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Lucy's Story (19)
Posted by Lucy on July 27, 2003, 0:12:06

Hi Fred and Stu! Thank you for your postings. I hope Spikesfan will spot my Instalment 18 and this one and copy them across to MegaForums. Here is part 19:
Velma, Madeline and I had moved into our new 3-bedroomed flat in South-East London, and each of us had a week to settle-in before starting our respective new jobs. Having tried-on, borrowed and worn my new black patent leather 4 3/4" stiletto-heeled 'Alps' court shoes during the whole of the day before, on Monday Madeline was acting like a thing possessed! The sudden thrill of wearing proper high stiletto heels for the first time had made her realise how much her mother had repressed her during her entire teenage years. She was liberated! She was living away from home! She could wear and do whatever she liked! She could wear high heels! She could wear VERY, VERY high heels! She had pleaded with Velma and I to take her to wherever she could try, choose and buy the very highest heels. She was suddenly a new and completely different person from the Madeline we had first met! Well of course the only place to go (I had yet to find other high-heel specialists) was good old Regent Shoes. We took the train from our digs up to Charing Cross Station and walked up to Wardour Street. Upon first seeing the incredible display of high and ultra-high heels in Regent Shoes' windows, Madeline's reaction was the same as Velma's and mine had been a couple of years previously. She was stunned! By now Velma and I regarded ourselves as seasoned campaigners, so we led Madeline inside and suggested starting with some highish (by most girl's standards) 4" heels. She was having none of it! "No" she said, "The weekend made me realise that my dreadful mother has repressed me for much too long! She has deprived me of all the fun and freedom that you two have been enjoying for years, so I'm not going to do this by halves. I'm going to make up for lost time by going all the way into some gorgeously high and exciting heels!" She now had a glint of maniaical determination in her eyes, and our protestations that she would have to work-up gradually in height and acclimatise her muscles and the soles of her feet fell on deaf ears. She shunned the 4" heels and all of the 4 3/8" (110mm) heels, and even our trusty 'Alps' models with the 4 3/4" heels. She acted like a driven woman. She asked me where the very highest heels were to be found, and I pointed out the special room behind the curtain, saying it was 'by appointment only'. Luckily, the room was free, so they admitted us there and then. To our utter amazement, Madeline even brushed-aside the 5" heeled models (like my own white ones) and wasn't content until the salesman brought out the range of fetishy 5 1/2" stiletto-heeled courts. "Hang on, that's even higher than anything Lucy or I have got!" exclaimed Velma in alarm. "No matter" said Madeline, "No-one's going to tell me what to do a moment longer - I'm going to show the world a new me!". As she stood up in a purple pair of those towering 5 1/2" stilettos, their awesome evil-looking fetishy heels looked a total contrast to her sweet young, innocent face. However, a momentary look of panic swept across it as she realised just how much the shoes were contorting her feet, ankles and legs. "Oh my golly!" she gasped, "I had no idea how difficult it would be to stand in heels of this height, let alone to walk in them" with which she teetered and minced forwards a couple of tiny steps before reaching out to steady herself. "Well, what did I try to tell you?" said Velma, "Take them off and settle for something rather lower for now". "No!" said Madeline, "Neither of you understand, they are STUPENDOUS and I won't be parted from them by anybody! They are utterly STUPENDOUS!". Before Velma and I could protest further, or talk any more sense, Madeline had bought them and was carrying them out of the shop! Next she was determined to buy a new outfit to go with them and we scurried up to the Regent Street clothes shops. Off came the frumpy woolley and the chequered skirt, and on went a lovely purple top (to match the shoes) and a tight, knee-length white skirt. "It's no good" said Madeline, "I can't wait till we get home, I am dying to wear everything right here and now!". So she left the clothes shop wearing her new outfit and her "Stupendous" 5 1/2" heels. Oh dear though! Not having had Velma's or my years of experience in high heels, and going straight from virtually nothing into 5 1/2", she could hardly do it! Her progress from the changing-room to the shop door was painfully slow and awkward with Madeline having to take the minutest little jerky steps, her body thrust into an unfamiliar posture whilst re-adjusting to balancing on the tiniest of tip-toes and almost impossibly high precarious heels. My goodness though, Velma and I had to give her 101% for guts! Despite it being obvious to every passer-by in sight that the was a total novice in heels, Madeline insisted on keeping those extraordinary shoes on for the rest of that shopping trip, and including the journey home. Progress through Leicester Square was embarrassingly slow and unsteady with a least four or five bad "tilt-overs" of her heels, and by the time we were passing beside Trafalgar Square and approaching Charing Cross Station her semi-sprained ankles were wobbling wildly with sheer fatigue. One city gent got so concerned that he even came to Madeline's assistance, offering to hail us a taxi. "No thank you" we said "we are nearly at the station". Alighting from the train at New Cross, Madeline even had the will-power and determination to walk up Pepys Hill whilst still wearing her new skyscaper shoes. As she finally collapsed on to our settee, we said "Poor Madeline, that looked as if it was a dreadful ordeal for you". "No" said Madeline, "Don't worry about that. Although my feet and ankles are killing me, it's been the best and most fabulous day of my ENTIRE LIFE and my life in my new-found STUPENDOUS high heels is only just beginning!".

