My first pair of school shoes were also the ugliest shoes I've ever owned.

 

 

Up, Up and Away..5th Dimension. That's what would happened to you if you turned a corner too fast in these slippery, couldn't be uglier shoes. Click on this photo to hear the song.

 

In looking at how many pairs of shoes we have allowed ourselves to have is becoming all too common. With heels and platforms rising ever higher, as a child, I remember having three pairs of shoes. One for church, one for school, and one for play.

I will never forget the experience of buying my first pair of school shoes. Wanting desperately to get out of the house and into school, I could not wait. My mother and I drove over to a small family owned shoe store "downtown"(downtown is where we went before malls and Internet shopping) I was thrilled as we walked into the small store, displays of shoes through the plate glass windows, smelling of shoe leather, small "Hush Puppy" display and "Buster Brown" all set up carefully by brand and color. The children's section didn't have much. However, I did eye a suede brown saddle shoe with diamond cutouts on the side each diamond had a different color suede underneath, so creative and cool and it did fit into the practical allowable oxford must have a shoelace or a buckle with elastic style. To this day I'm a sucker for suede and loafers. Did I ever want a pair of loafers. I liked the fact that they didn't have any laces and I would watch the opening credits on the TV show "My Three Sons" with the dancing loafers. I just thought they were so different and simple. I even liked the name of them...loafers. No patent leather "church" shoes were allowed, a very practical and Catholic household would never allow such impractical choices. They should be well made, sturdy, and most of all ugly...the ugliest shoes in the entire store.

Alas, I was never asked what I wanted but instead had to choose one of the laced up "oxfords" because they had "more support"...such a lie. I remember the cold feel of the metal piece used to measure your foot. Having a wide foot and a narrow heel gave me two choices of shoes both of which were hideous "Stride Rite" shoes...one step above the white high top shoes, soaked with white shoe polish, used for toddlers. I wanted those brown suede ,saddle shoes but they didn't come in "Wide" in fact I was looked at as having feet one step above orthopedic shoes. There was nothing wrong with my feet and frankly shoes made for wide feet always stretched out, and would in a week's time look like two round waffle irons with socks. The beautiful "oxford" suede shoes were not available in my "wide" size. This was at a time, (don't forget) where MEN told WOMEN what shoes to buy, what was comfortable and doable, and even they would PUT THEM ON FOR YOU!! I cherish sale racks and Marshall's do it yourself try on shoe racks. I remember having to sit still while some bald headed, serious comb over, hairy earred, know it all pervert handled my foot, as HE put on my shoes with a cold shoe horn AND THEN TIED THEM FOR ME even though I was fully capable.

The most hideous "red" (always hated the color not in my palette) boy looking, flat, leather soled shoes were the only ones available and I was forced to buy them. I sat in the chair arms folded for a long time tyring to tell everyone..just let me try on those brown saddle shoes. The pervert wouldn't go and get them for me, as I would have "made them fit" in honor of style and human dignity. These red leather oxfords were as awful as they sound. They felt like a tight leather vice with a hard dinner plate underneath, practical was being kind. The leather was unyeilding, the bottoms offered no comfort between my foot and the hard floor. I hated them from the minute the salesman put them on my foot I wouldn't put them on a dog. They did NOT go with my first day of school navy blue jumper with triangle pockets and the attached sewn in polyester shirt, short, short, underwear line, like Cindy Brady's dresses. Bend over in any direction and anyone on the playground would make fun of your flowered Sears underwear (I see London I see France...), not to mention that you froze in the crisp Fall air with the stupid white ankle socks because you weren't old enough to have knee socks. No lace, no flowing skirt to spin around in at recess. What a sight, I must have been! I had to "pony up " my personality to compensate for this ridiculous, nun driven outfit.

It so turns out though that God heard my cries of fashion desperation. Those red "Stride Rite" boy shoes were like wearing Nancy Kerrigan's ice skates. Leather soles make a loud noise when you walked and on the Catholic waxed floors and in running around in the school yard, I slipped and fell all the time, arms flying up trying to catch my balance, as I would try to turn a corner quickly, revealing once again the cheap underwear. To my happy fate, one day I fell and skinned my knee so badly that my mom finally returned the shoes and gave the shoe salesman an earful. O happy day that I "was allowed" to buy the "Buster Brown" suede saddle shoes, with the diamond cut outs, and a bass oxford type of bottom, no slip and quiet as a mouse when I walked up to the teacher’s desk. They looked good, they felt good, I didn't slip and now I had some kind of style in the flow of all the lacey full dresses the other girls had. It suddenly didn't matter my mother dressed me like a boy, cut my hair short and uneven, exposing my ear on one side and not on the other....I had the shoes I wanted. No, they were not the ultimate... a loafer which I did not get a pair until 2 years later, but I was so happy with them, they suited my style. I do understand how one pair of shoes can make up for so many other wrongs in your attire and your life. The sheer joy of choosing and getting what I wanted and in a parochial school system, you value every creative choice as there aren't very many given.

 

To this day I love a pair of foot hugging, suede loafers..no socks, with a pair of khakis or jeans, it is a testament to who I am and who I always was.  I don't have to have the high heels because, let's be honest, nobody can walk with ease and comfort with super high heels. My first pair of loafers, that's another post. Hope to get to it soon. This post is dedicated to all people who remember their first pair of shoes. To those children who know their own style and stayed with it despite the obstacles and naysayers. To all women who remember their favorite dress or piece of clothing and wore it to death way past the “it still fits” stage. It is part of who we are.