# Are shorts appropriate for grownups of a certain age? How about cargo shorts? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 25, 2022, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-shorts-appropriate-for-grownups-of-a-certain-age-how-about-cargo-shorts/970334 "2022-08-25T15:44:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2022, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-shorts-appropriate-for-grownups-of-a-certain-age-how-about-cargo-shorts/970334/1 "2022-08-25T15:44:54Z")
Mrs. solost and I have been watching Love on Netflix (the Judd Apatow series, not the porny movie of the same name also on Netflix). It’s about some 30ish characters in the LA area and their relationships. On one episode we recently watched, a few couples went bowling together. The female of one of the couples was complaining about her husband or boyfriend wearing shorts in public, saying he should have put on some “big boy pants”. I then realized that the others were all wearing long pants. This was a freakin’ bowling alley, not a fancy restaurant or some similar place where shorts would be discouraged. And it’s SoCal, which presumably is very warm much of the time. Now me in the warm months, especially now that I work at home, I live in shorts and t-shirts. I feel sad when the days get cool and I have to break out long pants. I can’t remember when I did a load of laundry with long pants in it. Is “long pants only” a California or regional thing? I have heard that it’s easy to tell an American tourist in Europe in the summertime because they are the only ones wearing shorts. Is it a “grown-up” thing? I’m almost 58, so by most measures I think I’m a grownup. And my preferred mode of shorts is cargo shorts. In addition to, I think, not being stylish for anyone anymore, are they not supposed to be meant for older folks? I’ve heard a few times “no one over (X) age should wear cargo shorts” (I think I heard Marc Maron say it on his WTF podcast once, and the cutoff age was 40). I love cargo shorts- all the useful pockets! Nothing will affect my love of, and wearing of, shorts, and specifically cargo shorts. At my age I don’t give much of a crap what I look like in non-formal settings. Just curious. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-shorts-appropriate-for-grownups-of-a-certain-age-how-about-cargo-shorts/970334)._