Feet!

[Angela Woodford]

Along with many Fleet Street journalists, I've just been horrified by a close-up of Sarah Brown's feet.

Now, here is a reason that we should be grateful for CH shoes.

Maybe, like me, you enjoyed many a visit to the Clark's Shoe Shop, where any prospective shoe purchase was examined on-foot in that fascinating X-ray machine? Wonderful! A good start, foot-health-wise.

Once at CH, and fitted by that funny old little shoe man (where?), we were provided with two pairs of boys' brown lace-up shoes. Not new, unless you were very, very lucky, but flat, plain and hideous. However, I'm extremely grateful that during those foot-growing years, I never developed feet deformed by teenage fashion shoes. No pointy toes, no sling-backs, no shoes too narrow, no platforms!

When did we get those light Clark's sandals for summer? Bliss after the clumpy lace-ups in hot weather, but still very sensible. It must have been 1969-70? And rather fab with the fawn short socks which dried to stiff green on the Airing Room shelves. Oh dear; nobody depilated their legs.

Poor Sarah Brown. If she had had our shoes, and been to Feet with Miss Gravett in the Gym at 0830hrs to pick up bean bags with her poor toes, Gordon might stand a better chance now.

[englishangel]

I haven't seen this (but I'm sure I will) but my daughter has congenital bunions. As a tall girl with big(ish) feet she has never wanted to wear pointy shoes or high heels, but she did want to wear pretty shoes, and walk straight, her left toe particularly turned so far that her knees knocked together. By the time she had arch supports made on the good old NHS her feet had grown a size (age 13.)

So at 15 we waited until the GP (a man) was on holiday and saw the locum (a young woman) who empathised and got her referred for surgery. She had no problems at all and now wants the right one done, maybe in the future, it is not nearly as bad as her left was.

[gma]

Thank you, AW!! She should be cursing photographers and thanking all the heavens that it's the 2st century, not many hundreds of years ago she could have been burned at the stake for displaying evidence of sucubus or was it incubus??!! I'm sure I will be told, very shortly!

[J.R.]

Thank you, AW!! She should be cursing photographers and thanking all the heavens that it's the 2st century, not many hundreds of years ago she could have been burned at the stake for displaying evidence of sucubus or was it incubus??!! I'm sure I will be told, very shortly!

I seem to remember one is 'male', and the other 'female' !

Not sure which one is which, though.

[gma]

I seem to remember one is 'male', and the other 'female' !

Not sure which one is which, though.

Thank you JR, don't know which tho', can't tell from the photo.....

[J.R.]

I seem to remember one is 'male', and the other 'female' !

Not sure which one is which, though.

Thank you JR, don't know which tho', can't tell from the photo.....

Just for you, Mary.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succubus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incubus

[Angela Woodford]

Where was the shoe man?

My memory conjures up a vision of a dark cellar, a queue of us, a little man in a brown coat...

But where was it?

[J.R.]

Where was the shoe man?

My memory conjures up a vision of a dark cellar, a queue of us, a little man in a brown coat...

But where was it?

Sounds just like CH, Horsham in the late 50's/early 60's.

I'm sure JH will comment !

[Jo]

Where was the shoe man?

My memory conjures up a vision of a dark cellar, a queue of us, a little man in a brown coat...

But where was it?

It was either the school block cellar or the science block cellar. I think the science block. At the bottom of the stairs the shoe place was on the left, and what became Sin City was on the right.

In which case I can't think what was in the school block cellar - possibly just storage. I do remember getting my first - and possibly only - disorder, from Monty, for hiding down there once during All Out.

[Angela Woodford]

I used to hide out in the School Block Cellar!

It had an alluringly musty smell. Being a cellar, a little dim light filtered down from upper windows at Playground level. I loved the secrecy of being down there. Old desks were dumped, old chairs, and there were various cobwebby cupboards in which were kept old school books. Conveniently for the furtive lurking hider-outerer (moi) there was an ancient loo.

Sometimes, during prep, I would asked to be "excused" and go down there and read a concealed book. There was a tremendous relief in that nobody knew exactly where I was. I didn't care so much about the prep, it was the sense of privacy which felt so... liberating.

