The Sears Christmas wish book came a few days ago and even if I intended to order from it I probably couldn't. My four grandchildren have circled and written their names on practically every item so many times I can't read it. Amanda and Allison wrote their names on the same pair of shoes I see. They look like something an Eskimo might wear and for some unearthly reason they can be pumped up. Can you imagine that! As if they weren't big and ugly enough already! The soles are nearly two inches thick, the strings look like rope and to top it off they are priced in the neighborhood of $70.00. Frankly, I wouldn't wear them if you paid me the $70.00. I have two left feet anyway and I sure don't need any that clunky and awkward.
Whatever happened to ballet slippers, majorette boots and my all time favorite shoes of all, the roman sandals? I'm not talking about those laced up things that surface every few years. These were black or white high top shoes for little girls, they had narrow straps that started at the instep and buckled all the way to the top which was just above the ankle. Now that was a shoe! Dorothy Nell Bryant had a pair. She lived right next door and she was a big girl. She was eight and in the second grade.She also had a red pencil box and a red, white and blue book satchel. She told me she even had homework and test. I wasn't sure what homework and test were but I didn't tell her that. I just said I'd have some too when I started to school. Besides, I was only interested in those shoes. My! but they were beautiful! They were so shiny and black and clean. Dorothy said when they got dirty she could just wipe them off with a cold biscuit and they would be as clean as new. My cousin Dorothy and I wanted a pair real bad but Mother and Aunt Gladys said we would have to wait until we started to school to get them. We just knew they would be all sold out before then cause that's what big Dorothy kept telling us. She called us babies, stuck out her tongue at us and showed us her shoes every chance she got.
Just before my birthday in October Mother said I could invite some of my cousins and friends for a party. She said I should ask big Dorothy too as she was the only girl in the neighborhood except for me and cousin Dorothy. Also her mother was very nice and Mothers friend. I was sort of hoping she wouldn't come but of course she did. After we had cake and koolaide Daddy brought out a big sack. He gave every body some suckers, and guess whats, (that's candy with a surprise in it) then he handed the sack to me. In the first package was the prettiest blue dress I had ever seen. I knew then what Mother had been sewing on all those nights. When I opened the next package I couldn't believe my eyes, there was a pair of black roman sandals, I almost fell off the porch. I ran and put on my dress and shoes right then, I sure thought I was something. When Daddy finally talked me into opening the last package guess what? It was another pair of sandals just like the first except these were white. Aunt Gladys gave Dorothy a pair of black ones and we were so excited we couldn't take our eyes off them. We forgot all about big Dorothy 'til she came over and said we were acting real stupid. I tried to give her another piece of cake but she acted mad and kicked dirt on my new shoes, so when no one was looking I stuck out my tongue at her and called her "old crab apple" . (My cousin Bill said that was a real ugly word.)
Charlotte (Perdue) Perry