Here's a thought:

[highlyeccentric]

Scungies.

Those weird lycra undie-like things which you have to wear over your underpants and under your sports skirt in primary school. What is with scungies? They do absolutely zippo as far as Protecting the Young Lady's Modesty goes. All they do is make sure that everyone has something green, or blue, as the case may be, under their skirt.
Yet I if I recall correctly, at at least one of my schools, they were part of the uniform.

I think I also remember wearing 'cottontails': cotton underpants designed to be the same size, colour and shape as scungies, without giving you the nasty synthetic-stuff-in-your-nether-regions effect, and being called out on it (by teachers? other students?), because my scungies weren't the same as everyone else's.

SERIOUSLY, people. If you're going to have uniform undies, why not under regular skirts too? (After all, primary school girls hang upside down from monkey bars in all their clothes.) If you're concerned about the young lady's modesty... what is WITH those miniscule netball skirts?

Finally, observe the fact that at my school, where on out-of-uniform-day your hems were inspected for modesty, those blasted netball skirts were uniform right from Kindy to year 12 (shorts did appear as an option at some point, thank god, but sadly, vr. ugly shorts. We could've done with nice green culottes, IMHO).

Comments

[ulfruna.livejournal.com]

SCUNGIES!? You guys called them... scungies!?!? Oh my lord that makes them about infinitely more horrible. XD

As far as I can recall, they were just 'bike shorts' to us.


MAAAAN, I was so happy when shorts for girls appeared as part of the sports uniform. MAN.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

Well, my mother called them Scungies. I've no idea what they were officially.

At that stage, 'scungy' for 'icky, yucky, scummy' wasn't really in use. Although Scungy is a risk your nether regions run if you prance about in those at a sports carnival on a hot day, I must note.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

Oh, bike shorts are something different. Like, actually shorts, in my world. I think I took up wearing short bike shorts under my skirts at about ten.

[ulfruna.livejournal.com]

Ew, ew ew. >D

Y'know, you've made me remember a phase in high school (I believe circa Year Ten) when underwear came to be referred to as 'gruds', at least amongst my year level.

There is absolutely nothing flattering about the word 'gruds'.

[ulfruna.livejournal.com]

Hum. What you described as 'scungies' instantly interpreted in my head as what I referred to as 'bike shorts'. I would never have worn my 'bike shorts' on their own, ie as Actual Shorts.

THIS IS A CURIOUS MATTER.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

I had LONG bike shorts which I wore as a kid, but I also wore *leggings* as a kid, so clearly I had no idea. Short bike shorts were strictly for under-skirting, and... at one stage I wore long bike shorts under my skirt, in order to recoup some modesty.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

Nothing, but it IS an awesome word. I'm adopting it, thankee.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

Ahah. 'Scungies' are apparently 'sports briefs'. The internet thinks 'Scungies' may have been a trade name for a brand thereof, and has drifted from there to mean 'scummy, daggy underwear'

[ulfruna.livejournal.com]

OH, INTERNET. The things you can tell us!

Google images suggest that what I used to refer to as 'bike shorts' are definitely more like scungies than what the internet (...and probably most of the rest of the modern world) consider to be 'bike shorts'.

OH ALSO. I heartily concur. What IS with those miniscule netball skirts!?! *flail*

[tea-fiend.livejournal.com]

We too had the minuscule knicker-shorts, but ours were a charming maroon. They are just one of the many reasons I sacked off PE from the age of 13 onwards.

[(Anonymous)]

i think they were called bloomers - or at least that's what they were at my school. in bright red, no less.

and yes, definitely not bike shorts.

[(Anonymous)]

gym-shorts, or gym pants? To be worn with a singlet as a subtitute to a gymnastics leotard. Equivalent coverage to Cottontails. Bike shorts are longer.
Scungies equivalent to "grungies", or "undies" in my town. But i had no uniform, so who knows.

[(Anonymous)]

nope: judging by "gym-shorts" i'd assume you're american, and these were lycra, slightly larger than your underwear in the school colours. and same with us: scungies referred to underwear.