by Donna Swagerty Shreve
By the time I became a preteen, it became quite difficult to buy me clothes that fit. I was a tall gangly active girl. Mom was limited to what she could buy that was practical and would fit long enough for me to wear it out. I also had my opinions about what I wanted, but my view did not go very far with my mother. She had to consider the cost of my clothes on a limited budget and also what she considered presentable. She could only sew simple items so making our clothes was not an option.
As a family, we would travel to the huge city of San Francisco to buy our new school clothes. The year of 1958 comes to mind as this was the year Grant needed new clothes for school, so there were now four of us to outfit. The trip would be at the end of August, and we had been running around barefoot and in shorts and tee shirts all summer. Brian had an end of school ritual where Mom would hand him her sewing scissors and he would cut off his pants to be shorts.
The trick was to find clothes that could fit as long as possible into the school year. All four of us were still growing from five-year-old Grant up to fourteen-year-old me. To add to the stretching of the budget, we all needed new shoes. Brian remembers the beginning of school routine where one had to go through the blister stage of breaking in your new shoes. Dad finally shared a trick with him that could help break in new shoes without blisters. Brian would get his new dress shoes wet, put them on and then walk around in them until they were dry. The shoe dried to fit his feet and he had a lot less blisters. Brian also remembers having to wear slacks and hating them because too many other boys got to wear jeans. Mother was all about proper appearances.
We left early in the morning from Stockton to get a good head start on the long day. We hit the big department stores such as Macy’s and the Emporium. Both stores had escalators instead of elevators like we were used to. It made our visit all the more exciting. We could never find just the right item in only one store. A gang of six shoppers became too inefficient so the boys would split off with Dad and the girls would stay with Mom. I can still see Grant heading off to kindergarten with his new jeans with the cuffs folded up a good four inches. They never seemed to last the year but there was that hope on the first day of school.
I remember one incident where Jane and I were gratefully sitting in the shoe section. The salesman underestimated our mother by being amazed by how flexible our feet were. We also had high arches. He tried to convince her that we needed special expensive shoes that could help people with flexible feet. We, of course, had volunteered that we spent the entire summer swimming. Mom listened to the sales person’s spiel and then asked us to put our shoes back on. “Come on girls, we are leaving.” We laughed about that sales pitch for years after.
We had put some effort to not look too much like the country bumpkins we were. At the end of the day we were waiting at a counter while the sales lady rang up the sales. None of us were used to wearing shoes except our father, as he worked through the summer. Mom slipped out of her heels to the great relief of her aching feet. The quite proper sales lady noticed, so Mom replied that she just was not used to wearing shoes. The clerk did little to mask her disgust. Mom added to this image by telling her we were from Stockton in the valley. Mom’s reply became another saying to bring a quick laugh from family members. This was in the days when ladies wore heels, gloves and hats when you were in the big city. Mom did not have the hat or gloves but she did wear the heel part of the uniform. We all could boast of the calluses we built up on the soles of our feet each summer. We would saunter across blacktops while other kids scampered. Our feet were tough!
After we all got together after shopping, and agreed we had done enough damage, we needed dinner. Feeding a family of six in the big city was not cheap, so we headed off to China Town to find an inexpensive Chinese restaurant. Dad had actually heard of a certain restaurant and off we headed.
In typical style, the restaurant was located up a long flight of stairs. I can remember lugging my full bags up the steep narrow stairs anxious for the chance to get off my feet and actually eat. We always got to a restaurant early so we would not get home too late. We were seated at a big round table that accommodated all six of us. After being handed the menus, we looked up at our father. We had no idea what was what as getting Chinese food was a new experience for us. Our only restaurant experience was a rare treat at Ye Ole Hoosier Inn in Stockton. Dad was far from shy and he asked the waiter to help us out and give us some recommendations. We were lucky enough to get an understanding waiter who sized us up quickly. After he had given us his suggestions, Grant informed us he wanted a hot dog. I remember being embarrassed by my brother’s crassness but the waiter laughed and said he would bring him a Chinese hot dog! Grant got some egg rolls.
Finally our day was done in the city and we trudged on to the parking garage with our bounty and headed home. Dad and Mom might have been the only ones who were awake by the time we arrived back in Stockton. As we headed to our beds, I am sure our parents were hoping their estimate of how rapidly we would grow would match the various purchases in the many shopping bags.
Swagerty-Aldrich Family Web Site 