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that, fur some thought there wuz some kind a.poison there on
his tomb, that caused 'em all ta die sooner er later. That
might jest be superstition but I always thought there wuz
somethin1 in it.
--44-.417-444407-4ha4-"Fairr-41*41"1"43-44611-
-gesoperir-en14. efore that the only kinda low
shoes fur men wuz the Newport Tie with two tr three lacin's,
and the Oxford, both jest used fur summer time./1
"The general run a shoes fur men wuz high with eyelets
clear up ta the top, or with eyelets half way up and hooks
the rest a the way. There wuz also the Congress shoe with
rubber or felt top too fur men.
"The women's ordinary Ilhoes wuz either laced clear ta
the top or they had buttons. Some had as high as eighteen
buttons but the general run wuz fifteen buttons. Than there
wuz the high laced boot fur women that reached jest below
the knee, fur skatinl or mountain climbinf. They always had
a common sense heel.
A
16\ Thererwuz also theilfat ankl---Tiaert--maw-the-ordwater--
-itigh--eitee-ftlf-elel-weetertv They wuz calledllfat ankles" 'cause
they wuz made big arount the ankles to fit the old ladies
who had bigger ankles then they did when they wuz young.
Some a them had no lacin's or buttons but wuz fixed, like the
Congress shoe, with felt or cloth at the top, ant a band a
elastic so they'd stretch so ya could get the foot in.
Otherltfat anklestl had buttons or lacints.
"There's some 'fat ankles' still made but not near
sa many as usta be. Jest a few. Most old women taday don't/
wanta be old, ant they wear the stylish shoes like the young
ones. There's still a few though who know they're old ant
don't care who else knows it, an' they want shoes ta cover
their ankles in cold weather.
"A06-0±-smr14.4m44mmr, wars had somethint ta do with shoe
..or
styles too. A shoe that wuz popular fur a good many years
wuz the Blucher Shoe, named after General Blucher a the Franco
Prussian War in 1870. That wuz a shoe made 'specially ta wear
long and be comfortable ta march in. Some a that type is sti3.1
made.
_-.4' The automobile is another thing that caused a revolu-
tion in the shoe business. In the old days people usta walk
a lot, and they hada have shoes that dintt hurt sa much.
WUz more important ta buy shoes that would wear fur walkint
ant would feel good than it wuz ta buy 'em fur style and then
throw 'em away and get a new pair inside a monthur two.
taday the average foot is narttrft thin it usta
be. I think this is because it usta make a kid's foot spread
out when he went barefoot in summer. And that part that usta
spread out went in length when he growed up, I guess. Least
ways the model foot fur women usta be 4B and now it's 5 or 5i
A or double A. Seems like it's aristocratic ta have a long
narra foot.
97
got more money fur them than fur
,tly the best cutters
flAnuther thing that makes a woman's foot narra taday,
I think, is the high heels. They push the foot forward and
so what usta go in width now goes in length.
I
ones that's showed
-Appri~4101410.
"Them model shoes otbrignmio+beitmiosploiereii-ebewbf are the
as sample, 'cause them sizes make the best
,yrt.t,e,i_JZ 4 .4,6-
e all usta like ta work on thou tspoalalagy fur we
/1
the general run a shoot:19'a
could work on lem...411An a stitcher had
'1;4 talsawsw.
ta be an A number one stitcher ta...00-werit-err-Leas,
fancy stitcher!pe-w1%i
4gesides gettin' more pay for this work, we liked ta
do it, cause we got the very best material in the shop ta
work with. A cutterld get the best leather and a stitcher'd
get the finest silk or mercerized.
"Would ya like ta see the kind a spool the thread come
on?"
Aunt Mary brought out from a closet a hugh spool, about
twenty-five times the size of an ordinary spool of thread.
She explained that her son who worked in a factory that closed
down some twenty odd years ago, was given this and others like
it, the day the shop closed its doors.
"That thread is over twenty years old, but it's as
strong as kin be. I still unwind part of it from time ta
time, on a small spool and use it on my machine. Nothin'
like it fur strength. That's mercerized.
"Ant ya oughta see the diffrunt colors a splk he brought
voi6141.11.415.0*6.0
"After the samples had been used ta show the styles,
they'd be brought back ta the factory and sold cheap. If ya
had the right size foot ya could always buy a good shoe cheap.
All the shops had a sign out, ASample shoes fur sale.)
41There usta be sixty pair a shoes to a case and seventy—
two in a case a children's. We got the sane price fur each
kind, so naturally we_ liked to cut the grownup's. After a
while it come down to thirty-six pair in a case and now, I
guess, it's only twelve pair.
That's cause in the old days, the shoes was standard
and if a shoe store din't sell 'em one season, they could put
'em on the shelf 'till the,next season. Now they gotta sell
'em all the same season they buy 'em, or they lose on 'am.
Fromppage 3
She wears low shoes When ya heard that said 'tout a woman
in winter time fifty years ago yagd think she was either cragy or kind&
immoral or maybe an actress. Streets wuz muddy and. there wuzngt many
an' a woman had to walk when she wuz going down town. She
had to have something comfortable to wade through the mud with. ;dm_
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