bobby soxer

A typical teenage girl of the 1940s and '50s. Fashion for teenage girls of those decades dictated short white anklets with turned-down tops. Absent any record of an eponymous Bobbi (short for Barbara or Roberta), the best guess about the name is “bob” in the sense of “cut short.” Girls who wore them were known as bobby soxers. When they weren't swooning over Frank Sinatra, they congregated at malt shops or rode in their boyfriends' hot rods. Watching a rerun of the TV show Happy Days will put that era in focus.