Spring Semester 1964

*This post was originally posted in January 2018. It appears it was a lot colder that year than it was this year. Here in Ohio we have had a unseasonably warm February, but I am still ready for spring and summer, and I can always use some hey day inspo.

There is nothing better than wearing Shetlands, tweed, and the ability to layer trad layer after trad layer. Well there may be at least one thing that is better at least for me and that is warm weather. While the winter has been great for breaking out cold weather gear I have had my fill and I am over it. However, with the coldest month approaching I can do nothing but dream of warmer days.

Last night I was flipping through an old Wittenberg University yearbook from 1964 (no, this is not the year that I graduated) to get some spring inspiration. There were some cool ivy pics that got me excited for wearing shorts, madras, and white sneakers. It also reminded me that flip-flops & t-shirts have been on the scene for quite a while and that students have always loved kicking off their loafers! Before you start browsing the images below lets let out one collective sigh as we dream of warm weather and that student life.

For more hey day inspo checkout the following posts:
Wittenberg 1963 & 1965
Wittenberg 1967
Wittenberg 1964

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oxford cloth button down
Jerrod Swanton is a simple man interested in simple, classic, and traditional style.

6 Comments on "Spring Semester 1964"

  1. FJW says:

    1970 was my senior year in high school and I can remember writing to colleges for their course catalogs. It was pre-internet (obviously) and I amassed a slew of catalogs. I received one from Marietta College with similar pictures as the Wittenberg yearbook but one I photo can clearly remember. It was a student sitting in a classroom and he was wearing madras shorts, a rowing tee shirt and top siders…and I thought how cool would it be to be able to go to a school where you could dress like that.

    Well, I did. But when I arrived on campus in the fall of 1970 I found out the cool guy in the madras shorts graduated in the spring of ’70. I never had a chance to thank him.

  2. oxford cloth button down says:

    FJW – Haha, I enjoyed your story very much. Thanks for sharing!

  3. andrew friedman says:

    Not my generation, but I still wear the madras shorts I picked up in ’89 (right after college) every summer. Nothing quite like cotton worn in over thirty plus years.

  4. Pat says:

    Great to see the Ivy League look made it to the Buckeye state.
    Embrace your winter wool, summer will be here soon enough

  5. Michael Powell says:

    In the spring of 1964, I was a freshman at an all-boys Catholic high school. We had a dress code: shirt and tie every day. Odd trousers (NO blue jeans allowed). And crepe soled shoes (didn’t scuff up the floors and made less noise in the halls). All I knew about ivy was that it was a vine which grew on the sides of peoples’ houses. My shirt of choice was a blue button down – that’s what we called them. I’d been wearing blue button downs since the 7th grade (the best blue button downs had a button on the BACK OF THE COLLAR).

    In three weeks, it will be the spring of 2024. A couple of hours ago, I was wearing a blue button down on a grocery run. The rubber soled shoes were Sperrys – don’t scuff up the floors and make less noise in the aisles. The odd trousers were VERY odd for the south side of Chicago – Nantucket reds. And I’ve got ivy growing on my house.

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