Things that were originated at one point but arrived at another come into this very much changed situation as we have now got the nuts and bolts of Mum's funeral arranged with date, time, person to officiate and formal notices for the press all underway.
The history of corduroy trousers and me goes back a long time, generally the era of the creeping in long trousers when Mum was looking for something hardwearing as with my disabilities I was more likely than most boys to fall over and damage them.
You might say, I certainly did, that frankly the best thing given all of that was short trousers full stop as at least all that was needed was cleaning up any cuts, antiseptic such as TCP and plasters (bandaids) to keep it clean but this was the 1970's and everybody was pushing longs typically jeans as they were held to be "cool".
The first cords I had were dark dusty pink colour which frankly horrified me - it might of been a pretty colour but no boy wore pink in 1970's britain ever - being almost girls so I had to keep a watch out coming from Sunday School and the likes if in them as other boys would give you grief and some for wearing anything they felt girlish.
Later one were at least more sensible colours such as navy blue and brown although it was never long before I was going around with at least one well worn out knee and this topic came to for during the Long Trousered Rebellion of the mid to late 1970's.
Fast forward to 2022 where as we all know that arguement wasn't just settled over time although it took initially a compromise to be put back in short trousers but moving over the last few years especially during Covid to wearing them around 98% of the time no matter what.
What might of happened if instead of those dreaded dark pink cord long trousers perhaps the hard wearing requirement was taken up but in the form of corduroy short trousers which were not uncommon in prep schools as general wear for that very reason?
Well Mr P who does stock traditional aka "proper" short trousers in adult sizes amongst other things was having made some naby blue cord short trousers with traditional white lining which tends to be hard to get today for some reason or other.
That picqued my interest that placing a pre-order happened.
The other thing was by doing so at the point of ordering the length could be altered to something more of that era rather than this "on or just above the knee" trend of today so I had them taken up to a inside leg of five that have more the coverage of the boy on this historic picture on the left, noticably shorter but not head turning and a close match for how mine were then.
They arrived last month due to a few issues with materials rather than as anticipated before Christmas, intentions being to wear when spending christmas with Mum so given she was very ill then she didn't get to see them.
It was a pity because they looked great on me - Mum did come to like me in short trousers all over again - and I'm sure she'd of seen that really would of been a better idea had she'd done that back in the day.
An abiding memory was just before Christmas Day sat with her watching the CBeebies Puss In Boots pantomine intently in grey shorts looking very much as her little boy enraptured in the performance before things took a bad turn.
*Top photo credit: Albert Prendergast Ltd.
No comments:
Post a Comment