Older women who grew up in cold states, please check in here.

[raccoon]

I graduated high school in the later 1960's, and when I went to school, girls ALWAYS had to wear dresses. Maybe if we were going to decorate the gym or something like that, we could wear slacks/jeans, but other than that, dresses. Bummer!

Now, this was bad enough in SC in the wintertime.

My question is, was this the policy in cold states?

[MiddleFingerMom]

1. Connecticut and Michigan in the 60's -- Catholic school -- skirts, no matter what.

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(SPOILER ALERT -- What's UNDER those things?)
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[Tikki]

2. We had to wear a skirt or dress, but we could wear a pair of PANTS under...

our skirt...NICE LOOKING THERE, huh!!!

Needless to say only the hall monitors/office helpers who had to go
between buildings wore those.

Year after I graduated they allowed the girls to wear slacks and the
boys to wear Bermuda shorts to school.


Tikki
with the cold, red knees...

[likesmountains 52]

3. Graduated in 1970 in Colorado,yes we had to wear dresses. We could wear pants

under the dress to walk to the bus stop, but had to ditch the pants when we got to school. In my senior year we were finally allowed to wear pants..but they could not be blue jeans.

[PassingFair]

4. A Michigan Tale.

When I was in 6th Grade (circa 1970...)girls
were required to wear dresses in PUBLIC SCHOOL.

We were allowed to wear pants under our skirts
or dresses ONLY on the walk in to school. We
were then required to remove our pants or ski
pants at our lockers (emBAREassing).

I had a pretty "hip" teacher who really didn't care
if we wore pants or skirts, and she literally used
to look the other way in class.

On my second day of pants-wearing rebellion, we were
called to the auditorium for a surprise assembly, and
I was spotted by the Principal in my orange and brown
pants with the flame design (which I loved). I was yanked
out of the assembly and had to go back to my locker and
take off the pants and put on the skirt.

Boo! Also, a note was sent home to my mother, who was
a teacher and didn't give a CRAP about pants in school.

Several weeks later, the ladies in my neighborhood "protested"
in front of a local restaurant that wouldn't allow women
in who wore "pantsuits"!

They protested in their groovy pantsuits until the restaurant
owner relented and let them into the bar!

Go LADIES!!!!

Soon after that, the policies changed in school, too.

Ahhhhh! Victory!

[Bake]

5. Wow. I can't believe you actually got women to admit they are "older."

:rofl:

Bake

[annabanana]

21. pfft.. we EARNED our wrinkles young man. . .n/t

[Bake]

26. And bless you for calling me "young"

I FEEL young, at least. On good days.

:hi:

Bake

[grilled onions]

6. Illinois Here

Dress code was skirts/dresses year around with one day set aside in the spring set aside for bermuda day(you actually had to pay that day to do that). I had to walk about 13 blocks in the winter and was not even allowed to wear those dressy winter boots at school even though my feet were chunks of ice and I had arthritis on top of it. Side burns were not allowed. Blue jeans also were a no no as was being sockless. They would send home a girl if the skirt was too short,blouse too deep in the neckline. T-shirts,sweatshirts were not allowed either. But it was the cold weather that bothered me most. Worse yet getting gym first period and having to jog or some silly thing outside and my legs did not even have a chance to thaw out. They have it made today. My high school time frame was mid 1960'a.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. Minnesota, late '50s, early '60s, you had to wear a skirt or dress to school.

You got to wear pants under the dress if you had to walk to school on a cold day, but you had to take them off after you got there. And no jeans, ever.

[monmouth]

8. Yep, even in Jersey....long before the "situation.".....n/t

[LiberalEsto]

9. Northern New Jersey, Class of '69

The only exception to the no pants rule for girls was when I was in elementary school and we had 3 feet of snow. If you were a walker (instead of a bus rider), you could wear pants along with your dress, walking to and from school. But as soon as you got in your classroom, you had to take the pants off and hang them up until it was time to go home.

Tights were a wonderful innovation because they kept your legs from freezing.

