Figure 1.-.

I commonly wore sandals as a boy. I also had shoes. What I objected to were Wellington boots. We had to make sure our sandals and shoes were polished. Having unpolished shoes was punishable at both my primary and secondary schools and my mum (and I know other mums) put great emphasis on keeping shoes clean. We had a "shoebox" with all the brushes and polish in and mum made us polish our shoes every morning (sandals too - with the "brown brush". We had different ones for the black and brown polish with the colour written on. If you accidently used the black brush on brown sandals it would look bad - smeary. My mum would go mad then - especially as the black brush would also contaminate the brown polish). A lot of polishing was also to do with preserving and waterproofing the leather - another reason why it was more common in Europe perhaps?--the weather. I've told you before,I think,that I even used to polish my satchel - but with a cheaper brand of polish than the shoe polish mum bought. Later - at secondary school we had a liquid white cleaner to clean our gym shoes - the primary school plimpsoles were black so we never cleaned them. My uncle - who had been in the Army said he always judged a person by the state of their shoes. That's why I never used to complain about shoe polishing too much. A lot of English schools were run along semi-military lines then - I mean as far as attention to detail and wearing the uniform properly were concerned. Another recollection about footwear. I particularly recall one boy showing up in boots and short trousers being ridiculed. He was allowed the boots out of school by his mother - and most of what else he wanted, but he had to wear out his old primary school shorts before he could get long trousers.

Shoe Types

We of course thd different types of footwear. I recall a good bit about them all. Here is there is considerable overlap between our regular footwear and the footwear we wore to school.

Sandals

I commonly wore sandals during the Summer as a boy. There was choices concerning sandals in that we had the favourite type of pattern cut into the fronts. There was also different widths for the center strap, but the wide center straps looking more like a shoe was more common in the 1970s. During the 1960s most boys wore the sandals with the narrow center strap. Thought I'd give you my experiences on this subject. I've already explained to HBC (in talking about Germany) how I loved my sandals as a kid and wore them for as long as my mum would let me – well into the Autumn. Most kids in contrast couldn't wait to get back into “proper shoes”. There was no school rules on when sandals could be worn--it was just when mum's decided and most kids did at my primary school in the Summer. We boys still had to wear our long socks with sandals for school even though girls could wear short socks. I preferred this for some reason. I hated it when my mum made me wear short socks out of school.

Shoes

I also had shoes in primary school, but mostly wore sandals. At secondary school we all wore shoes. My primary school banned slip-ons. A note came round saying that "lace-up" shoes were required. When I first started at school nearly all boys wore standard plain Clarkes lace-up shoes with rounded fronts or sandals in the Summer and even later not all boys had the new styles. We didn't as my Mum preferred the tried and trusted Clarkes and so did many others - the new styles were more expensive and not so hard wearing and the pointed toed ones were considered bad for feet - restricting growth. The patterned brogues were seen as for "grown ups" - and a waste of money. "Tuf" shoes tried to rival "Clarkes". They had a a compass in the sole and animal footprints (which soon wore out and were only effective when it snowed). They were popular with some Cubs and the advertisments were aimed at them. Doc Marten shoes came out when I was in secondary school.

Plimsols

Boots

Another recollection about footwear. I particularly recall one boy showing up in boots and short trousers being ridiculed. He was allowed the boots out of school by his mother - and most of what else he wanted, but he had to wear out his old primary school shorts before he could get long trousers. I also had boots. The preferred skinhead footwear was heavy working men's boots. Doc Martins were very popular and when I started earning my own money, I bought a pair. Brown Doctor Martin bootsbecame the prefrred footwear and thus a trendy style. They were not as heavy as the old work-boots first worn and more comfortable as they had cushioned ("Airwear") soles. These boots had to be highly polished.

Wellies

What I objected to were Wellington boots. I wore them to primary school on rainy days. You also had to change out of welligton boots for your normal shoes in the Winter in these cloakrooms. That's why I always hated wearing wellingtons. My mum made us if it had been snowing to keep our feet dry and because she was the one who had to pay for new shoes. I disliked it primarily because it meant I had to carry my school shoes in to school in a seperate bag as well as my satchell. And if it was a P.E. day as well and I had to take in my plimpsoles as well. I had to deal with three sets of footwear with me! I still remember the hassles with mum over those wellingtons. They were hard to get off (especially if your hands were cold) and you normally ended up pulling your socks off with them too! [HBC note: An american reader in the late 1940s remembers a similar exxperience with galoshes.] Now kids wear trainers all the time - but technology has improved the ability of clothes to cope with the weather so I suppose that's what affects fashion too.

