Shoe Shopping and Nostalgia

I have had no luck whatsoever in locating my lost ring but heartfelt thanks to everyone who took the time to comment with suggestions and commiserations.  I tried shopping bags, pockets, handbag, car boot, floor of the car, laundry basket, ironing basket, bins etc. I rang all the shops I had visited and left my name and telephone number in case someone finds it.  I will not give up looking....

 

 

image from Google

Yesterday was spent with DD and the children in an out of town shopping centre buying school shoes and I suddenly remembered why I dreaded it when my own kiddies were small :0/  The shoe shop was stuffed to capacity and the noise fair burst the eardrums.  GD is so fussy that we could find nothing she liked and we ended up trailing around shops until she found some she did like.  She is such a lovely, pleasant child that I really didn't mind too much but I was shattered by the end of the afternoon.  The prices brought tears to the eyes though:

8 yr old boy £42 !  Forty two pounds! for something which looks like black trainers

11 yr old girl £30...not quite so bad but not Clarks shoes

We did better with pumps £2 for boys and £3.50 for girls (the Clarks ones were £15 a pair)

I really feel for families who are struggling financially as there is no way they would be able to spend so much on footwear. A lot of the styles, especially for girls, would be useless in bad weather and the children are not allowed to wear boots in school so if they walked to school in boots they would still need a pair of shoes to change into.  DD  donates outgrown shoes to a CS. 

When my own two were small, I remember saving up the Child Benefit (then called family allowance) for several weeks to be able to buy Clarks shoes in the sales.  Of course, it was still a struggle to get sale price ones that they would actually consider wearing (like mother like daughter, eh) but full price ones were rarely an option. In my own youth everything I was bought was at least one size too big (for growing room!) and my secondary school uniform was so enormous that it lasted me from age 12 to 16.  In the first year I was swamped by my clothes and in the final year everything fitted me like a sausage skin!  Oh happy days....lol...

Does anyone else have tales to tell regarding footwear from their own childhood? I would love to hear them...

Hoping everyone is getting a bit of dry weather this afternoon. My washing is pegged out in the gentle breeze.

Thanks so much for popping in x