Khaki shorts (USA Army)

[SweatyAussie]

DeusEx take note! Recognise these?

[deusex]

yay!! I love these shorts. They're not fancy but they are comfortable and unlined so they show off your basket nicely (including yours Sweaty!!)

[SweatyAussie]

Yes they are nice, and great for the gym. As it happens I have a matching khaki singlet.

Not that it should surprise anyone, but I was wearing a thong under the shorts in that pic, as is my wont, so although they are unlined I supplied my own liner, as it were.

[BlueTrain]

Those are U.S. Army shorts? Khaki shorts had just gone out of issue when I enlisted in 1965 but they could still be worn. They were hard to find and the stockings even harder but were highly desirable in you were somewhere like Oklahoma.

Say, isn't a singlet what you wear under a doublet?

[deusex]

Those shorts aren't real army gear, they're just logowear from Bodyworksman available on Jockstrap Central:

http://www.jockstrapcentral.com/thumb_display.php?style=shorts

As for the singlet, Sweaty Aussie is referring to a wrestling singlet, you know, those hot tight spandex body suits that you roll around the floor with another guy.

According to Wikipedia, a singlet is also a vest.

[SweatyAussie]

As for the singlet, Sweaty Aussie is referring to a wrestling singlet, you know, those hot tight spandex body suits that you roll around the floor with another guy.
I like the imagery, DeusEx, but the singlet I was referring to isn't spandex, it's just close-fitting cotton. "Singlet" is the name that's always been used here to refer to a sleeveless upper body garment. They used to be thought of just as underwear, and in fact Bonds and other manufacturers still make them for that purpose, but of course they are popular now in their own right for wearing in the heat without anything over them.

"Tank top" is just a fancy name for a singlet, though you wouldn't call it a tank top if you wear wearing it as underwear.

[The Bondsman]

Khaki shorts had just gone out of issue when I enlisted in 1965 but they could still be worn. They were hard to find and the stockings even harder
"STOCKINGS", ...they let you wear stockings? In the army? Didn't know transvestism was allowed in the army, ......fish-nets or nylons?

Say, isn't a singlet what you wear under a doublet?
SweatyAussie, ....you should realise by now that Yanks just don't understand a very simple term like "singlet".
No, ...you have to say "WIFE-BEATER", ....and their little misogynistic brains click into gear and they catch on.
If you want Americans to remember anything, you apparently have to link it with a crime, ....or guns.
"Wife-beater"???
Now I'll freely admit even I don't get the abusive spousal connection, (could it have anything to do with Stanley Kowalski and Marlin Brando?)
Beats me!:confused: Do the Yanks have special outfits to don when bashing up their wives?
"Just a minute love, I'll dash into the bedroom and change into my wife-beater before I come back and smack you in the mouth"??? :eek:

And what the hell is a "tank"-top anyway? :confused:
"Tanks" are what we sensible Aussies conserve and store precious water in, ...making a tank "top" something made either of galvanised steel or even plastic now, certainly NOT something you'd wear. :confused:
Maybe we could tell them a "singlet" is something men might wear on the upper body whilst in Sing Sing? I'm trying to bring in the crime element for them.
Think they'd get the connection?
Wouldn't you think they'd learn English SweatyAussie? :D
Don't even get me started on their spelling..... :eek: :eek: :eek: :D

[SweatyAussie]

Take it easy Bondy, no country is perfect and Oz has its faults too.

An American I spoke with online did tell me about the "wifebeater" thing - it seems there is a stereotypical white male who lives in a trailer park, drinks a lot, swears a lot and ill-treats his wife and kids - and typically wears a white singlet. And listens to John Cougar Mellencamp.

Like any stereotype, it's just that - a stereotype. Don't tell me we don't have that here - we call them caravan parks instead of trailer parks, and we call them singlets instead of wifebeaters, but we have the phenomenon just the same.

BTW I can't believe you haven't heard singlets referred to here as "tank tops". I know there are regional dialect differences between east and west Oz - over here for example a "port" is a place where ships berth - but I thought "tank top" was pretty universal.

[The Bondsman]

Take it easy Bondy, no country is perfect and Oz has its faults too.
You wanna see a "fault"? Try going to California and checking out their San Andreas "fault"!!!
Not THAT one beats the hell out of anything that we've got here, .....and when it goes off it's not going to do much for real estate values I can tell you! :eek:

However you must allow me my daily dose of hyperbole, ...(that's bullshit to the rest of you). I do enjoy a rave now and then, ....and it gets me off those poor Canadians for a while doesn't it?
and typically wears a white singlet. And listens to John Cougar Mellencamp.
I don't believe you! Get outta here, as they say! Surely no one listens to him any more? Didn't he fade into oblivion along with Billy Ray Cyrus, ...and mullets?
BTW I can't believe you haven't heard singlets referred to here as "tank tops". but I thought "tank top" was pretty universal.
Sorry to disillusion you Sweaty, but "tanktop" was an imported term that seems to have arrived here in Oz around the mid-seventies, ...yes the very decade taste forgot!
And guess where it came from? That's right, ......source of all language-pollution and heinous crimes against good English, .....that bastion of literacy between Mexico and Canada! U wit me, bro? Wassup?:o
*Note: Get out and VOTE you lot, ...and vote PROPERLY or you'll not only have the threat of a gun-toting, bible bashing, anti-gay Moose-shooter in lipstick to worry about, but you'll have me to say "Serves you bloody right"! Her old grey (yes, that's how you spell it!) running mate will cark-it in office you know. He's already held up by little more than embalming fluid now!

