Firstly, great to hear from you. Secondly, what you say has confirmed that my memory is still OK. I am sure you are right, too, that the Coy. storeman would in this particular instance, not wish for coinage to change hands!! In that era, my soldier friend explained to me how , in order to remain smart, the battle dress trousers were folded over the top of the anklets in such a way, that if a suitable string of ,say, lead weights was inserted inside the trousers, the fold over the anklets would remain static and give an appearance of smartness that was not easy to obtain in a battledress uniform. He said, that over a period of time the string of weights tended to wear through the trouser material.
In WW2 when I was for a period an 18 yr old Naval Rating, I followed the guidance of "old sweats" with similar efforts to appear smart, but of course in the matter of gaiters,putting 36 inch bell bottom trousers within the confines of gaiters would never yield a result as attractive as I have explained above. Incidentally, the gaiters had to receive blanco - Khaki Green No. 3 (What a memory!) As always, take care. PhilipG.
