Socks, Toe-jam and Underpants ?

Boarding schools in the 1950-60 era had a strict dress code and a mandatory list of clothes that had to be furnished when entering the school. Such boarding schools were a few in the hill country; Trinity College and the S Thomas’ Colleges in Bandarawela and Gurutalawa being the primary boarding schools. Boarding in the city schools were less and were outnumbered by the day-scholars who went back home after school. Thus the life in the boarding school was a special experience being away from home.

The standard list of clothes in private boarding school was a half a dozen navy blue short trousers and white cotton shirts of which five were to be short sleeve and one long-sleeve to be worn during special occasions. Six pairs of socks and one pair of grey stockings also to be worn during special school functions complete with a blue blazer, like as in British schools then. The list continued with handkerchiefs, bed sheets, pillowslips etc. But strangely there was no mention of any under garment excepting for the vest that was worn under the shirt. Almost all occasions however special it was, we were clad in the navy blue Chinese cotton-drill short trouser and white shirt worn with polished black leather shoes and socks. Readymade garments had not arrived yet and one had to visit the local tailor for all your garment needs. The shape of the short trouser was more like a mini skirt, generously flared. The frontal opening called the golpy was secured not by buttons or fly zippers like now but by metal stud buttons that went into two button holes facing each other and the stud held the opening together. The waist band had two metal buckles positioned on either side, fastened on straps sewn on the outside of the band which held the trouser on your waste. It was a funny looking attire then, to what we wear now.

Out of all these garments the socks played a special roll in our daily lives. Socks then were imported into the country and were turned out either from knitted wool or woven cotton. We generally wore the woven cotton type and they mainly came in white colour and the open end did have a rubber threading which held the the sock tight on your lower leg above the ankle. These rubbers gave away  when washed and the sock flared open with the first visit to the dhoby. Trouble started from then on. Keeping the sock in position tight on your leg was a problem and various innovations and improvisation were tried out with rubber bands and garters. One needed to be  smart and tidy to pass the morning inspection before going to school, so the flabby end of the sock was folded over for the inspection. But trouble did start after a few hours when the sock would slide into the shoe and you looked wearing your shoes without socks. This was reason to be pulled up or punished. One had to keep doing your shoes and socks every now and then. In contrast; today we wear the fashionable ankle sock. Seeing this picture in social media my friend Dr. Hemasiri Kotagama did comment thus;……. “A frustration that I had at this age was that my sock always got sucked into the shoe. I tried rubber bands / garters to hold the sock in place!!! Toe jam was not a problem for me!!!” ; having seeing the state of the falling socks of our friends in the picture.

By the mid-sixties the problem of sinking socks came to an end with the introduction of Nylon and Terylene in the garment industry. Nylon sock production had by now commenced in the country. Then came a newer problem; Toe Jam that ‘Kota’ refers, he was free from.

What is toe jam? The Urban-Dictionary says it’s the “substance that accumulates between your toes after a long day of having sweaty feet. Mixture of toe sweat and sock fuzz.” Our feet then were soft and the skin was not hard like in adulthood when your soles are thicker and drier. Wearing shoes for long hours in our young days found our feet perspiring and the sweat did absorb in the socks and nylon with its nonabsorbent fibers the mess of toe jam occurred. Sweat with dust and the dead skin under the toes invited bacteria that accumulated as a sticky substance giving off a nauseating odour. However, there was no problem as far as your feet were in the shoes; the moment one took his feet out, all the heads would go up with the offensive odour and the culprit would quietly slip his foot back into the shoe and things were back to normal. This was not  a problem to the day-boy where  parental interaction saw to the problem at home. We in the boarding were a carefree lot and did continue wearing our soiled socks until the dhoby came in with the washed linen.

Toe jam did at times interfere with school norms. While in our senior forms in Gurutalawa we had two sessions of school one before lunch and one after lunch ending just before evening tea. We had the habit of visiting the dormitory to change into our flip flops relieving our weary feet off the shoes before tea. But on the other hand the whole dining room was now smelling of a few hundred dead rats. This situation was so grave and the then Headmaster Mr. E L Perera decreed that evening tea is to be had in full school uniform inclusive of shoes and socks.

My nephew Nishantha Abeysinghe now a senior manager and planter a Trinity College boarder reminisces once when they were trekking to college from the Nittawala grounds after rugger practices a good Samaritan offered them a lift in his car to the school. They were in the car with their boots and stockings out and wearing flip-flops, having traveled a few yards the car came to a screeching stop with a stern order commanded “bloody toe jam everybody out immediately”…..they had to walk back the rest of the way to the school.

Going back to the list of clothes then, there was no mention of any undergarment to be worn before we put on the trousers. It could be because there was no such decent piece of undergarment imported into the country then. Today we see our grandchildren going to kindergarten wearing underpants but we in our times was quite free underneath until our testosterone levels where high enough to show that occasional bulge. The synthetic fiber industry catching up in the mid-sixties gave a solution to this problem as well. The first ever standard under garment produced in the country if I remember right was  called the ‘DIS’ brand jockstrap. A design copy of the cricketer’s box guard. It had a frontal box turned out of softer material sewn on to a thick elastic waist band with two narrower bands coming off the lower end of the box to the posterior, fixed firm to the waist band at the back. This held your vital hang down intact but your bum was still bare. However it being readymade and until the smallest waist size of this garment fitted your waist one did not wear anything underneath. The slang term to this style in school was, freewheeling and if your trousers were too tight you were ruled "Offside".

But then it is equally interesting to note of what our adults wore as an undergarment in that era. Again the savior was the local tailor who invented a garment to be worn by menfolk that was also good business. The local tailor turned out a ‘V’ shaped attire called a 'lunket" resembling a swimming trunk but it was open in one end. The open side had four string straps sewn; two on the waist helm and the other two on thigh helm, to be tied firm to hold the garment in position on your lower waist supporting the hangdown. They came in an array of colours, and some in flowery patterns, turned out with whatever saved material. It had its own funny name in the colloquial tongue…. the “Wawula”, resembling the leathery wing membrane of a bat when left to dry on the line  fluttering in the breeze.

As a kid I was highly curious to see how adults wore them covered in their sarongs for modesty with only their head and feet showing out. One needed to have both hands free to get it fastened on your lower body. It was funny to see them get only one leg into it with both hands inside the sarong held firm by your central incisors and the rest of it resting on your shoulders. The funny part being that it had no defined front side or rear side and could be worn front side back as one pleased depending you being left-handed or right-handed.

I doubt if any of us wore the 'Wawula' in school but we had teachers called by this name, which meant a relation to this and we juniors did continue to call them so. 

Such was the simple lifestyles then when compared to the complexities that we have to think of what to wear for different functions that came up in a busy-day. Back then you were welcome with whatever you wore in the morning……. It was always accepted as a formal dress for all occasions.