Walking presents another challenge, especially when those restrictive garments are paired with stilt-like stilettos. Yes, we wore high heels in our day, but three inches was the limit of our folly. Decades later, even after extensive foot surgery, I still deal with the painful hammer toes and bunions my three-inch addiction cost me. I hate to think what price today’s women will pay in the future as result of tottering on ridiculous six-inch heels. And I do mean tottering. I have yet to see anyone, including professional models, walk gracefully in those instruments of torture. To see for yourself, Google “High Heel Fails.”
At least our high heel wearing was limited to dressy occasions. We never wore them with jeans. In fact, we never wore jeans. Tailored slacks or chinos were as casual as we ever got, and we wore these with loafers, saddle shoes, or Keds. Period. No tennis shoes, jogging shoes, hiking shoes… which was fortunate because all that footwear never would have fit in the miniscule closets of the homes of that era. How come it never occurred to the architects of the day to design larger closets? Maybe because we didn’t need them. We didn’t have many clothes.
But we sure had lots of tchotchkes. We seemed to have been in competition to collect the largest number of Hummel figurines, Royal Copenhagen, Royal Doulton, Precious Moments, and many more. Today when old folks are downsizing and finding it necessary to part with these treasures, not wanting to show favoritism, they find it difficult to distribute them to the “kids.” Dissension echoes through every household — though not quite the arguments Grammy and Grandpa expected: “I don’t want it; you take it.” Says daughter No. 1. “No! What am I going to do with it? You take it!” says granddaughter No. 3. That’s right. Nobody wants the legions of porcelain Madonnas and Christ childs, doe-eyed moppets, lovely ladies, adorable puppies…
The same is true of Grandma’s china. Back in the day, in addition to everyday dishes for family meals, we all had a set of fine china for “company.” And some (not me) also owned complete place settings of holiday dinnerware like the holly-festooned Lenox that graced a
friend’s dining table only once a year. The rest of the time it lived in cotton-lined boxes in her attic, which was accessible only via pull-down stairs. Imagine hauling all those fragile dishes down and back up those unstable stairs for only one holiday meal annually! And I’m sure though she washed them before storing them each time, she washed them again before each use.
Of course, we had much more time for such activities back then because we had no Internet and cell phones to distract us. Every time we left the house we were out of touch with the world because our only phone was attached to a wall and could not come with us.
Consequently, we weren’t at risk of falling into open manholes, tripping into shopping mall fountains, or walking into closed glass doors while texting. And when we went to the movies, instead of constantly monitoring our phones, we actually focused on watching the movie — or, rather, two of them. There was always a double feature, plus previews, a newsreel, and a cartoon.
If we wanted to see a particular film back then, we had limited opportunity. It would be shown at our local theater for one week only and would then disappear forever. No On Demand. No renting or buying it to watch when we chose on our TVs. As for those TVs, they had only three or four channels — not the hundreds of today; and they displayed those channels in black and white on tiny screens — not the huge flat screens that now dominate our living rooms and dens.
But enough reminiscing. Time to get back to work. Those emails and voicemails are piling up, and I haven’t posted a selfie on Facebook or Instagram in two days. My friends must be worried sick about me!
©2019 Rose Madeline Mula for SeniorWomen.com
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