Knees

Knees

You don’t hear much about knock-knees any more. But when I was growing up, the status of one’s knees, especially if you were a girl, was very important. There were three categories of legs—knock-kneed, bowlegged, and great legs. I tended more toward the knock-kneed, where my cousin Carolyn, who had a knock-out face and boobs was, regrettably, bowlegged. My sister had great legs, although she didn’t have the knock-out fact and boobs.

I don’t know why we paid so much attention to knees. Maybe because what we called Bermuda shorts had just come in to style and so for eleven months of the year in South Florida, we all wore Bermuda shorts when we weren’t in school. That’s a lot of exposed knees. And not much else on the body to look at, as exposed midriffs were decades away and only loose women wore plunging necklines.

The other way to have ugly knees besides knock-knees was to have knobby knees. Boys usually had knobbier knees than girls, but on them somehow it looked strong and athletic. On girls like me, it just made me look even skinnier. And skinny was not yet “in”, as this was the era of voluptuousness with Marilyn Monroe and Ava Gardner. Twiggy, with her skinny knobby knock-knees hadn’t even been born yet.

But it just goes to show that what’s in today will be out tomorrow and vice versa. Which is why I’m holding on to my pot belly.