Ahh - but they look like they're buckled *below the knee* to me! Clearly a trouble maker.

Clearly this drinking fountain provides the "Kiss of Life" versus the dreaded "Cup of Death", as so graphically described in an earlier Shorpy post.

I didn't realize that knickerbockers were still in fashion in 1942, except maybe for pro golfers. And the specimen sported by the young man to the right look too good for hand-me-downs.

Maybe a bit of the curse of many a good son and decent child - a well-meaning mother preferring nice, decent, old-fashioned clothing and making it stick?

were a big public health improvement over the faucets and cups used previously!

Every park in NYC had these concrete drinking fountains. As a kid in the 1950s, I remember lining up with my friends to take a drink on a hot summer day. The water was warm as there was no way to chill it, and no one ever gave a thought to catching anything from the kid who drank before you. Us bigger kids would lift up the smaller ones so they could drink; scraping your knees on the concrete base was no fun!