More soon! Love, Lucy.

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Lucy's Story (20)
Posted by Lucy on August 5, 2003, 0:32:29

Hi again everyone! And many thanks to Erica, Sinkem, Allheel and Stu for their very nice responses to my Instalment 19, and my special thanks to Spikesfan (USA?) who is faithfully using his computer wizardry to re-copy my stories from Jenny's Forum on to MegaForums. Well, I'm
writing this Part 20 on 4th August 2003, and I hope you all enjoy it!:
Having settled in to our new three-bedroom flat in South-East London (central London rents were too expensive), Velma, Madeline and I had a week to explore London before we each started work. We drew up an enormous list of 'Musts' including London Zoo, Madame Tussauds' Waxworks, the Tower of London, all the main museums and far too many similar places. On Day One, Velma and I reached for our flatties and Madeline said "NO, please don't let me be the only one going around these places in very high stilettos". Velma and I chorused "Surely you're not thinking of a whole day's London sightseeing in HEELS?". "Just try and stop me!" said our newly re-born Madeline! Well, purely to give Madeline moral support, it ended up with all three of us setting-out in the highest heels we then owned - Velma in her 4 3/4" 'Alps', and me and Madeline in our Regent Shoes 'Special' stiletto courts - my white 5-inchers and Madeline's purple 5 1/2 inchers. We must have been an incredible sight making our way down the very, very long, steep incline of Pepy's Hill. Madeline was precarious enough on the flat, but pitched forward on hundreds of yards of sloping paving stones was a marathon for even the most experienced heel-wearer. The ordeal would have finished-off any less determined girl, but Madeline had tremendous pluck accrued from years of being suppressed. She not only made it (somehow!) to the bottom of the hill, but amazingly she doggedly wore them throughout our day traipsing right around London Zoo and then visiting the London Planetarium. The only time she took them off was when we sprawled-flat in Regent's Park to eat our lunchtime sandwiches. Even then she would not be parted with them completely - as she munched away she fondled her new skyscaper shoes in her hands, constantly gazing in awe at them and running her fingers up and down the full 5 1/2 inches of the towering heels as if she still could not believe that she was now actually able to own them and wear them. "Absolutely stupendous" she murmered again. By the end of the day, even experienced heel-wearers Velma and I were suffering from "pressure-burn" under the balls of our feet, so for Madeline in her 5 1/2" killers it must have been the most unbearable torture. However, she not only made it home, but demanded a repeat excercise from all three of us every subsequent day that week! In fact, interestingly, the "heel-wearer's burning" that we all suffered for the first three or four days began lessing considerably by the final day. It is surprising how quickly the human body can re-adjust and toughen-up to new demands placed upon it! Madeline's confidence received a further boost when she noticed how many admiring glances we were getting, and even outright compliments. At the Tower of London, a group of four young American men came up to us and said that three English girls in such high heels were the best sightseeing they'd seen in the whole of Scotland and England! At the British Museum, a large party of Japanese tourists stuck fairly close to us. As you know, I wear glasses myself, but the majority of their group wore thick glasses which made them look like World War II Japanese fighter pilots, and they seemed to spend half the afternoon concentrating much more on our ultra high heels than they did on all the wonderful