But I digress, ....what the hell's wrong with good old "singlet"? :confused:
I have even heard "A"-shirt from our northern manglers of proper spelling, but that's just bizarre.....
And a "vest" BTW, is part of a three piece business suit, ......you wouldn't wear it UNDER your shirt!
The very same country even has problems with "pants" and "trousers", not to mention "shorts".
Casually mention you'll be wearing "shorts" to their barbecue, ...and I guarantee most of 'em will think you're going to turn up in your underwear! :eek: :confused:

Ahh the joys of two countries DIVIDED by a COMMON language.......as Winnie once remarked!

[BlueTrain]

OK, let's call them knee socks instead of stockings. My father call six-inch high ankle boots "shoes" and anything lower than that "slippers." Somewhere I think I even have a pair of hosetops. But my shirts have attached collars these days but I still wear braces. My car has no transmission; it has a gearbox but they all have had left hand drive. I keep my boots in the boot, keep wondering what a bonnet is and which is the off side (is there an on side?).

Just kidding, of course, though I'm easily confused, even though I put my pantaloons on just like every one else. The motorcar I was proudest to own, after the estate car, was a Rover 2000 saloon. I never figured out where the drinks were but I got over 100,000 miles on it. Alas, no more Rovers. No more Bombay bloomers. Even string vests are hard to come by any more. Jerkins are scarce, too.

Blood pudding, anyone?

[SweatyAussie]

Jerkins are scarce, too.
Rubbish! You can buy them pickled, in jars, at any supermarket.

Blood pudding, anyone?I can handle anything except spotty dick.

[The Bondsman]

Blood pudding, anyone?
BlueTrain, I am SO glad you took my post in the spirit it was meant! This is sadly not always the case. Like me, you too seem fascinated by the mysteries of semantics and how certain expressions and words came about, ...or fell from use.
Simple example? I can understand why we can cut a tree down, ...it falls down of course! But then we cut it up? Which part of it goes "up"???
Another closer to this board's theme.
Why do we refer to a "PAIR" of briefs, shorts or trousers when there's plainly only ONE garment? Someone suggested it's because there's two leg openings, ....but shirts etc. have TWO arms and no one says a "pair" of shirts unless they mean two of them.
As Mr. Spock would say: "Highly illogical!"
If you have ever been to England, or even watched enough of it's denizens on TV, you will have observed that the English themselves actually seem incapable of speaking their very own language! :eek: The slappers massacre it with ignorant grammatical abominations that go WAY beyond cute local expressions!
English is said to be a "living" language, ...in that it is constantly evolving, ...... but it already contains enough anomalies to be a constant source of puzzlement and amusement to me.

[SweatyAussie]

English is said to be a "living" language, ...in that it is constantly evolving, ...... but it already contains enough anomalies to be a constant source of puzzlement and amusement to me.
...or my favourite... linseed oil is made by grinding up linseed; olive oil is made by pressing olives and extracting the juice. So how do they make baby oil?

[deadgoodundiesdotcom]

So how do they make baby oil?

Have you never seen the crowds at the abortion clinic????
It's a bit like the pressings of the olive, the first ones are the best.

Too far? I'll get me coat

[The Bondsman]

Have you never seen the crowds at the abortion clinic????
It's a bit like the pressings of the olive, the first ones are the best.

Too far? I'll get me coat

Well the VIRGIN pressings are always the best....... :D

[SweatyAussie]

Have you never seen the crowds at the abortion clinic????
It's a bit like the pressings of the olive, the first ones are the best.

Too far? I'll get me coat
This one belongs in the TMI department I think (Too Much Information). :eek:

[BlueTrain]

Since this thread has taken a turn in a different direction, I will ask why we drive on the parkway and park in the driveway? And that won't make sense to anyone in England where there are no parkways--or are there? (Yes, I've heard of motorways).

But returning to the subject, I have seen photos of cut-off pants being worn in WWII, both khaki (khaki drill, that is) and what looked like olive green fatigue pants. Strictly unofficial. And by the way, a great many Americans, all Southerners, of course, would object to being referred to as "Yanks."

[SweatyAussie]

But returning to the subject, I have seen photos of cut-off pants being worn in WWII, both khaki (khaki drill, that is) and what looked like olive green fatigue pants. Strictly unofficial.
I'm not sure it was unofficial. My father served in WW2 in the Middle East, and I am sure I have seen and heard many references to "the khaki and green" being the traditional colour scheme of the soldiers' gear.

