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Lucy's Story (5)
Posted by Lucy on May 25, 2003, 21:20:23

Hi all!, Welcome Roger and thanks for adding your kind
comments to everybody else's! Episode 5: After wearing
them those gleaming new 4 3/8" stilettos, I always
placed them in pride-of-place on a low shelf that I
could see from my bed. Before going to sleep and again
after waking-up I would gaze at those awesome
needle-thin heels, hardly believing what a lucky
fifteen-year-old girl I was. They were MINE to walk in
whenever I wanted and wherever I wanted (except to
school.....humph!) One school lunchtime I unexpectedly
returned home to collect a geography book that I
needed, and sneaked a glance at my birthday-shoes
shelf. My heart missed a beat - THEY WERE
GONE!....STOLEN! But just then I heard the click,
click, click of stiletto heels from beneath my bedroom
window, and looking down in astonishment, I saw Mummy
and our cleaning-lady Dorothy (a petite, cheerful,
plump 30-year-old)taking it in turns to parade right
around our paved rear courtyard, holding their own
private shoe-fashion show featuring MY
highest-in-the-town heels! My first instinct was to
burst outdoors at them in a furious rage, but then I
quickly saw the funny side of it. Remembering the
almightly row that I got for 'Wearing Mummy's shoes'
outdoors without her permission, now the boot was on
the other foot (excuse the pun!). I decided to stay
very quiet and watch. It was actually rather sweet.
Mummy managed to walk superbly in my birthday
skyscrapers with Dorothy's eyes glued to every step.
Next came Dorothy's turn and this was a different
matter. None of us had ever seen her in ANY high heels
at all, and when she tried to walk in my stunners her
knees shot right forward and she tottered and wobbled
all around the courtyard with her arms stuck out
sideways for balance like a drunken trainee tightrope
walker. I feared that her wild, erratic heel-scraping
and clicking might disturb the neighbours, but
eventually she just about made it back to one of the
sun-chairs. At this point, I quietly quietly sneaked
out and back to the school, chuckling to myself all
the way. That evening, my beloved stilettos had
re-appeared back on their bedroom shelf, placed
exactly as always. No-one ever mentioned anything
about that courtyard episode, but Mummy must have shot
along to Olivers' Shoes soon afterwards, because she
appeared in an identical 4 3/8" pair to mine (except
for being navy blue), much to Daddy's badly-disguised
delight. As mine had done with me, they became Mummy's
favourites for a long time afterwards and we both
enjoyed going out in them and clicking along
side-by-side and getting countless admiring glances
(and a few very long stares!). The biggest surprise
occurred a fortnight after that secret fashion show,
when my parents and I spied Dorothy and her husband
also walking to the cinema. Her arms were again
flailing away like windmills because on her feet were
brand new black patent 4 3/8" stilettos. She had
chosen my exact model and colour! They pitched her
whole unpracticed body forwards, and she minced and
teetered the last 40 yards to the box office before
making a final lunge to grab the ticket counter for
much-needed support. Mind you, I shouldn't criticise
her inadequacies too much because I was soon to
discover that my own high-heel posture was much less
than perfect. At 16, I passed sufficient GCE 'O'level
exams to leave school (goodbye heel regulations!)and
enter business college. The town's Commercial Academy
For Ladies was only a short high-heel walk from our
home - great! It not only offered tuition in shorthand
and typewriting, but in everything else to prepare
ladies successfully to enter the world of business. We
tippy-tapped away on old-fashioned typewriters,
gradually speeding-up in time with music played over
loudspeakers. We also learned all the skills of
grooming (manicure, hair-styles, make-up etc.)
elocution (speech training), table etiquette, social
graces and office protocol. Early on in the course,
Miss Sheridan called me into her office and said that
if I insisted on turning-up every day in the highest
heels that the Academy had ever seen, then either I
must be trained in correct, elegant posture, or move
down to somewhat lower heels. 'Take a look at your
side-view in this full-length mirror Lucy - you're one
big zig-zag!' Sure enough, my extreme heel-height had
thrust my knees muck further forward than I had
realised, causing my thighs to zig-zag back from them,
my bum to stick out, and my shoulders and breasts to
become hunched forward. The lower-heel-option was
decidely OUT for me, so I accepted he offer to arrange
for me what were then called deportment (posture
improvement) classes. I loved these, because high
heels and smart suits with knee-length skirts were
positively encouraged as essential dress for the
successfulk career-woman. How times have changed! In
those days, high heels were never associated with
anything seedy or prostitution etc. They were
universally regarded as the height of elegance and
sophistication, worn by all smart ladies included the
most respected in society up to and including our
present Queen Elizabeth II (although her heels have
got lower and chunkier with advancing age). Later
prime minister Margaret Thatcher wore 4" stilettos and
the great concert violinist Heifitz advised his lady
pupils to perform their recitals in suitably high
heels. Our class of 10 girls was ordered to dress
accordingly, and it caused considerable amusement when
the two meekest student had to go out and buy higher
heels and slimmer skirts for the course! To train us
in correct posture, books were balanced on our heads
and we had to walk around in a stately procession with
our bodies, necks and heads erect. We did many
backs-to-the-wall exercises to try to get all parts of
our body to touch the wall in a dead-straight line,
and all the time wearing high heels. We trained in
'corridor walking' and 'office-entering'elegance where
we had to compensate for high heel-height with
increased ankle-depression and NOT by allowing the
knees to stick forward one whisker - that was the
cardinal sin! One day, Miss Sheridan took all 10 of us
up to a London fashion-modelling school to observe
their catwalk lessons. The models all had beautiful
deportment despite wearing even higher heels than we
had seen before ('London heels' we immediately called
them)and the celebrated 'Catwalk Flip'(conveniently
described just below on this message forum) had
obviously been instilled into all of the modelling
students who were using it with devastating effect. I
particularly loved that, but Miss Sheridan said 'That
impudent flip is only for models and show-biz types,
not for you business students of decorum!". Back again
at the Academy, we were trained in standing and
sitting properly with discreet elegance - hands
clasped and always the knees together and the
high-heeled feet together. Our weight was to be put on
one foot, whilst the other shoe had to be tilted so
that the high heel was exposed out to the side for
elegant effect(we were told that shoe shops always
displayed the outer side of every shoe). We were
firmly instructed NEVER INDULGE IN ANY SHOE-PLAY,
HEEL-WOBBLING or DANGLING during office hours as this
'Has been found to distract the gentlemen!'. All this
thorough training seems to have vanished today, but
the unparalleled elegance of that 1950s high-heeled
fashion (encapsulated in vintage photos like )
transformed all of us student and has certainly sttod
me in good stead throughout my business career and
social life, right up to the present day. Well, in
order not to bore you with ALL of my
high-heel-memories (I have hundreds), that just about
completes my "Girlhood in Heels" (unless you'd like to
hear about my "Adulthood in London Heels" sometime?).
All my love, Lucy.