exhibits and antiquities! I will never forget the funniest bit. The three of us stood perched on our heels as we peered into a large glass case containing Greek vases, and we could see the reflection of all the Japanese men behind us obviously feasting their eyes on our legs and shoes. I whispered to the others "Let's all treat them to a sudden spasm of shoe-play and heel-wobbling" and we began sliding our feet in and out of the court shoes and wobbling our lofty heels from side to side. Immediately there were audible gasps and a ripple of excitement from the Japanese group, and reflected in the cabinet it looked as though four or five of them were in the midst of some sort of apoplectic fit or frenzied seizure! Just at that point, Madeline spoiled everything by wobbling so violently and enthusiastically in her unfamiliar heels on the museum's highly polished floor that she lost her balance and fell down SPLAT! "Oh my gosh!" said Velma "Are you alright?". "Alright" chuckled Madeline as she lay there, "I've never ever felt better!" and exploded into helpless paroxisms of laughter. Over tea and cake in the museum's tea room, we complimented Madeline on being able to laugh at herself for falling-over on her 5 1/2" heels. "I wasn't laughing about falling over" she said "It was the incredible expressions on the faces of all those Japanese high-heel-spotters!". Well, all too soon that super week of high-heeled London sightseeing came to an end and I had to prepare for reporting to work in
Holborn (central London) for my first day in my first job. On the advice of my business academy and with some help from Mummy, I had purchased three ultra-smart business suits with mid-length skirts. Tights (panthose) had now started appearing in the larger shops, but for the time being, I decided to stick suspenders and good quality stockings, thinking that nice straight seams added a certain class to my outfit. Although I had passed my interview in 4 3/4" stiletto heels, I decided to 'play it safe' and start work in my lowest (4") black patent leather stiletto heels. I wore my hair 'up' in a coiled bun, put on my black-framed 'secretary' glasses and put an assortment of pens, pencils, notebooks etc. into a black patent leather document wallet which I carried to work. The train to Charing Cross and a short journey on the Underground got me to work. I had grossly underestimated the sheer crush of the morning 'rush hour' which nearly made me late. Clicking hastily across the marble foyer again in my steel-tipped stilettos, I only just had to to freshen-up my make-up in the 'Ladies' before reporting to my new boss. As my immediate superior, Richard ("Call me Ricky")Everson was just as nice and welcoming as the managing director had been at my interview, a cheerful but very shrewd operator. He seemed to visibly brighten as he saw me enter in my business suit and high heels and welcomed me very cordially. He explained that as a trainee on the management side, my first job would be to visit all of their numerous branches of estate agents scattered throughout greater London, partly to run errands by acting as a document-courier, but mainly to familiarise myself with the premises, the staff and the overall running of the business. "The only thing is" said Ricky "Although (if you don't mind me saying so) those high-heeled shoes of yours look superb for the office side of your work, you will need something lower and more walkable-in for all the beetling to and fro around the city!". I opened my mouth to tell him that they WERE my lowest, most walkable-in shoes, but remembering all my training in restrained efficiency, I simply nodded in agreement and thought to myself "London ain't seen nothin' yet as far as Lucy's high heels are concerned!".

More soon, Love, Lucy.

