Earth Shoes

I'm not sure what got me thinking about things that were popular when I was young but this morning my mind was filled with stuff. For instance, I remember earth shoes. I didn't have any because I thought they were hideous. I still do. They were higher in the front than they were in the back and were supposed to correct your posture or something like that. I'd rather be a hump back than to wear these ugly things, don't you agree? Now days, they have Sketchers Shape Ups. Also popular in the 70s were ladies high heels that had clear plastic heels. They were set up so that you could put anything you wanted in the heel. Sort of show off your interests. I always remember seeing pictures of them with goldfish in the heel. Think about that poor fish! The thing would be sloshed to death in about 5 minutes if someone really did that. I never saw them live and in person but I did know a girl who had a pair and she put sand and tiny beach balls and freaky looking little baby dolls in the heel. Guys wore heels too, although they weren't called high heels. They were called stacked shoes. They usually came in hideous patchwork configurations. What's the deal? People back then didn't have any inkling that multi-colored patchwork shoes were ugly?!?!? So called desert shoes were popular, too. They had crepe soles and odd seams on the top. Mostly men wore these. I guess there was a large demand for silent stalker desert boots at the time.

The style gave way to a smoother topped boot which was a little better but not much. Hey ya know what? I think my uncle still has the silent ones. He doesn't stalk people though. I wonder where he finds them? I thought they went away a long time ago.

Ladies fashions had real panache. Go go boots were pretty popular. My mom has always been fashionable and she got me some go go boots when I was young. I thought they were the cat's meow. See the white pair with the flowers on them? Those are almost exactly like the ones I had. I was a super stylin' kid thanks to my beloved Mummy (thanks Mom!!!). 

Large collared shirts were a hot item. Some of the collars got so big, if the person wearing the shirt got to going very fast, they could almost fly. Check out the stacked shoes on the dude wearing the gay bib overalls. Oops, sorry - did I call them gay? I didn't mean it in a bad way. It's just, look at him! He looks like a 7 year old in a tall body. With overalls that are too short in the crotch. Ouch! Dig the big collars and the dude wearing a neck scarf.

Here's another classic look. Look at Uncle Rico (for all of you Napoleon Dynamite fans out there). He's sporting a large collared shirt and a jean vest. Oh yeah, and middle parted hair. So fashionable. I know that large collars show up these days, too but I don't see them paired with blue jean vests. Do they even make button up blue jean vests anymore?

I would be remiss if I didn't mention a little bit of pop culture. See this little guy on the left? As kids, my brothers and I would fight over who got to have the Frito Bandito pencil topper. He came in a variety of colors and in my memory, all kids who were cool had them. Unfortunately, he's not too P.C. anymore. Although my sis in law is Mexican and she's not offended by him.

A few times a year our parents would pack us into the car and drive up to Dallas where we would go shopping at Northpark Mall. It was a treat because us kids could venture out on our own and meet up with our parents later on. It seems like we always ended up at Kip's Big Boy restaurant. Kips had little paper booklets for kids that could be drawn in and had comics and stuff to keep little ones occupied. I'd study my Kip's book and my brothers and cousins would pore over the latest editions of Mad Magazine. The magazine included all kinds of gross humor and golden oldies like Spy vs Spy comics.

Ah, those were the days. There weren't laptops or MP3 players or video games to occupy your time. You had to rely on ingenuity to keep yourself occupied. The guys always had something to do like emptying all of the powder out of bullets into piles then dropping a match on it to watch it go "poof." Or shooting BB guns at me while yelling at me to run. Or shooting china berries out of their wrist rocket slingshots at me while I was running. Or pulling me on wooden pallets behind tractors and throwing up cow patties in my face. You know, good clean fun. for them 

I hope you have enjoyed this little trip down memory land for you over 40 folks. For you young-uns, I hope you aren't too jealous looking at all the cool stuff you missed.