bendover:
Redskinluver: However, in the early days of the 20th century sometimes young boys in the US would wear a type of kneelength trousers called knickerbockers, sometimes shortened to knickers.
Yes, I remember we had a paper called The Knickerbocker News that sported a picture of a boy in a pair of those things as the logo.
B
The full name of New York City's NBA (National Basketball Association) franchise is the "New York Knickerbockers," although the team is usually called simply the "Knicks."
In the musical "The Music Man," set in the American midwest of about a century ago, the title character, 'Professor' Harold Hill, asked the town's parents of their individual sons, "When he's outside the house, does he rebuckle his knickerbockers below the knees?"
Apparently that was a sign of potential juvenile delinquency at that time and place--maybe even worth a maternal 'trip to the woodshed'... --C.K.