Capturing Yesterday

This past week, I did shoe shopping, which I don't do often. While browsing, I recalled my youth and those adolescent years when one pair of 'dress shoes' was designated as 'Sunday shoes.' You did not wear those shoes any place but to Church. I saw a fella in Church last Sunday wearing shorts and flip-flops. Of course, Jesus wore something similar to flip-flops did He not?

I remember as a teen when it was a must to own a pair of leather thread-needle wing-tip shoes or a pair of leather plain-toed St. Louis 'Orange' shoes. We bought those shoes at Famous-Barr or Stix Baer & Fuller stores in St. Louis. Those shoes were made of real leather unlike many synthetic shoes today. Real leather shoes require polish maintenance. It was challenging learning how to give your plain-toed leather shoes a military style 'spit' shine. However, it was more enjoyable to pay a quarter and have the Collinsville Avenue shoeshine boy make his 'rag pop' on those shoes.

This twenty-first century America finds most peoples' feet buried in some type of athletic shoe. I believe it's fair to say that Americans these days dress more for comfort, which equates to a dress down from the more formal attire seen in years past. Back-in-the-day, you would always see men in coat and tie and women in dresses with heads covered when you surveyed the Church crowd. Even America's pastime sport saw a plethora of men in baseball stadiums wearing their prized Fedoras.

I should tell you that I bought a pair of shoes...I bought a pair of leather wing-tips. I likely won't save them for just Church. I plan to wear them at granddaughter, Lindsay's 'I Do' ceremony with fiancé, Reid, which is coming up this September. By then, I should have one terrific shine on those kickers.