Spikes Fan

Lucy's Story (21)
Posted by Lucy on August 23, 2003, 1:15:55

Hi Everyone, and a special 'Thank you' to Stu, Erica and Laser for replying here on Jenny's Forum to my last story (20), and an even more special 'THANK YOU!' to dear Spikesfan for copying it over on to MegaForums! I am commencing this Instalment (21) on 23rd August 2003:
Wearing my lowest 4" stiletto heels, I started my first job in the Holborn headquarters of the London firm with my immediate boss Ricky Everson sending me around London to visit as many as possibly of their branches of estate agents. This was partly to run errands and take documents back and forth, but mainly to acquaint me with the workings of the branches and their staff. During the early days, I was glad that Ricky had advised me against very high heels, bacause I had never in my life done so much walking! Every journey involved hurrying for buses, plunging up and down escalators for underground trains, crossing roads, walking innumerable blocks, frequently getting lost, and all in my 4" stiletto courts. Until then, I had prided myself on being a 'seasoned high-heeler' but I had not reckoned on the difference between training in Miss Sheridan's business academy and hours of daily trekking throughout London! By midweek my poor little tootsies felt like steaks after a long bashing with the meat-tenderizer. As for my stiletto heels, with each mile I walked they (my lowest heels!) felt as if they were getting higher and higher - 4" becoming 5" and 6" and Oooh my feet! Whenever I arrived at one of our branches, it was a relief (whilst introducing myself) to get some respite by feeling my shoes sink in to their soft carpets. Despite my strict training at the academy in NO SHOE-PLAY OR DANGLING, I could not resist rocking my stilettos from side to side to ease my ankles, and to slip each foot out of and back into each shoe in turn.
However, although I could hardly help doing this, I noticed at the various branches that the staff, especially the young men were looking at the new trainee management girl with intitial curiosity, and that quite a number of them did a 'double-take' when they noticed my shiny black patent leather high stiletto heels, despite the fact that I was trying to be discreet about toying with my shoes to ease try to ease the searing pain in my feet. The fellas at the branches must have been chatting about me over the telephone, because before the end of my first week, Ricky reported that I had already been nick-named 'Heels' by the branches! Despite taking that as a compliment (a girl likes to be noticed!), by the weekend I came to one of those rare moments in my life when I honestly wondered whether to give up heels! My feet were wrecks, with burning balls, squashed toes, blisters everywhere and a general swelling with rose as far up as my ankles. Velma and Madeline were better off because although thay also gamely went off to work each day in their own stilettos (higher than mine), at least they could sit at office desks and spend most of the day off their feet. Bless their hearts, each evening they awaited my painful return home with an enamel bowl full of wonderful hot water with a dash of antiseptic Savlon thrown in, into which I would lower my throbbing pedal extremities. What I would have done without the relief of that nightly footbath I just don't know. In fact, by the following Monday morning, my feet were still so tender that I set out for work in flatties! However, that presented another problem. The flatties made my feet feel easier but they made me feel AWFUL! I couldn't go to my second week in business feeling like a dowdy old frump! It sounds crazy, but despite my marmalized feet I turned straight back indoors, kicked-off my flatties and stepped into one of my three pairs of 4 3/4" stiletto-heeled 'Alps'. "There, that's better" I said out loud "To hell with poorly feet!". But as I tottered down the regular morning challenge of Pepy's hill, almost immediately I came to regret the shoe-switch. My liking for tight 'pencil' skirts on my business suits hampered my stride at the best of times, and the sheer never-ending downward slope of the hill and the ordeal of walking in very high, precarious stilettos with agonising feet presented a marathon which I will never forget. On the train to central London I thought "How on earth am I going to get through the day?". Somehow or another I must have done, but I remember employing a few pain-easing tricks like buying some cushioned insoles, talcum powdering the insides of the shoes now and again, and trying to walk at different times with both heels leaning inwards towards each other and then later leaning outwards away from each other to try and spread my body-weight on to different parts of my excruciatingly overburdened feet. I also took off my shoes whenever on buses etc. to ease and wiggle my squashed toes. Nevertheless as the afternoon wore on I was hobbling very badly. I caught side of myself reflected in a shop window gingerly teetering and mincing along like a pathetic drunkard walking barefoot on red hot coals. It was not only unbearably painful, but pitying stares from many passers-by made the circumstance very humiliating. Upon my return to our house that night, I was even more despairing of wearing high heels in London. No, said Velma, DON'T give up Loo, keep going because your feet will start becoming acclimatised to all the London heel-wearing and will start to harden-up. To my everlasting joy she was right! Almost from the next day onwards, the soreness started to lessen, the ball and soles of my feet began to harden, and my high stilettos became easier and easier to wear for longer and longer periods. In fact, as I became less and less aware of my own high-heel discomfort, I even thought I would brave wearing my white 5" heeled stiletto courts at the weekend, and also I was becoming more aware of the interesting changes in shoe fashion that were going on around me, and more aware that there were other exciting shoe shops in addition to Regent Shoes! More of this next time!