The shoe place must have been under the Science Block. Funny I can't remember that at all! Was there some sort of clothes or shoes admin under the Red House?

[icomefromalanddownunder]

It was either the school block cellar or the science block cellar. I think the science block. At the bottom of the stairs the shoe place was on the left, and what became Sin City was on the right.

I remember it being the Science Block cellar, but don't remember ever going into the School Block cellar.

In which case I can't think what was in the school block cellar - possibly just storage. I do remember getting my first - and possibly only - disorder, from Monty, for hiding down there once during All Out.

[jhopgood]

Where was the shoe man?

My memory conjures up a vision of a dark cellar, a queue of us, a little man in a brown coat...

But where was it?

Sounds just like CH, Horsham in the late 50's/early 60's.

I'm sure JH will comment !

Didn't go to the "shoe man" very often as I was always fortunate enough to get new shoes, and kept them pretty clean. My father used to polish the soles of his shoes and even had a last which he used for putting old cycle tyres on the soles of his boots. He used to mend our shoes so I learned the value of them.
I seem to remember that the "shoe man" was at the back of dining hall, where there are now a load of rubbish bins. I think the same room was also used for handing out "new" coats. Everything else was handled by Matron.
From my time in the factory, brown coats were the "uniform" of the charge hands and storemen. White coats were for foremen. I had a boiler suit, but some of the other apprentices who had been there some time had brown coats.
Curious how regimented life was then.

[Angela Woodford]

It's just come back to me - a memory of very flat white plimsolls for wear in the gym. Very whiffy with that gym changing-corridor smell! Imagination? Did they belong in the gym for use when required? ISTR trying on several pairs, hoping for a pair that fitted...

Just about everybody had Dunlop Green Flash shoes for games. Caroline once wrote movingly about the different whiteners - the squeezy sponge on the end of the tube or the bottle of liquid with the wedge-shaped sponge on a stick? How the smell of the tube fought with the smell of the liquid on the cloakroom table! And then the trail of a cloud of white powder after zealous application.

(I believe Pav Girls had the happy task of using a mutant form of whitener on all the cricket pads at the end of the season, as directed by Nellie.)

I was rather thrilled to see last year that Dunlop had launched an updated form of the vintage Green Flash.

Quick! I've bagged the Hard Court!

[fra828]

Has someone posted about the smell of plimsoll-whitener on the 'evocative smells, sounds etc' thread? Anyway, that whitener really does take me back. Was right back in 8's cloakroom in 1970 when I used it on my daughter's school vecro P.E shoes, the very flat kind that used to come in white and black, (probably still do as I'm only going back a few years). The summer sandals at Hertford were VERY flat, certainly lighter for hot weather but not ideal if you had flat feet! Didn't we call the clumpy brown shoes clodwallopers?! I went to 'feet' too, and I actually quite enjoyed those exercises picking up beanbags etc!

[J.R.]

Where was the shoe man?

My memory conjures up a vision of a dark cellar, a queue of us, a little man in a brown coat...

But where was it?

Sounds just like CH, Horsham in the late 50's/early 60's.

I'm sure JH will comment !

Didn't go to the "shoe man" very often as I was always fortunate enough to get new shoes, and kept them pretty clean. My father used to polish the soles of his shoes and even had a last which he used for putting old cycle tyres on the soles of his boots. He used to mend our shoes so I learned the value of them.
I seem to remember that the "shoe man" was at the back of dining hall, where there are now a load of rubbish bins. I think the same room was also used for handing out "new" coats. Everything else was handled by Matron.
From my time in the factory, brown coats were the "uniform" of the charge hands and storemen. White coats were for foremen. I had a boiler suit, but some of the other apprentices who had been there some time had brown coats.
Curious how regimented life was then.

Your right, John.

The shoe-man/clothing store was to the rear of Coleridge B and the Dining Hall. The place smelt of Sprim, and the shoes were allocated by a fairly short/bald gentleman who, if memory serves, had a squeaky artificial leg. Rather an austere gentleman who never seemed to smile. Wasn't his name Hards ?