G is for Garters

 Bit of short post this week not being helped by being quite ill here but here goes.

Socks are a thing we are very familiar with and generally we wear long socks, traditionally with turn over tops with our short trousers but as most of us can recall one common problem tended to be that some socks seem to slide down very quickly.

Because generally it is held we should look smart and presentable at all times, most of us got told to "pull your socks up" literally a good number at times at school and other similar setting with standards.

Quite why some socks seem to stay up well for long and others do not isn't something I have cracked although it may be connected with the tightness of the sock weave and material.

In girls socks today the use of lycra in the elastic tends to work well in keeping them up.

Boys usually rely upon sock garters to hold them up that usually come in two forms, this which tended to be more common  is more like an adjustable elasticated band that once tightened and locked can be slide over the sock and is then covered by the turn over top of your socks.

The other is more familiar to us in traditional wolf cubs/cubs is a piece of elastic sowed together that holds the decorative sashs as here typically green which peep out of the turned over portion outwards.

Garters do play important part within boys and adult school boys lives, are items that are checked upon in certain contexts and are a part of our presentation.

Picture credits: Albert Prendergast Ltd of Derbyshire.

Looks and resting

 

The last week has been somewhat cold, temperatures often around the two to three degree mark during the day with wind chill in the minuses so perhaps it might of surprised some that I had bought something from the past.

It took some agonizing over it, but after a pretty long hiatus I bought a "proper" duffle coat with a modern microfibre lining with two deep pockets and zipped small inner ones after being without one from the age of sixteen and three quarters.

My old one had Beatles and Rainbow badges fastened on it on the left top in a  neat line and wooden toggles to which you fasten it up with and was bottle green in colour.

This one is grey with tough plastic toggles and an inner zip to fasten the front right the way up to keep draughts out and still feels hefty and as warm as toast.

It'll go with the reminder of my uniform.

Over the Christmas period I did watch a few Pantomimes on Cbeebies, the BBC tv channel for sevens and under and this, the current one was one of several simply cos with all the groan up noise about Covid, I needed to escape and get back to just following a story getting right in it.

Way back in time certainly at school from the earliest days many of us can recall being introduced to the standards about how we presented and the importance of correcting things like a untucked shirt or socks that were minded to fall down although I still think garters should of been mandatory as they do help.

Sock elastic is weird stuff, I have some socks that seem to stay up for long with no aids and adjustments on my part and yet others that I pretty much have to wear garters with as they'd be coming down within minutes of a brisk walk.