Loafers were popular in high school – shoes, not kids – penny-loafers, too. You younger folks will have to pardon us if we boomers scoff at walking shoes, running shoes, climbing shoes, hiking shoes, racquetball shoes, pump-up shoes… and hundred dollar sports shoes. When we were kids, we had tennis shoes – black or white – period. They cost about $25, in today’s terms.
Guys might wear a watch; and for a short while in junior high, ID bracelets were popular for guys. But there were no chains or necklaces, gold or otherwise. Pocket protectors? Not used as widely as you might think. I’m no expert on this, but girls did not get their ears pierced as early. Many of them never did. As I recall, they did not wear earrings to school.
Too dressy. A lot of girls confiscated their dad’s long sleeved white shirts and wore them after school. Permanent press came into existence in the late 60’s. But I still remember ironing my shirts in college, permanent press or not.
A little more on shoes: we wore shoes back then… at least where I grew up. For us guys, there was not much choice: dress shoes and tennis shoes. Dress shoes usually had laces. Tennis shoes were black or white, usually white. There were no Reebok’s, no ‘walking shoes’ – just tennis shoes.
For females, there were flats, low heels, high heels, and tennis shoes… and penny loafers. A toe showing meant you needed a new pair of shoes. No boots; boots were for horse riding… except when it snowed. When it rained…
The Essay on Shoe Shoes Life Worn
I have worked for "Shoe Life" for five years and interviewed numerous shoes, from the downright bizarre- PeeWee Hermann's shoes to the undeniably stylish- Manolo Blahnik's from the hit HBO series "Sex and the City " but rarely have I encountered a shoe with such depth and humor than Denim the shoe I stumbled upon while walking to the local market. The following questions and answers are taken from ...
we wore rubbers… yep, that’s what they were called; rubber ‘overalls’ for shoes. In the winter, we wore boots; big boots over our shoes for guys. Girls usually wore boot-shoes and carried their regular shoes…
I donno’… somewhere, and then switched when they got where they were going. Life was tough back then.
