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Wednesdiy, July 7, 1976 / Hawkins Edition Pag* 7Girls In Shorts Shocked County —In 1930’sBy Uu» st'contl year, team members had started bliximers, indicating future championshii* form.pushing up the elastic on their basketballBy GENE MCCLELLAND Assistant Area EditorHawkins County was late accepting girls wearing shorts.One of the earliest incidents of bate legs in rural Hawkins County occurred in the Longs Bend area, across the river from Surgoinsviile in the early 1930‘s.My father was teaching at Lungs Bend Elementary .School, and the girls wan led to play basketball on the outdoor court that the boys used on the playground.“No daughter of mine is going to get out there and show her legs to everybody who comes along.”Their lung skirts were both restrictive and immodest when they fell in a tangle after jumping for a ball.■Shorts were indicated.But gelling the community to accept this assessment was worse than pulling a sore tooth with a pair of pliersNo daughter oi mine is going to get out there and show her legs to everybody who comes along. n number of parents were heard to say.Resislenee movements .darted from every section of the community. If picketing bad been customary, there's no doubt my parents' home wnult! have been picketed byangry residents of Longs Ucud.Nevertheless, my mother went quietly about measuring ail the girls, anti began sewing black material on her old treadle-model sewing machine.The result was some of the baggiest, longest, black bloomers (with elastic gathering them lightly just above the knees) ever fashioned anywhere. A pair fur each of the older girls in school. It bad nothing to do with mother's sewing abilities. She was trying to avoid further controversy by making the shorts nun-furm-fitting. and hmg enough to almost double fur a skirtThe results phie.'itlt;Hl the community, and the shorts became the forerunners of (he short .vlmrl.v seen today in every section tif the county.And the resulting girls' basketball team could have outplayed most Imys' teams.Those girls were good basketball players, my father a s.They won the Girls' Kleineiilury Championship Trophy ihe second year t hey played.
Newspaper Details
Kingsport Times
Kingsport, Tennessee, US
Wed, Jul 07, 1976
Page 47
Full Page
Clipped by
Kingsport P.
TN, USA 29 Sep 2023
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