I've also seen lots of photos, and the men are all either in fairly loose long pants or loose shorts - about the same length as the long "shorts" worn by young men today. The photos were black and white of course, but the pants appear light coloured and I believe they were khaki.

And regarding the "Yanks" (or Yankees) thing, what you say is true, but the problem is that Americans lack a short snappy nickname like "Aussie" ... "Americans" has too many vowels to say quickly, "Ammies" sounds like a religious sect. Perhaps you should come up with a decent generic nickname for citizens of the U.S.A., and then we'll use it. :)

[BlueTrain]

Well, now, this is still getting off course, but so what?

The photos I'm thinking of were clearly of pants that had been cut off. The US Army experimented with shorts for tropical wear but decided they were not practical and they were also not popular with the troops (except with those willing to cut them off themselves). Contrary to the image of the WWII US Serviceman, sun helments or pith helments were widely worn and were even issued in Vietnam in the 1960's.

It is also a common practice among loggers and other outdoorsmen in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska and used to be so in other northern states to shorten pants by just cutting them off by something like from four to eight inches. They were called stagged (or stag) pants. It was also a common practice to roll up pants legs for outdoor use but you don't see that so much any more. Me, if I'm out in the woods or on the trail, I prefer not to wear anything if possible.

My father probably never wore shorts in his life and I don't think he ever owned a coat. But he did relate that his usual clothing when he was little was a pair of bib overalls. Nothing else at all; no shoes, no underwear, no shirt. No problem. He never told me when he started wearing more than that.

[The Bondsman]

And by the way, a great many Americans, all Southerners, of course, would object to being referred to as "Yanks."
"But y'a ARE Blanche, ...but y'a ARE!!!"
Now correct me if I'm wrong but after the Civil War, wasn't the succession of the South "restored" and by 1870, the last of the southern states was back in the Union?
Which means, ...by definition, ...that despite threats that "the South will rise again", ...for the moment from the north to the south, yo' is all Yankees!
And as good patriotic Yankees, PLEASE put down the remote, get of ya collective arses, spit out the gum, walk passed the fast food franchises, and get out and VOTE! And vote PROPERLY!
Simply cannot believe that only about half of you bother! :eek:
You ask why I entreat you so?
Sadly, for better or worse, ...and believe me for your last woeful regime it's been for the WORSE; ....what you guys do over there DOES effect the rest of us over here!
'Nuff said?

[BlueTrain]

We are a Virginian (now, anyway) and my father and his father before him and so on were all born in Virginia, the first one in my line having been born in Virgina prior to 1650. The first immigrant went back to England for some reason. I was born in West Virginia, in a border county. The Civil War was bad. All civil wars are bad.

This of course has nothing to do with shorts or underwear (The Union Army is now wearing union underwear).

[The Bondsman]

The first immigrant went back to England for some reason.
I am forever grateful MY ancestor who came out on the First Fleet (sadly NOT a convict), did NOT return to England!
I could have been condemned to a lifetime of grey skys, warm beer and speaking REALLY bad English! :eek: :mad: :rolleyes:

[SweatyAussie]

I am forever grateful MY ancestor who came out on the First Fleet (sadly NOT a convict), did NOT return to England!
I could have been condemned to a lifetime of grey skys, warm beer and speaking REALLY bad English! :eek: :mad: :rolleyes:
Great music though, the English have always had the best bands, and still do.

[The Bondsman]

Great music though, the English have always had the best bands, and still do.
Yep, ...and you forgot the best movies too!
I do like the English sense of humour, rather than the Yankee slapstick overkill. Adam Sandler should be taken out and shot, .....NOW!
Not to mention the ubiquitous chick-flick genre which requires at least three doses of insulin for any male to sit through....! :D

[SweatyAussie]

It's probably been forgotten by now, but this thread was supposed to be about the "U.S.Army" khaki shorts I was wearing, so I thought I would share this mini-blog about what happened today...

As I normally do, I took a change of clothing - socks, shorts, underpants,shirt - to Uni to wear after my session at the gym. However, I left home in a hurry and found after my workout that I had forgotten to pack a spare thong. That left only two options - wear the same one I had worn for my workout (yeuk), or "freeball".

Now my dislike of freeballing is well documented, but on this occasion I deemed it the lesser of two evils, so I put on the shorts, which happened to be these khaki shorts, with nothing underneath.

Well.

You weren't kidding, deusex, when you said they show off the basket. I confess to feeling a little self-conscious, in a way I don't when I am wearing underwear. There is a difference between sporting a bulge, and saying to the world "This is my dick, these are my balls, check them out". Well at least that's how it looked to me in the mirror, and I'm sure others would have noticed. Thank goodness I managed to avoid getting an erection - there is a time and place for everything, and this defintely wasn't the time or place.

I'll make sure I pack everything in future before leaving the house.