By Wally WachterRetired Herald Managing Editor
M UCH TO THE consternation of youngsters, back-to-school activities seem to be beginning earlier and earlier each year.
Newspapers are stuffed full of back-to-school circulars as early as the first of August. And busy parents begin infringing on their children's playtimes by dragging them off shopping while the clothing sales are still on.
Back in our day, the before-school rush to replenish our tattered wardrobes always was relegated to the Saturday before the first day of classes. That was one of the busiest days of the year for clothing stores, and many extended their shopping hours until 9 p.m. to meet the rush.
The new school term always started on the Tuesday after Labor Day.
Large families in those days could be outfitted for less than today's cost for a pair of jeans or sweatshirt. The price for a pair of walking shoes in today's generation would have bought 25 pairs of sneakers back in the days when the cost of living matched the salary brackets of those times.
It was usually the oldest member of the large families who drew the benefits of new school clothes. His or her older wardrobes were passed down to the next in line in a cycle as each child grew older and taller. Mothers, with their magical needles and thread, made minor adjustments that may have been needed and padded the slightly worn spots.
Shoes were always the biggest items. After a long summer of playing ``kickball'' or ``hopscotch'' the toes would begin to protrude from the sneakers which were the popular footwear for youngsters. But in buying school shoes, parents looked ahead to the coming winter for substantial wear.
We always led the way to the stores where little gimmicks were the premiums for buying certain brands. There were balloons, pencil boxes, spinning tops and favorite of all, little hand-clickers.
Popular for boys back then were ``high-tops,'' boot-like shoes that extended halfway up the calf. The come-on for that style was a little pocket on the side of one of the shoes that contained a small penknife.
Most children in those days had three wardrobes. One was the dressy Sunday clothes that they wore to Sunday school and church. Another was the always-clean, neat outfits to wear to school. Then there were the often-tattered playtogs they were supposed to change into after church and after school.
The rules were too-often abused. The on-the-way-home marbles games and other childish pranks tore holes at the knees of the dress togs. Church clothes soon became school clothes, school clothes became playtogs, and the play clothes ended up in the rag bags.
The type of clothing that today's school kids wear to class would never have gotten a parental okay back in the old days. Jeans and T-shirts with advertisements and varied other messages would have been a no-no. Kids had to be neat, the boys with knickers and cotton shirts, often with neckties, and the girls with freshly laundered and pressed cotton dresses.
The youngsters themselves ruled out jeans, refusing to wear denim because ``they were only for overalls which farmers and mill workers had to wear in their work.''
Some schools today are going back to a more formal style of clothing for the students. Many have adopted dress codes.
But the little tears in the knees of our trousers we suffered while playing marbles, or the dress tears that girls often received in jumping rope or playing hopscotch are hardly a problem today. Recreational activities today have taken a new twist.
I haven't seen an exciting game of marbles for more than a half-century.