Clitheroe Royal Grammar School

"Why was it a long time coming" for you to be promoted to wearing long trousers?Did you receive many adverse comments from your contemporaries for wearing shorts? I had to them at 13 so I know what you went through.

I have read the pro and cons of young ladies being prepared to wear bras, especially as a sign of growing up. As I have written previously, my idea of growing up was to be bale to wear long trousers(Along time coming) In addition I wanted to be like a lot of the lads and be able to stop wearing a singlet under my shirt. (Fat chance!!!)

Had to laugh, Jane

The delights of a younger brother!

Graham - I guess the very fact she spoke to you about finding her bras uncomfortable was an indication that your sister wasn't embarrassed about needing one and that she trusted you not to tease her about it.

Like your sister I wasn't among the first of my classmates to develop, but for some reason it took me a while to accept that I needed to start wearing a bra.

Andrea - By the tiem my sister got to the bra-wearing stage, about half of the girls in her class at school were already wearing them, so there was no embarrassment when changing for PE and games - she just "joined the club". It was the unfamiliarity of having something relatively tight around her upper half that took a bit of getting used to after so many years of liberation in loose-fitting shirts, jumpers and dresses.

Graham - In the last couple of years at primary school I tended to wear vests in the winter but not in summer. Once my breasts began to 'bud' part way through my first year at secondary school, I tended to wear a vest more than previously, particularly under T shirts, so they weren't so noticeable.
Like your sister, I found bras to be uncomfortable when I first tried one on - like an iron band round my chest, so put off wearing one for as long as possible.
When I did start wearing a bra I didn't usually wear a vest with it.
Of course back then 'training bras were scaled down versions of what our mums wore, rather than the light crop tops or cami-vests that young girls typically wear nowadays.

Do you think your sister found wearing her first bras embarrassing, or just uncomfortable?

Andrea - Were you still regularly wearing vests when you got your first bras, and if so, did you carry on wearing them with your bras or did you give them up completely at that point. Neither my younger sister nor I were wearing vests by the time we started school, and I remember her grumbling about feeling restricted, and complaining that "it's alright for boys, they don't have to wear these silly things", early in her bra-wearing days,

When mum gave me my first bras she said something like "I thought you might want to wear one soon". Thankfully she didn't insist and in fact it was another 4 months or so before I did start to wear one.
Like you I was very self-conscious the first time I went into the PE changing room wearing a bra. In actual fact, as it was just after the summer holidays and several other girls were also wearing them for the first time, so I needn't have worried really!
There were still some girls who didn't need them plus a few who were told by our PE teacher that they should be wearing one!

I guess you're right, there are some things better left unsaid on a public forum like this!

Andrea

I started to show some signs of development and my mother said I was ready for a bra. Of course some of the girls at school started to wear a bra just to be "grown-up," but in my case there was a need! I just felt very conscious about it when in the changing-room with the other girls, and when at home, l didn’t need boys questioning me on how it felt etc.

My younger brother was to put it short a right scamp when it came to teasing his older sister. So yes, he did things like that. Not sure writing about the things he got up to are suitable for this page though!

Declan,I too wore grey shorts at school up to thirteen and older.This was was also imposed by my parents who liked to see me in shorts.
They were difficult to obtain for the older boy,so they were very tight and short,just like my parents liked to see me wearing them.

James I wore the normal grey shorts at secondary school up until about the age of 13 whereas the majority of the others wore long trousers. This was not by my choice but imposed on me by dad. The problem was obtaining grey shorts for the older boy and although I was quite small the shorts were not really made for boys my age and were very tight. Eventually dad relented and I wore longs. Then I felt more grown up. Too much information I know but as much S I liked the string briefs they were very uncomfortable under tight shorts

Jane,
I felt surprised and embarrassed when mum bought me my first bras as an unexpected birthday present. Although my chest had started to show some signs of development, I didn't think it was particularly noticeable under my clothes and it didn't feel uncomfortable at that point.
I had been quite happy a flat chested tomboy, so I suppose I was reluctant to admit that my body was starting change and of course starting to wear a bra would have been an obvious sign of that.
I managed to get away without wearing a one until the end of the summer holidays, wearing baggy T shirts and a vest (or sometimes even my swimsuit top) to help hide my growing boobs, but somehow I didn't feel quite as much at ease with the local boys as I had in previous summers. In part this was probably because we were no longer at the same schools, but some was because I was worried that they would notice my chest and make comments, as I had seen happen to other girls.
By the time I went back to school that autumn, the outline of my breasts were visible under my PE shirt and their movement was noticeable, and a bit painful when I was running, so I had to admit that I needed to wear a bra for PE.
As you say that you were embarrassed about wearing a bra, what was it that prompted to to start wearing one?

Your saying that you though some of your brother's friends may have wanted to try on your bra as a joke reminded me that I once caught my sister (two years younger than me) trying on one of mine. She was still completely flat-chested at that point but, unlike me, she couldn't wait for her boobs to grow!
Do you think that your brother ever did try on one of your bras?

Andrea
I remember my brother, he is 2 years younger than me, started to wear a jockstrap when he entered the senior school at 13. Now he was all of a sudden a man! Or so he thought so! You know all cocksure and that!

