, it was different for me in that the school I attended didn't give choices. The uniform mandated shorts for summer and long trousers for winter and no matter the age of boys, those rules applied.
I think it was different for you as I am guessing you had the choice to wear shorts or longs. You chose shorts whereas your peers opted for longs. With you in the minority, you became the focus of attention.
Discipline and corporal punishment was something else again. My school was very strict (it was a private Catholic boys school). Punishments escalated with age. Juniors could often be put over the knee and spanked, some got whacked with the board ruler, but once aged around 13 and over, it was the cane. Punishments did seem to decline in frequency as one got older and that was probably because we stopped doing silly nonsense, but when we were punished, we damn well knew about it. My housemaster was no slouch with the cane and it was a very tough boy who didn't have tears after a proper six of the best.
Your memories are YOUR memories and they fit with your personality and character. There was (and still) no such thing as 'normal', but I do accept that there was a common standard that as teenagers we desperately wanted to neatly comply with. Anyone who was slightly different was the subject of teasing and ridicule and for those on the receiving end, that made life difficult and had them questioning themselves.
I think it was different for you as I am guessing you had the choice to wear shorts or longs. You chose shorts whereas your peers opted for longs. With you in the minority, you became the focus of attention.
Discipline and corporal punishment was something else again. My school was very strict (it was a private Catholic boys school). Punishments escalated with age. Juniors could often be put over the knee and spanked, some got whacked with the board ruler, but once aged around 13 and over, it was the cane. Punishments did seem to decline in frequency as one got older and that was probably because we stopped doing silly nonsense, but when we were punished, we damn well knew about it. My housemaster was no slouch with the cane and it was a very tough boy who didn't have tears after a proper six of the best.
Your memories are YOUR memories and they fit with your personality and character. There was (and still) no such thing as 'normal', but I do accept that there was a common standard that as teenagers we desperately wanted to neatly comply with. Anyone who was slightly different was the subject of teasing and ridicule and for those on the receiving end, that made life difficult and had them questioning themselves.
yvan6615 · 80-89, M
@Caned4doz Thank you so much for your unexpected and wise reply.Your last paragraph is particularly insightfull and does correspond to the school experiences I went through. I was enrolled in a Catholic junior college in which senior students ( 17-19 years old) were given choices between short and long pants. At 16, my parents believed that I was still too young and immature to shift to long trousers, So, with three or four lads , I spent my senior years in short trousers and. in minority, we, short pants, bearers, became the focus of attention and the subject of teasing and harassement, Although I felt so insecure and so unconfortable, I never brought into question the appropriateness of wearing short trousers at 17-18 years old. I think that I was a slow lerner and tardy grower, with an uncertain sexuality. I looked f for sure four or five years younger than my age . As the corporal punishments were seldom meted out in the senior classes, the prefect of discipline,after many warnings and hours of detention for what you call rightly silly nonsense, at least had three times to resort to the martinet on my bare bottom to talk some sense into me. It didn't seem to work. I suppose that I was one of these teens slow to get it (lent à l'allumage) Happy to read that you were a very tough boy, while I was a weakling , a crying babby s kind of wuz on daddy or the prefect's lap. Please, message me again I enjoy reading you.
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InstructHer · 61-69, M
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Tuscan · 70-79, M
when I was at school almost everyone wore shorts at school. For the last few decades it has only been primary school children who were allowed to wear shorts. They seem to have come back into fashion for teenagers recently, but it is mostly girls who wear them at primary school.
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Tuscan · 70-79, M
@ArtieKat shorts were optional for the first two years (our lower school) but we weren't allowed to wear them when we reached the upper school, which was the year we took in pupils via the common entrance exam. Personally I came through the state system which used the 11 plus exam for entry to the lower school.
Thirdformer · 70-79, M
@Fun4All Actually quite a few English boys attending senior schools have been campaigning over recent years for the right to wear shorts, in summer at least - and many schools have given in to their demands and made what they now call "tailored shorts" an optional part of the uniform. So, although they're probably in a minority, there are once again quite a few teenage lads in short trousers!
ArishMell · 70-79, M
Didn't see them in my day either, not past the Second Year of senior school. Most boys were in longs before the end of that year - I was one the last few to be in shorts until then. It put me off wearing shorts until really, quite recently.
trackboy · 26-30, M
Rhode57 · 56-60, M
I have never heard of short trousers . It was just shorts or trousers .