Buying Shoes

Getting new shoes was a big event. They were the most expensive items we bought and a lot of care was taken by the assistant in getting the correct fit. Clarkes did halfsizes and they had different width fittings. Sometimes we would spend ages getting the right fit in the shop - and the assistants were always very patient too and had time for you. I, as ever, used to get frustrated spending so long in getting shoes as I wanted to just get out and play - but now I'm glad that my Mum did take so much care as some people still have foot trouble due to wearing ill fitting shoes as children. Even if our shoes hadn't worn out but our feet had grown so that they were pinching Mum always found the money for a new pair for us. Anyway - I could tell you a bit more about procedure in the shoeshop if you want - that and the barbers was always an event for me as Mum would get off work early and meet us from school to take us for new shoes or haircuts.

Polishing

We had to make sure our sandals and shoes were polished. Having unpolished shoes was punishable at both my primary and secondary schools and my mum (and I know other mums) put great emphasis on keeping shoes clean. We had a "shoebox" with all the brushes and polish in and mum made us polish our shoes every morning (sandals too - with the "brown brush". We had different ones for the black and brown polish with the colour written on. If you accidently used the black brush on brown sandals it would look bad - smeary. My mum would go mad then - especially as the black brush would also contaminate the brown polish). A lot of polishing was also to do with preserving and waterproofing the leather - another reason why it was more common in Europe perhaps?--the weather. I've told you before,I think,that I even used to polish my satchel - but with a cheaper brand of polish than the shoe polish mum bought. Later - at secondary school we had a liquid white cleaner to clean our gym shoes - the primary school plimpsoles were black so we never cleaned them. My uncle - who had been in the Army said he always judged a person by the state of their shoes. That's why I never used to complain about shoe polishing too much. A lot of English schools were run along semi-military lines then - I mean as far as attention to detail and wearing the uniform properly were concerned.

Shoe Laces

One thing I remember about our shoes was the near panic in the mornings if we broke a shoelace! Spare shoelaces were kept in Mum's sewing box along with our garters and sometimes to had to hunt through to find a new lace. It was also a major offence at my primary school to have a sholeace undone -- worse even than having socks down. That was due to the danger of tripping up. Mum showed us how to tie a double knot in our shoes and I did get the hang of that so after P.E. and so on I was normally alright, but not all boys were. The worst thing that you could do at my primary school was to be seen walking aroung the playground with socks down, hands in pockets, shoelaces undone, tie askew and shirt hanging out of your shorts. You could be sure that the playground teacher would swoop on you in a flash if that was the case and start tidying you up while telling you how you were running the risk of tripping over and injuring yourself and why couldn't you take some pride in your appearance and so on. Then again Mum would have been the just the same if she had been there and on the occasions that she did get off of work early to take us to the barbers or dentist or whatever she often did have to spend some time tidying us up while chatting away with other Mums.

Hand-Me-Downs

Shoes were one of the few items that were not handed down from my brother to me. We had roughly same size feet in length but different width fittings. Also we only had one pair of best shoes then,one pair of sandals, plimpsoles and wellies so we got the best wear out of them all. I've also told you how we! were expected to take care of them too - polishing and so on and not scraping them along the pavement. You never saw second hand shoes for sale even at jumble sales

Weekends

For Sunday School I always wore my shoes even when I was wearing sandals for normal school and I didn't mind that too much as it added to the solemnity of the occaision and most boys (and girls) were dressed up for Sunday School. My elder brother too wore his school shoes for cubs church parade even though for normal meetings Mum sent him in sandals or plimpsoles as she didn't want our shoes scuffed in playing games and so on which the cubs did a lot of. The only objection I had was when we went visiting on a Sunday afternoon and I had to keep the shoes (and my other best Sunday School clothes) on all day. One of the good things about getting all dressed up for Sunday School was being able to get out of the clothes after Sunday lunch into my playclothes and going to meet my mates becuase the contrast both in clothing and what I was doing was so great but when we were going visiting on Sunday afternoon I never had that feeling.

Bill