[we can do it]

10. Same In NE Ohio

freeze your butt off

[old mark]

11. Graduated from Catholic HS in 1965-ALL the girls had to wear unis, with skirts...

In the cold weather, many wore tights and knee socks. Got lots of ice and snow back in those days...


mark

[livetohike]

12. Graduated in 1970 in western Pennsylvania

Yes, we had to wear dresses (and the hem could not be shorter than 3" above your knee as you knelt on the floor). In 1969, my entire school of 2000+ students walked out over the dress code :-). It was changed so that girls could now wear slacks (no jeans), but my choir director forbade slacks in his classroom and we listened to him! We would run to the restroom and change in the 3 minutes we were allotted to change classes. I never wore slacks, even with the change.

It was cold in the winter, waiting for the school bus in the morning. I remember my stocking clad legs turning bright red from the cold, not to mention the wind.

[madmom]

13. Ohio here, we could were pants, dress slacks only, if it were

10 degrees or colder. Those of us who rode the bus, would get in trouble because it was cold out in the country, not so much in town duh! More than once we got sent home to change and ditch the rest of the day, um yeah I mean go back to school.:evilgrin:

[Silver Swan]

14. In small town Michigan, early 1960's

We had to wear skirts to school, except on Friday, when we could wear slacks. But no jeans, no sweatshirts, etc.

In college, we had to wear skirts to dinner, but not to lunch, and we had to "dress up" for Sunday dinner.

When I started work, women had to wear skirts or dresses. this meant no "sun dresses" without a jacket. Then, around 1970, they allowed us to wear "pantsuits," as long as the jacket covered your butt, but still no slacks with a sweater, or jeans, etc.

Later the dress code nearly disappeared, which was fine. I wore whatever I wanted, which by the time I retired, was mostly jeans.

[Kat45]

15. We had to wear skirts/dresses to school here in MA in the sixties.

We argued about it and they eventually instituted "Slack Days," which were particular days here and there when girls could pay a quarter and wear pants that day. By the time I was in high school in the early seventies we were allowed to wear pants anytime.

[texanwitch]

16. We could wear pants to school starting in 1970, after a major fight for it.

Before that only dresses.

Yeah it was cold in winter wearing dresses.

[sarge43]

17. Grew up in Michigan 50's

Always wore dresses to school, at least high school - real treat in the winter.

[Mist]

18. In my teens, we lived in a suburb of NYC. Girls wearing pants to school was

unthought of. One winter was especially bitter, and we could wear pants to school. (No jeans, though boys could wear jeans, if they were tidy and untorn.) It was so cold and windy I wore tights under the wool slacks.

As the weather warmed, we just continued wearing pants. One day in late March, the principal made speeches throughout the day to each girls' gym class, saying as the weather emergency was over, we should go back to skirts, as "ladies don't wear trousers." (This was in 1970 or so--pants suits were big, and my mother and her friends loved wearing those floaty wide-legged pants to parties; they called the pants "hostess pants," for some reason.) Our principal was being intentionally dense, I think. In any case we ignored him, and girls wearing pants to school became established. The next fall, many of us went to school in jeans. And our jeans weren't particularly tidy looking, what with those fabric decals and so on.

Many schools back in the day (1940s through mid-1960s) even had rules about boys having to have their shirt tails tucked in.

[raccoon]

22. "rules about boys having to have their shirt tails tucked in"--My high school did that.

And no long hair on the boys, either!

[Raven]

19. Leggings...put them on and stuffed the skirt into them. High fashion!

[annabanana]

20. Of course!. .Like it says upthread, we might be allowed to

wear pants under our skirts and dresses. Pants were "playclothes" and could NEVER be worn in school.

[dgibby]

23. Skirts or dresses, Public Schools in Va.

We were never allowed to wear pants, except for band and PE. Of course, I am older than God his own self.

[WinkyDink]

24. PA school here: No slacks allowed until after 1967, but I don't know exactly when.

[PassingFair]

25. So, the consensus is: Northern States ...1970 ...the year of rebellion for women. Warning: Graphic!

[yankeepants]

27. Syracuse, New york, '70s Catholic School

Uniform Skirt hiked up into as mini as we could get away with. The walk to the bus stop was two blocks and then wait and wait and wait. My long, long, straight '70's hair was always wet and it would freeze and my thighs would be bright red and numb.

Where were the adults? Oh right, nuns and priests.

[TEXASYANKEE]

28. Grew up in Michigan

Had to wear dresses in school until 1969. And then pants were okayed for wear in school (for both teachers and students). I was 9 at the time so don't remember too much about dresses. Michigan winters are cold, no matter what you're wearing.