The phrase "a time when boys" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to refer to a specific period or moment in the past that involves boys, often in a nostalgic or reflective context.
Example: "I often think back to a time when boys would play outside until sunset, carefree and full of laughter."
Alternatives: "an era when boys" or "a period when boys".
I wore special boots at a time when boys wore shorts.
But Tewksbury, in those days, was still balancing on the edge of innocence, a time when boys "sipped beer" and people left their doors unlocked.
Remorseless cheerleading for female stories can take you back to a time when boys were denied dollies and pink wallpaper was compulsory for girls.
But for truly dangerous pastimes, the modern boy will be forced to go back to books written at a time when boys really were boys, and afraid of nothing.
Maybe because I grew up on Long Island at a time when boys picked you up for the prom wearing tuxedos and sneakers, I've always yearned for the opposite: guys with polish and panache, a kind of macho dandy.
Surely, if we stopped being judged and slut-shamed and put into good girl/bad girl boxes all the rest of the year, then Halloween could just be about "dressing up as stuff" rather than a time when boys get to dress up as stuff and girls get to dress up as sexy stuff.
Maybe it was that she smiled in a particularly nonhostile way at a time when boy-girl relations were still perilous?
A time when boy bands were on the rise with groups like Menudo and New Kids on the Block -- but there something special about New Edition that captivated millions with their music.
'That's the time when boys really need their mother because in a way she's your first girlfriend and she instils a sense of self-confidence in you.
I'm already thinking of 16 years' time, when boys come knocking on the door.
And in that delicate time when boys begin to search out same-sex friendships, he was lost.
