New shoes

Remember that thing they have in shoe stores that has a seat on one part and a foot measurer on the other?  that way the salesman can sit down while measuring your feet.  When I was little it seemed really nifty to me.

When I was about twelve I got a pair of North Star sneakers, and I ended up wearing nothing but North Stars for a few years.  I'm not sure why exactly I got so crazy about them. (I also recall Dash sneakers from when I was even younger.)

Today my shoe size is 8 and a half, like the Fellini movie.  Sometimes I have to look a bit for a new pair, because some brands only seem to come in 8 and 9 and such.

Twenty years ago when I spent eight months in London researching my Ph.D. thesis, I bought a new pair of shoes just before leaving.  But I managed to wear them out in just four or five months, literally ending up with a hole in one of the soles. (I did a lot of walking about in London.)

I was just reading in Ten Lost Years about a Depression kid who got relief shoes, but they were oversize boots like Li'l Abner wore.  When he was playing outdoors another kid said, "He has relief boots!" leading to a fight.  Nastiness comes so easy to some kids...