Love, Lucy

Spikes Fan

Lucy's Story (22)
Posted by Lucy on August 25, 2003, 17:32:41

Hi Everyone! And especially to Spikesfan for continuing to copy my instalments from here on Jenny's Forum across to MegaForums and for his kind messages, and also to Erica and Sinkem for their replies. I am writing this instalment No. 22 on 25th August 2003:
Having recounted to you my first week's work in London and the unforseen agony of wearing 4" stiletto heels (my lowest) all over the city, by the end of week 2 they were starting to 'harden-up' and the skin under the balls/toes of my feet was becoming more leathery. Also, the shiny black patent leather court shoes, which were brand new for the interviews, were becoming more worn-in and comfortable. Despite my feet acclimatising themselves to all the walking in heels, I decided do delay my plans to go into really high heels for a wee bit longer to be on the safe side. As I criss-crossed hither and thither around London, I was able to start taking an interest in the shoe fashions that other girls were wearing in the capital. This was now the autumn of 1963, seven years after the great stiletto heel revolution first hit the British streets. By this time, the general trend in the fashion magazines was for lower heels of 2 1/2" or less. However, two camps of heel-wearers seemed to have emerged - those lemming-like fashion followers who adhered to the lower heel trend like zombies, and those real high heelers like me and Velma who, having once tasted the unique thrill of wearing SERIOUSLY high heels, were to stick loyally with them rather than settling for anything less, despite the lower-heels fashion whim. On London's streets, the two opposing types of ladies became very obvious. In fact, during this period, the second category of ladies were wearing, if anything, HIGHER heels than they had been doing, if only to emphasise that they were not going along with the herd. Some of them had some gorgeous stilettos and I noticed quite a few more pairs of 'Alps'(just like my 4 3/4" pairs) click-clicking around London. After work, I would catch the homeward train from Charing Cross Station. Beforehand, I would sometimes relax over a hot coffee in Villier Street, a very steeply descending street alongside the station. From the coffee-shop window, I noticed several ladies whose heels were so high that they could hardly hurry down the slope to the underground station at the bottom. I saw more than one twisted ankle occurring right in front of the coffeehouse due to their heels being too high for the slope and the bustle. Some of the ladies adopted my own trick (which I have previously described) of leaning my high stiletto heels inwards towards each other when descending very steep slopes this counteracts the steepness and temporarily brings the heels of my feet nearer to the ground until the slope has levelled-out. However, one very beautiful blonde lady who descended that street every day rather overdid it. She had a superb pair of light tan-coloured 5" stiletto courts, and she had to lean them in quite considerably to manage Villiers Street. As the weeks passed, I noticed that her lovely pair of shoes were becoming more and more distorted because of this, so that even when on the flat, both heels had adopted a permanent and very pronounced inward lean. That shows the danger of over-doing that technique. Sometimes that same symptom can come about simply because the heels are too high for the particular girl wearing them. In my third week at work I followed a lady (with very tilting heels) and gentleman on to an underground train and got squashed against them both. The gentleman said he had noticed her having "difficulty" with her new shoes. She explained to him "They are really quite a bit too high for me, but I love the look of them so much that I can't bear to come out in lower heels!".

Sorry if this has been a short instalment, but I'm having to dash out now, so I'll break off and write a longer one soon!

Love to all, Lucy

Spikes Fan

Lucy's Story (23)
Posted by Lucy on August 27, 2003, 23:18:32

Hi Everyone, and special thanks to Allheel, Sinkem, Heelfan and Stu for their kind messages of appreciation!
This Instalment No. 23 is a very special feature that I am inserting earlier than planned. These actuals event occurred some months later than those which I am currently recounting in my normal episodes. The reason for jumping ahead to them right now is that Cheryl has posted on Jenny's forum that having worn high heels for many years, she has a most unfortunate problem. She has moved to a country house surrounded by muddy fields and lanes and cannot walk outside because her calves/tendons have shortened so much that her feet cannot 'come down' to wear the necessary flat 'country' shoes or rubber boots. Robert, Katie and Sinkem have already taken the trouble to submit some most helpful postings for Cheryl, and I am also taking this very seriously and promised her that I would dedicate this instalment to describing how I overcame my own shortening tendons. So here goes on 27th August 2003, Instalment No. 23:

