Spikes Fan

Lucy's Story (10)
Posted by Lucy on June 15, 2003, 23:31:52

Firstly a big 'Hi' to Mike, who has just tried to send
me a picture of a possible 'Alps' shoe (see his
message below)! Also my thanks to Spikesfan and Sinkem
who have been talking about saving all of my
instalments as one complete story. It's so nice to
know that my little reminiscences are being
appreciated by so many of you, and Patience, faithful
Patience, you needn't thank me for writing it all
down. It has been MORE than a pleasure doing so,
because now I've not only got my current and ongoing
high-heel-wearing to enjoy, but I've suddenly got all
these memories flooding back as I write, giving me the
double enjoyment of re-living all those hundreds of
fun moments! For the whole thing we've actually got to
thank FRED. It was Fred's message on this page
on 21st May (see below - it's about to drop-off the
bottom of the board and be lost) that first prompted
me into starting to go down Memory Lane in my high
stiletto heels and start writing about it. So for FRED
and everyone since, on with my story:
After that Easter Holiday, we started the final term
of our course at the business acadamy. Many of the
other girls were only finishing a one-year typing and
secretarial course, but I was completing the much more
comprehensive two-year course which also included
business and administration skills, embracing
elocution, deportment etc. of which I have spoken.
Miss Sheridan assembled the entire year for a pep talk
about our forthcoming exams, and also said that
because we would soon find ourselves attending job
interviews, the final term's training would include
classes on successfully attending interviews. In
these, great emphasis was placed on our dress and
presentation. Hair had to be immaculately styled,
nails manicured to perfection, makeup applied with
taste and great precision, clothes (preferably
skirt-suits) crisply styled and presented, and nylons
and high-heeled shoes being a 'must' ("Although for
perfect taste perhaps not quite as high as Lucy's and
Velma's!" added Miss Edwards, out tutor). For some
years after the Socond World War, it was impossible to
get nylon stockings in the British shops, but the
American soldiers still stationed in the U.K. would
bring over marvellous stockings from the U.S.A. By the
early 1960s, the American troops had more or less
gone, but the odd American businessman (or even black
marketeer!) could be prevailed upon to bring them
across for us. We cherished those nylons like
gold-dust, and dreaded laddering them which was a
major tragedy and caused more than a few tears! Before
putting-on our high heels, we would attach the nylons
to the little knobs on our suspenders with little
chrome-metal clips and then make sure that the black
seam down the back of each leg was dead straight. With
the silky feel of the nylon stockings on each foot,
slipping into our high stilettos became an
unforgettably slinky and sensuous sensation. When
first standing-up in them, I liked to heel-wobble each
shoe around for a few moments to snuggle my toes right
down into them and to get the measure of each stiletto
heel in relation to my foot and the point of balance.
Then I was 'ready' to walk in them. Miss Edwards would
check the straightness of our stocking-seams and would
examine our shoes for the slightest blemish or speck
of dirt. This was routinely followed by her request
for Velma and I to "Look for something just slightly
lower", but that was the one and only point raised on
the course that Velma and I declined to observe.
Nothing would have stopped us from our daily wearing
of our 4 3/4" 'Alps'! The final term was shooting by,
and one day after lessons the principal Miss Sheridan
asked me into her office. I thought I must be in for a
telling-off about something....maybe about starting to
wear over-high heels to the Academy(?). Although Miss
Sheridan was generally regarded as being something of
a formidable battleaxe by the students, she beamed at
me and said I had stood out to her throughout the
course as being one of the brightest and most
refreshing students that the Acadamy had ever had. She
praised my rapid progress and said I deserved to do
well in the coming examinations and tests. Then, quite
unexpectedly she displayed a side of herself that I
had never seen. She went all coy and embarrassed, and
blushing furiously she said that because of having to
keep up formal appearances as the principal, she had
never felt able to dress in an adventurous manner like
me or to have ever felt what it was like to wear
really tight skirts or really high heels like mine.
She blurted out 'Could you do me an awfully big favour
and let me try-on those wonderful shoes of yours just
for a few tiny seconds?'. I was totally taken aback,
but I managed to say 'But of COURSE!' and slipped-my
'Alps' and passed them to her. It has been one of the
saddest memories of my life that my size 5s(UK) were
far too small for Miss Sheridan's size 7 1/2 feet and
she could not squeeze into them at all. I would so
dearly have loved to see Miss Sheridan's reaction to
wearing REAL height for the very first time! Still, it
was a very valuable lesson to me that even behind the
sternest countenance a soft human heart can beat! I
have always hated sitting exams, so I'll rapidly move
past all that and on to the end-of-course Presentation
Ceremony. The Acadamy held it's prize-giving and
graduation day in the Town Hall. We all trooped-in
with our parents (by now Mummy had forgiven me for
spending the 'everyday shoes' money on my outrageous
white trampled-slingback ultra-high stilettos) and sat
down. After deep discussion, both Velma and I wore our
Alps 120mm courts to the ceremony. Velma and I both
passed with flying colours, in fact my marks were the
highest ever achieved for the course, at which I was
mightily relieved! When we were all seated in the
floor of the hall, Miss Sheridan lead the teaching
staff and Governors to their seats on the stage. Velma
and I nudged each other simultaneously as we both
spotted what Miss Sheridan was wearing. Never before
had anyone seen her in anything higher than a 1"
lace-up shoe, and suddenly her she was appearing on
Presentation Day wearing a gleaming pair of patent
leather 4" stiletto courts! I could swear that she
shot a quick little beam in my direction before
opening the proceedings. Although not as high as our
'Alps', she had really broken-out regarding footwear
and looked all the happier for it, and I felt that it
was mainly due to me! When Velma was called up for her
presentation, she mounted the steps and promptly
manage to get her 4 3/4" firmly stuck between two
floorboards on the platform. The whole assemblage went
into tucks of laughter and she had to leave the shoe
behind and receive her award bobbing up and down from
one heeled foot to one bare foot. Miss Sheridan joined
in the laughter and even had the guts to wave her own
newly stiletto-clad foot to the audience and say "Look
ladies and gentlemen, it could just as easily have
happened to me!". Soon afterwards I was called-up to
receive my award, and I made an exaggerated point of
circling around the bit of floor where Velma got
stuck. Miss Sheridan kindly told the audience that I
had achieved record marks an had "Breathed new life"
into the Acadamy. She said that in recogntion of this,
she was handing an extra little present to me that I
must not unwrap until I get home! Mummy and Daddy said
it was the "Proudest day of their lives", and all the
way home the three of us were burning with impatience
to see what was in Miss Sheridan's personal little
parcel to me. No sooner were we inside the house than
I tore-off the jolly wrapping, and inside was the most
georgeous piece of antique silverware in the shape of
a Victorian lady's high-heeled shoe. The high heel was
'waisted' Louis heel shape, the upper was in what is
now called an 'Oxford' style, and the hollow part for
the foor was filled with a pin cushion for sticking in
pins and needles. It is about 4 1/2" long and still
stands on my mantlepiece to this day as a highly
cherished possession. Miss Sheridan's accompanying
little handwritten note simply said "Thank you for
more than just being an outstanding Student!" More
Soon! Love Lucy.