When we were in high school in the 1960’s, it was “cool” to wear “pegged” pants. This meant that your pants fit skintight. The tighter they were, the “cooler” you were.  That of course is the direct opposite of the baggy “cargo” pants kids wear now days. I think they look terrible! If we had worn baggy pants like that in high school, we would have been instantly labeled “uncool”, a sissy, or a nerd (this was in the days before “geeks” were invented). I’ve always called them “crack salesmen pants”. Whenever Tim and I would buy new pants, before we dared to wear them to school, dances, or ANY social event, we would have our grand mother Sommers “peg” them for us. We told her we wanted them so tight that they would look like they were painted on.  She would turn the pants inside out and using her sewing machine, she would run a stitch and inch or so along the inside hem on each leg all the way up from the hem of the leg to the top. She always seemed to know just what distance from the edge of the hem to sew. Each leg was also the same tightness too. Among ourselves, we all said we wanted our pants so tight that they fit like a cheap hotel (no “football” room. Drop “foot” from “football” and you’ll know what I mean). I sure don’t want to loose my “Safe Surfing” site approval!!! My favorite “pegged” pants to wear were white Levis. I never could understand why they didn’t just make pants “pre pegged” since they were in style at the time.

Looking back, our pants were so “pegged” it’s a wonder they didn’t rip every time we sat down! I guess our grandmother made the stitches really strong! Since we had our pants so tight, it’s also a wonder that they didn’t cut off the circulation in our legs resulting in our legs “falling off”. I guess we survived that since none of our legs “fell off”. That problem sounds like something our mothers would fabricate and warn us about so we wouldn’t wear our pants so tight to be “cool”. Oh well, if our legs happened to “fall off”, that’s the price we were willing to pay to be “cool”. At least we could walk around on our “stumps” with “pegged” shorts. I was so skinny then, that with my “pegged” pants, if I was standing sideways, I had to get up 3 or 4 times on a sunny day just to cast a shadow!  When our mother would see our “pegged” pants, she would say, “Those are so tight, I can see your “organs”! Bingo! To us this meant that they were really tight and even “cooler” yet! “Pegged” pants did present some minor problems for me. One was that the pockets were so tight, that it was hard to get my wallet in and out of the rear pocket. In order to solve this, I started putting my wallet in my front shirt pocket. Out of habit, I still do this today. Another minor problem was getting change and other things out of the front pockets. These problems were minor to me and never interfered with being “cool”.  One thing that was really cool was when we wore our “Beatle Boots” with our “pegged” pants. The biggest problem with “Beatle Boots” was that they had cardboard heels and after about a month or so, they would peel off in layers.  This didn’t bother me since I’ve had a lifelong love affair with boots of all kinds. I don’t think I presently even have any shoes with laces. When we were in school, there were 2 things (among many others) the teachers couldn’t stand, one was “pegged” pants and the other was heel “cleats”, or as we called them heel “taps”. We wore the metal ones so they would make a loud tapping sound on the hard floors of the school halls. Therefore, the “ultimate cool” was to walk around with loud heel “taps” and “pegged” pants! These days, I wear heal “taps” on the heels of all my boots (cowboy and Wellingtons) for the “uncool” reason of not wearing out the edges of the heel. The only ones I can get these days are made out of something like black hard rubber or black plastic and are silent when I walk on hard floors. Oh well, at my age I don’t need to sound “cool” anymore anyway. I don’t wear pegged pants anymore either since they would interfere with my enlarged-prostate-caused “urgent” bathroom calls. I would hasten to add that I don’t, never have, and never will wear “cargo pants” that are all the rage these days. I also, since childhood, have never and will never own or wear any kind of shorts (accept underwear). I live in blue jeans and cowboy or Wellington boots. The blue jeans get plenty tight enough after a few washings anyway, but not nearly as tight as the “pegged” pants we used to wear. That way I can still look “semi cool”, and manage to make “enlarged-prostate-urgent-bathroom calls”. (Well, most of the time anyway). UGHHH, it’s hard to get old!!!