In 1961

6 year old girls could hang out without shirts. At least I could. I am not completely sure that this was taken in 1961 and my folks can’t pinpoint it either, but Louise and I look about 6 and 4 and that would be 1961. That is our back yard, next to our grandparents’ barn. My Mom’s folks lived next door to us and I am sure that when my Mom took this picture, Grandma must have been out shopping for gigantic sized underwear to hang on her clothesline where every kid in our neighborhood could see it, or she would have been whipping a shirt over my concave little chest. [I should note, that Grandma herself was not at all gigantic – just her underwear] Grandma had very clear ideas about the proper deportment for little girls, and going without one’s shirt was not one of them. I don’t think you see little girls playing outside shirtless now either, but back then we all did when the weather was hot. One of my ideas for grandmotherly deportment was that they should not have their gigantic old lady underwear out flapping in the breeze on the clothesline, but nobody was paying much attention to what I thought.