I was a teenage bobby-soxer when I left for the two-month summer vacation in the Catskills. Bobby sox were white anklet. This footwear was the teenage fashion craze, particularly for those of us who swooned when Frankie crooned. This describes my group of friends, Club Flamingo. Not much additional thought was given to our fashion. We sported red satin club jackets and those white anklets. A surprise was waiting for me when the summer ended, and I returned to the East Bronx.
I had left the 13-year-old Club Flamingo friends behind still in their underdeveloped adolescent body shape, their prepuberty shape. When I returned, a new fashion had become the rage; barber pole shirts. These were tight fitting, diagonally striped blouses, resembling a barber pole. All my Flamingo friends sported these tight garments. All my Flamingo friends had newly noticeable breasts. All my Flamingo friends had suddenly donned bras and had the real thing to fill the 32, 34, A, B, C items.
Although I menstruated very early, my physical development lagged. Much to my dismay, I was as flat as a board; as flat as my big brother. When momma fitted me with her handmade garments, she called me a bret mit a lokh ( Yiddish for a board with a hole). In a few days, momma and I were off to Stern’s Department Store. In that era there was little choice for my needs. So a 32 A with a wad of tissues in each cup had to do when I wore my tight fitting newly purchased barber pole fashion craze.
Ethyl Haber
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