Let’s start at the bottom – shoes –

My mother had lots of pairs of shoes (not quite as many as the 3000 Imelda Marcos, the infamous former First Lady of the Philippines was said to have had).

When my mother got older, her feet got bad and she couldn’t wear most of her shoes anymore. Being a fashion plate, she was sad but resigned.

My grandma had bad feet too and the only shoes I ever saw her wear were called “space shoes”. They were molded to fit her feet and were very ugly but practical. They enabled her to walk.

I love shoes too but bunions limit my choices these days, alas.

Today’s post I’m calling “my early childhood through shoes”. Odd I know but I have to start somewhere. I’ll get to my paper dolls eventually.

When I was a young child my mother bought me Buster Brown shoes from the shoe store down the block. So exciting to be buying a new pair of shoes – usually in the fall for the start of the school year.

The Buster Brown Shoe Company got its start at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis and became one of the leading makers of children’s shoes for decades.

One time when I was maybe six years old I had plantar’s warts on the bottom of my feet. My mother took me to the podiatrist to have them removed. Afterwards as a reward for my suffering she took me to the shoe store and bought me a new pair of Mary Janes. Unfortunately my foot hadn’t healed yet and I bled into my new shoes.

There actually was a novel written in 1975 called “Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up” about growing up Catholic on Chicago’s South side. It was made into a musical in 1984. It seems that patent leather shoes had great resonance in our American culture in the 1950’s and 60’s especially. Now you can get Doc Martens style Mary Janes, very fashionable.

Then there was there were the Ked’s sneakers.

Growing up with a twin brother I got to have daily experience of the difference between what girls and boys were supposed to wear, the way they were expected to behave, and how they were treated.

Back to my Keds…My mother bought me the kind of sneakers with rounded toes because she thought they were better for my feet.

One day when I was in fifth grade, on the playground in the housing development I grew up in, I saw a group of girls I was hoping to befriend.

I went up to join them but was rebuffed by a “We don’t play with girls who wear round toed sneakers, pointy toed sneakers are better.” Ouch! My first fashion humiliation.

And when I was a little older, let’s not forget saddle shoes to go with “bobby socks” and “poodle skirts” oh my.

Well that’s more than enough about footwear during my childhood. This endeavor could become much bigger than I had at first imagined. I better reign myself in and focus. Maybe I’ll do better tomorrow.