Shoes

When I was a kid we had to walk 6 miles to school, barefoot, uphill both ways, carrying all our books. When it was icy out we wrapped barbed wire around our feet for traction. Yep, and they didn't give us "snow days", if you could crawl through the second story window, you had to be there. Yes sir, and we was grateful for the opportunity to get an education.

Sorry, couldn't help myself. Rob and I sat down this evening to do a little shoe maintenance. My tennies need cleaning, my boots need laces, Rob's dress shoes need polished, etc. We got to talking about shoes and childhood. We decided very few experiences are more traumatizing than not having nice shoes when you're a kid.
I remember when I was 11, I had a pair of big, thick leather shoes. The soles must have been about an inch thick, and they had big rounded toes. Like clown shoes. They were brown once, and they were scuffed up, so Mother decided that it would be ok to use black polish on them. Initially, they looked alright, but after a couple of days, the black started wearing off and they looked "antiqued". Yeah. Big round-toed clodhoppers that look antiqued.
I was always getting in trouble in gym class for not having appropriate shoes. I wore boots most of my life, and I was arrogant about it. I think it was a self defense mechanism, because I knew it was frivolous to ask Mother for tennis shoes when I was hand cutting sassafras branches to feed the animals because we couldn't afford hay. So I was always getting into fights with the principal and getting detention. Damn stupid teachers.
As an aside, I always thought it stupid to have physical ed/sports/gym in the schools. Think about it. That's what people do when they are out of school or out of work. Why waste my time making me play? It would turn a 7 hour day into a 6 hour day. Oh wait, I forgot, that would give teachers incentive to issue more Homework. I think it's stupid to make kids take work home. Don't make me take 3-4 hours of work home every evening. Nuh uh, no way. Teach them at school for 6 hours with half-hour for lunch, and don't waste their time playing in gym class.
If you really believe in fitness, require 20 minutes of calisthenics on the front lawn before first bell. The Chinese do it, and it works. There, ya happy?
Anyway, back to the shoes.
I was belligerent about my boots when I was in my early teens. When other girls were wearing see-through jelly shoes (ewwww, shudder). I wore my tall leather cowgirl boots. Had them re-heeled regularly, and kept them shined. I shared snippets of wisdom: "A person who don't shine the heels of their boots probably don't wipe their ass either." (Yes, I know, Appalachian grammar.) But I was also known as the "girl who used to dip Copenhagen".
The beginning of 9th grade, Mother got wise to my school dillema of the previous year, and to my utter shock and dismay, she bought a pair of bright-pink high-top converses. The K-Mart in Elkins had a back-to-school sale and for some cosmically ironic reason, they had huge bins full of these stupid flat canvas tennis shoes with the white rubber toe crescent, on sale: $7.00/pr. (Don't act like you don't know what a Converse is...) She put an end to my boots and denim jacket. She said if I don't wash my jacket she was going to throw it in the stove and burn it. But, MOM!
How cruel. Her motive was to stop me from being in detention all the time and bring me into compliance with the school rules. Hard soled shoes weren't allowed on the wooden gym floor, so I always sat on the bleachers and read a book. (Really, I didn't mind detention, and I don't think the principal was mad at me; I argued with him respectfully and I never pushed him too far.)
First day of school arrived and after much pleading, I got to wear my boots to school, but my new hideous tennies were in my bag. I was pleasantly surprised to find that all the kids were wearing them. It wasn't too bad, from then on I had to participate in gym class however.
You must realize that converse hightop tennis shoes were cheap ugly things when they first came out. Cons were as generic as you could get. Pretty soon we discovered the joy of doodling on your shoes. We would sit at our desks and draw on our shoes. Some kids got real creative with their artwork, reaching artistic heights comparable to that of a good tattoo parlor. And if you didn't like what you had drawn - just wash them and you have a clean canvas to work with. Ah, another lovely nuisance created by my generation.
I wonder how many times I got in trouble for drawing on my shoes instead of paying attention?

MsAmber