Yes, at the beginning they teased me. I think one or two of them had the idea if wanting to try my bra on for laughs. You know boys! Anyway they soon found other distractions but l do remember the embarrassment when l started wearing a bra fir the first time.

What about you? Were you teased?

Jane
My ex said he started to wear jockstraps at secondary school which would have been in the early 1970s too.

Did your brother or his mates ever tease you about wearing a bra? I was at an all-girls secondary school by the time I needed one, but a few girls who started wearing them at Primary school got some 'comments' etc from some of the cheekier boys.

Andrea
my brother had a few jockstraps when he was a schoolboy in early 70s it was. I think they're unfashionable nowadays.

Yes me too, I was very annoyed with my mum hanging out my bras out in the open especially with my brother and his mates about!

Jane
I don't have any brothers and my dad didn't play any sports, so I never saw or even heard of jockstraps when I was a teenager. The first time I came across one was when I was first married and my husband's (now my Ex) turned up in the washing basket.

Talking of washing lines, I remember being annoyed with mum the first time she hung one of my bras on the line when my dad was at home!

Andrea
I remember helping my mum hang out my brother's jockstrap out on the washing line ... oh we had a giggle ... that was then the 1970s ...

I remember hanging my dad's string vests and pants on the washing line when I was helping mum on washdays in the early 1970s.

Declan,I remember those string vests and briefs that some boys wore at school,although I didn't wear them myself.
Did you wear short trousers to school and what age did you go into longs.

Declan, I certainly remember string vests and underpants. I was at school in the late 60s and 1970s - boys grammar school and there was a time when most lads seemed to have string, perhaps it was suddenly fashionable or maybe it was cheap at M&S or BHS or one of the other shops so beloved by my mother.

I was a bit nervous of the underpants at first because while there was a front panel, the back was all string and they felt very strange. Other lads had ones with a back panel too. It wasn't a modesty thing because the only place your mates ever saw you in them was the changing room and you were taking them off anyway there so it didn't matter.

I do remember though having them on one day when my mother decided to buy me a new pair of trousers in C&A and I was sent to try them on. The men's changing room was not cubicles but just a big room with benches around the walls. I was in there when I suddenly realised that I was wearing my string underpants and didn't feel comfortable about taking off my trousers. It was quite busy with men of all ages there.

A man, probably in his twenties came to the place next to me also to try on trousers while I was dithering taking off my coat and wondering how I was going to deal with trying on the trousers. He was way ahead of me in terms of speed and as he undressed, I saw he wasn't wearing underpants so I thought what did I have to be modest about and got on changing and of course no one took any notice of me.

The school changing room had never bothered me but after that day in C&A changing rooms anywhere didn't bother me either - thanks to string underpants.

I haven't had a vest for years but I did like string ones.

Previously I have posted that my clothes were dictated by my nan. I was so pleased when I went to work and "had to buy my own clothes". And in the early 70's I followed the fashion and bought the string singlets and briefs that were popular. Does any one else remember them?zsr7

Andrea - the cardbord tops were replaced with foll tops at some point in my schooldays, but at this distance, I couldn't say exactly when that was.

Chris G,
I'm pretty sure the ones we had had foil tops, but maybe I'm confusing them with the pint milk bottles we had at home.

Andrea, probably showing my age, but when I first encountered school milk, the bottle-tops were made of cardboard and had littel perforaated discs in the middle tht you could push out to lev hole tha you put your straw into.

Chris G,
You're right about the frozen milk bottles.
Also sometimes in summer the birds would get to them first and peck through the foil caps to get at the cream that floated to the top of the bottle.

Andrea

I don't remember Castor Oil or Syrup of Figs either, but I do remember regular teaspoon-sized doses of NHS Orange Juice and Cod Liver Oil, which came in distinctive tall rectangular glass bottles, and also the free school milk in 1/3 pint bottles, which usd to freeze solid when the crates were left at the school gate early on a frosty morning..

TimH - of course you are right about rickets, I knew it existed but I don't remember anyone having it. Maybe the summers really were warmer when we were children and I certainly played outside shirtless for most of the summer holiday and often went skinny dipping with my mates too.

Quite a few years back, as part of another problem, I developed Vitamin D deficiency and all I can say is it was horrible and I'd never want it again and nor would I want any child to get it. Of course the natural way of developing a proper level of Vitamin D is the best instead of all the supplements that seem to be the norm these days. I was so bad that the immediate treatment was several days of very painful injections in my glute, I wouldn't have wished them on anyone

Vitamin D deficiency can lead to rickets which was common in the 1920s & 30s (my father had it in the 1920s).

Sunlight is a source of Vitamin D - so think about shirtless PE, rambling in the country, time on the beach ...

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-d/ & other sites.

I can't remember being given Castor Oil or Syrup of Figs, but I do remember Haliborange (vitamin C tablets) and cod liver oil and or course free school milk in 1/3 pint bottles.

Victor, another interesting post.

I don't think back in the day, when boys did PE in shorts only there was much of an issue of Vitamin D deficiency. I don't ever remember being given such supplements routinely - sometimes a multi-vitamin in winter, a dreaded dose of Castor Oil or a much more dreaded dose of Syrup of Figs. My mother firmly believed that a child who was restless or 'cranky' in any way was constipated and to a point she might have been right. Two tablespoons of Syrup of Figs soon changed that.