Should I wear moccasins with jeans or my Nikes? I better ask my wife Sheila before I get a tutorial on style.
The assortment of shoes in my closet carried me back to the 1930s when I was attending P.S. 61 in the Bronx. My collection consisted of the shoes I was wearing, and the faded brown, high-topped Keds somewhere in the hall closet. Fashion was unheard of among my classmates. If we had a brother, as I did, hand-me-downs determined our appearance oak desks of P.S. 61. Some of my friend’s parents did not permit them to wear sneakers. “Sneakers would damage the feet if worn all day and, they’re bad for the eyes,” they said. After school, the boys wore them for street games.
The girls wore white middy blouses with a red scarf running under the collar, and then hung loosely from a loop near the neck. Now that was styling!
At this time, boy’s shoes were never a fashion statement. Most of us had smooth, black leather shoes with a grainy 1 1/2″ shield at each tip. They were about as stylish as the socks that were slipped into them.
As my feet grew, so did the same shoe. It would not have concerned me had I not seen Billy Schott and Eddie Kraus wearing the calf-high boots I saw displayed on a cardboard box outside a shoe store near Jake the Pickleman’s barrels.
From our shoes, stockings rose to the knees to meet the knit cuffs of our knickers. Billie and Eddie were also dressed in knickers. but sported those calf-high black boots. I envied that little leather pocket on the upper part of their boot that held a small knife. On the other hand, I was not envious of the gray cap that crowned their heads. Its origin was a discarded man’s fedora. The brim was cut off leaving only the crown, which appeared like a gray helmet. A series of recurring one-inch triangles were cut along the base of the crown. When turned up, a triangular edge hugged the bottom of the cap.
This was a low class neighborhood and our style showed it, but there was something about the combination of the gray cap and calf-high boots that was state-of-the-art with some of the gentile boys.
Throughout my six years in P.S. 61 I never saw a Jewish kid wearing those boots, or the gray, cut-up fedora. Were we out of step with fashion?
What was it about the boots and cap that appealed to these kids and not to us?
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