I never wore knickers, and don't recall others wearing them. I was born in 1932.

Not the usual Jack Delano. The boy on the left has the shy smile of someone who doesn't live in Midland PA.

When I was little, I read Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Farmer Boy" and I was entranced by the idea of a "lunch pail". How would that differ from my own lunch box? Would it be bigger? Would food stay hot longer? And if I had one, how could I convince my mother to put "bread-and-butter and sausage, doughnuts and apples, and four delicious apple-turnovers, their plump crusts filled with melting slices of apple and spicy brown juice" in it instead of celery, carrots and a sandwich.

Then I got a bit older and realized it was just a bucket.

When did knickers cease to be common apparel among boys? My sense is that they were gone or mostly gone by the late '40s, but I didn't arrive until the '50s. Someone who was there: please clue me in.

As I look at the anchors for the bails and the general shape and size of both tins, I wonder: are these purpose-made or are they cleaned and repurposed gallon paint tins?

[Those are Swift's lard buckets. - Dave]

Well, there you go. Lard was never favoured in my family as a shortening, and lard buckets were outside my experience.

The Gaynor boys and their little sister Carolyn are ridiculously photogenic. These look to be the two oldest, Robert (10), and John (7). They could have been child models.

Nothing better than that feeling of your new school clothes and shoes. They each have swag for sure.