This is One of Those Things People Do When They Get Old and Actually Believe Others Care....

[Joe Guy]

I started out with flares but, as I remember, they weren't very wide at the bottom. Then I graduated to bells and then to big bells. I remember thinking they looked like girl's pants at first but my brother was in the Navy then and that's what sailors wore. Then after a while it seemed that all my friends were wearing bells, so of course I wore them too. My brother gave me a real Navy P-coat too.

whoop dee-doo....

[ex-khobar Andy]

I don't recall which was which, but some had a seam at the knee and then belled (flared) out from there.

[Big RR]

As I recall, bell bottom belled out jut above the ankle for a couple of inches while flare bottoms flared from the knee and got quite large. Also, generally, bell bottoms did not have a crease along the leg while flare bottoms did.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I can see you were going for the full Jimmy Connors thing there, Meade.

I grew out of it a year later



That's Engels on the left and Che on the right. Well, that's as you face it. Otherwise it's Che on my left and Engels on my right

[Sue U]

I was there too - I still insist the styles of the 70s were far superior to anything since, which is basically all kinds and shades of drab.

Well, the Mod and Psychedelic styles that preceded the Disco 70s were anything but drab, but I'm certainly not going to argue that the 80s were better than the 70s. After all, I suppose "tacky" is a style, too.

[Bicycle Bill]

I grew out of it a year later

I'm not trying to start anything here, but I went out a couple of time with girls whose hair didn't look half that good.

-"BB"-

[BoSoxGal]

I can see you were going for the full Jimmy Connors thing there, Meade.

I grew out of it a year later



That's Engels on the left and Che on the right. Well, that's as you face it. Otherwise it's Che on my left and Engels on my right

You once had cats named Engels and Che? WTF happened?!

[Econoline]

"Miao" was too obvious?

[MajGenl.Meade]

"Miao" was too obvious?

Already taken. Friend had "Miao See Dung".

My life has been accompanied by Fiver, Happy, Hi-Fi, Skipper, Zoe, Che, Engels, Merlin, Hippo, Ubu, Twobu, Mrs. C. Annie Bufourd, and best of all, Butrus Butrus Kitty and Appomattox

10 cats, 3 dogs and 1 hamster

It was someone on this board who pointed out the obvious "Bufourd" as a numerical continuation AND a US Civil War pun-ishment.

BSG - that was during my "What is to be done?" phase, not to mention Das Kapital and Grundrisse. Still can't bring myself to use an ice-pick or travel to Mexico

[Big RR]

that's understandable; many people get the Trots in Mexico.

[MajGenl.Meade]

[Joe Guy]

Does anyone remember guys' (boys) "pegged" pants? My interpretation probably isn't/wasn't correct because I was very young then but what we called pegged were pants that were so tight at the bottom of the leg that you could barely put them on if you put your socks on first. They weren't tight in other places, just the ankle area and I don't think they were sold that way. They would be tailored by a mom or a yourself.

Which reminds me, my father, uncle and others who were smokers always wore cuffed pants and when no ashtray was nearby (and sometimes when they were) they would flick their cigarette ashes into the cuff.

Those were the good old days, weren't they?....

[MajGenl.Meade]

Ah Jo, you were young indeed. Our "pegged" pants didn't require that we hip kids sewed or spent extra money. There was a method of turning up the pants cuff (I've probably forgotten it now) (Forgotten what?). Turns out (or up) that it may have been called "pinning" but what did we know? We thought they were pegged and that was that.

[Bicycle Bill]

I never rolled my pants legs, but I do remember how the junior and senior girls at my Catholic high school used to roll their skirts over at the waistline a couple times, effectively shortening the skirt an inch or so — and thinking, since it was hidden beneath the sweaters they wore over their regulation white blouses, that they were putting one over on the nuns.

-"BB"-

[Big RR]

That was common in public school as well (the girls had to wear dresses or skirts until i was a senior in high school), but the really industrious ones would hem them when they arrived with an easily removable stitch so they could pull it out before they got home. And since we didn't have nuns (and the war influenced many males to go into teaching to avoid the draft), there were few complaints.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Back in the 50s UK, junior school from age er . . . 8 to 11 . . . the girls used to tuck their regulation green and white check skirts into their regulation navy blue underwear for gym/athletics. Nobody cared. Nobody

[Big RR]

Meade--Those skirts must have been pretty short, or the underwear extra big to fit the tucked skirt.

In elementary school, I recall kids being forced to do gym class in their underwear if they forgot their shorts and tee shirt (not sure about sneakers, maybe they just used their socks) , but then it was just boys in the class--the girls had a separate gym class so I am not sure what they did (the only gym teach was male, so I doubt the older ones, at least, were subjected to this indignity.

Another thing that I just recalled; we used to have after school swim class at the YMCA and you had to swim nude--suits were not permitted. Again, just boys (don't know what the girls did) but everyone in the pool, even grown men, were nude.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Sounds as if the YMCA's (rather non-Christian) reputation was well deserved even all those years ago. The Village People were not wrong.

[Big RR]

I've often thought that myself. Gives a different context to "You can hang out with all the boys".

[Joe Guy]

Suggestion for a YMCA theme song....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWN65nAkk20