shoe nostalgia: grade 1 (age 7)
29 Apr 2010 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cimoreneI mentioned a few weeks ago that I needed these (then brand-new to the market) Vans shoes called "Sophie".
I was thinking I'd just wait out the inevitable 6 months or whatever until they arrived in Northern Europe, but then there was this whole thing where my Mom wanted to buy me some shoes and they ran out in my size and I was reminded to check back if these had arrived in my favorite stores yet, but instead, they seemed to be a) only in North America and b) almost sold out everywhere (gone from Zappos, 1 pr size 6½ the second place I looked, 1 pr left in my size the third place)... so I ordered them. Sent to my parents, because they wanted to charge $65 USD for shipping. (WTF.)
I also mentioned that the last time I owned saddle shoes was probably 1st grade (inspired by the Barbie and the Sensations dolls, which all had poodle skirts and came with tiny plastic saddle shoes and letterman jackets and man, those were totally my favorite doll outfits for years...), and I realized that that was both the year I kind of awoke to "style" (such as it was then) in the form of carefully choosing all my own outfits, and that I could probably make do today (in the spring-fall anyway) with a big version of the shoe wardrobe from that year. As far as I can remember it, it was saddle shoes plus these:
As a child spending summers in Alabama, there was a lot of going to the pool, and the lake, and playing in sprinklers, and play pools, and just in the hose, so that's mostly what the jelly sandals were for - this was before the advent of those foamy elastic swimming/water shoes that later became so popular for children. However, I also wore my sparkly peach jelly sandals over various combinations of pastel socks to school (I liked to layer three pairs and roll the tops down so they made stacked rings around the ankle). (The flip-flops were mainly for the beach - 5 hours to the gulf coast, much nearer to the local swimming lake - and around the house and garden, that sort of thing.)
The brown boots I called my "Little House on the Prairie" boots. I liked those books at that age, mainly because it was a kind of mother/daughter activity with Mom reading them to me at an age when I had about 90% progressed to reading on my own instead, and I had a brown ditsy floral dress and an eyelet-trimmed pinafore which I called my "Laura Ingalls Wilder costume" and which I wore to school fairly frequently.
The white gladiators I remember seeing in Wal-Mart in a time when my parents were so broke they had to put them on layaway and make me do chores for a few months to earn them (otherwise they weren't so hot on making me do chores which is why I hardly know how to clean anything, as my wife can attest), but they were my favorite shoes past age 10. Especially with brightly colored socks:
My red mary janes were actually not quite like this pair by Red or Dead: another Wal-Mart purchase, they were patent leather and embellished with a ring of little flower and heart-shaped cutouts around the opening in the front. I wanted to wear them every day and wore out three pairs before Wal-Mart stopped carrying them.
And okay, I would never, ever wear jelly sandals anymore, because those things blistered like hell, and I couldn't actually wear sandals in Finland because it never gets warm enough. But I kind of want the mjs, sneakers, and boots...
I was thinking I'd just wait out the inevitable 6 months or whatever until they arrived in Northern Europe, but then there was this whole thing where my Mom wanted to buy me some shoes and they ran out in my size and I was reminded to check back if these had arrived in my favorite stores yet, but instead, they seemed to be a) only in North America and b) almost sold out everywhere (gone from Zappos, 1 pr size 6½ the second place I looked, 1 pr left in my size the third place)... so I ordered them. Sent to my parents, because they wanted to charge $65 USD for shipping. (WTF.)I also mentioned that the last time I owned saddle shoes was probably 1st grade (inspired by the Barbie and the Sensations dolls, which all had poodle skirts and came with tiny plastic saddle shoes and letterman jackets and man, those were totally my favorite doll outfits for years...), and I realized that that was both the year I kind of awoke to "style" (such as it was then) in the form of carefully choosing all my own outfits, and that I could probably make do today (in the spring-fall anyway) with a big version of the shoe wardrobe from that year. As far as I can remember it, it was saddle shoes plus these:
As a child spending summers in Alabama, there was a lot of going to the pool, and the lake, and playing in sprinklers, and play pools, and just in the hose, so that's mostly what the jelly sandals were for - this was before the advent of those foamy elastic swimming/water shoes that later became so popular for children. However, I also wore my sparkly peach jelly sandals over various combinations of pastel socks to school (I liked to layer three pairs and roll the tops down so they made stacked rings around the ankle). (The flip-flops were mainly for the beach - 5 hours to the gulf coast, much nearer to the local swimming lake - and around the house and garden, that sort of thing.)
The brown boots I called my "Little House on the Prairie" boots. I liked those books at that age, mainly because it was a kind of mother/daughter activity with Mom reading them to me at an age when I had about 90% progressed to reading on my own instead, and I had a brown ditsy floral dress and an eyelet-trimmed pinafore which I called my "Laura Ingalls Wilder costume" and which I wore to school fairly frequently.
The white gladiators I remember seeing in Wal-Mart in a time when my parents were so broke they had to put them on layaway and make me do chores for a few months to earn them (otherwise they weren't so hot on making me do chores which is why I hardly know how to clean anything, as my wife can attest), but they were my favorite shoes past age 10. Especially with brightly colored socks:
My red mary janes were actually not quite like this pair by Red or Dead: another Wal-Mart purchase, they were patent leather and embellished with a ring of little flower and heart-shaped cutouts around the opening in the front. I wanted to wear them every day and wore out three pairs before Wal-Mart stopped carrying them.
And okay, I would never, ever wear jelly sandals anymore, because those things blistered like hell, and I couldn't actually wear sandals in Finland because it never gets warm enough. But I kind of want the mjs, sneakers, and boots...
(no subject)
Date: 30 Apr 2010 12:43 am (UTC)Can you recommend some communities that I might be interested in, or able to be involved in, here on DW? You pretty much know what it is I like. I've tried poking around via the search features, but since they give results based on when things were last updated versus how many users are subscribed, it's hard to figure out which ones are actually active and involved.
I dunno, if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear. :)
(no subject)
Date: 30 Apr 2010 02:47 pm (UTC)