Just for this instalment only, we jump ahead to March 1964 when flat-sharers Velma, Madeline and I had been living and constantly heel-wearing in London for six or seven months. I had been enjoying all my office hours wearing stiletto heels between 4" and 5" in height, and during evenings and weekends often going into 5" or higher heels with little respite except when asleep. After all this time, the 'liberated' Madeline would not be separated from her beloved 5 1/2" purple courts which she wore EVERYWHERE including to work, around the house, to the Brockley grocers, butchers, ironmongers, fishmongers etc. and even to the somewhat disapproving doctor's! She had even bought a second pair from Regent Shoes in the same 5 1/2" court style, except that they were an eye-catching sky-blue with the addition of dinky little bows on the toes. All seemed to be going brilliantly until Madeline suddenly received a postcard from her tyrannical mother saying she would be coming to London and paying her first visit the flat that coming Saturday Afternoon. "Oh my God!" said Madeline, her face suddenly as white as a sheet, "She'll KILL me if she finds me in these 'Sinful' very high stilettos and I've got rid of all my old frumpy 'sensible' shoes!". Velma said "The only thing to do is for you to shoot out first thing on Saturday morning and buy some stodgy, flat mum-pleasers". After Saturday breakfast, Velma and I went with her to a shop selling "boring" ladies shoes and Madeline deliberately tried-on some awful elastic-sided completely flat horrors (they were suitably DREADFUL!). To her consternation, after Madeline had walked three or four circuits of the shop, her face was betraying pain and she blurted "I ...I.....can't wear these flat shoes any longer - pains are shooting up the backs of my legs!" She admitted that this had been happening when barefoot around the flat unless she went on tip-toe. We were puzzled by this, but Velma said "OK then Maddy, your mother said 2 1/2" is the maximum height for respectable heels. Try some of those instead". Madeline put on a pair of 'granny' lace-up brogues with thick 2 1/2" Louis heels. This time her feet could just about go down to that height, so she bought them with a grimace. Back at home, Madeline's Mother duly turned up - an even more overbearing battlaxe than we had imagined. No wonder Madeline had not dared to wear high stilettos, she scowled like thunder when she saw mine and Velma's and bellowed imperiously that she "Trusted that we would not lead Madeline into bad ways!". During the weekend Madeline's 2 1/2" Granny shoes just about passed muster, although they were deemed to be "On the brink of being unseemly". After Mother had gone, a rather strained, shaken and tearful Madeline gasped "These low shoes - so much leg pain", tore them off and was only happy when back in her five-and-a-half inchers! This whole event made me re-examine my own high-heel-wearing. I had already been finding that it was painful to rub my fingers from the base of my calves down to the backs of my heels. My Achilles tendons had become painful to the touch! And yes, I realised that whenever scampering around the flat in bare feet, I too had been starting to (almost subconciously) find it easier to move around on tip-toe, although unlike Madeline, I could still just about lower my feet flat to the floor. Velma looked on at us both with consternation and exclaimed that she remembered reading in some encyclopedia that women wearing high heels often had problems with their Achilles tendons, but she hadn't thought any more about it because London was FULL of ladies merrily wearing thousands of pairs of simply glorious high heels with no obvious ill effect! "Yes" I said "But for all we know perhaps THEY are all having similar trouble behind the scenes, just like us!". Anyway, we all agreed that perhaps we needed some advice or treatment. A few days later Velma found that one of her secretary friends was already familiar with the problem and recommended a "Marvellous woman" who worked at a health farm (as we used to call them) in Hertfordshire (between London and Oxford). Madeline and I duly booked a weekend stay there from Friday evening to Sunday evening. The regime included a spartan diet, a morning sauna, plunge-pool and all-over massage, swims, exercises and rest periods, and optional consultations with specialists. Upon seeing each of us in turn, the lady specialist immediately recognised our problem and said that she had seen a lot of cases of calf/tendon shortening since the "High-Heeled Londoners" had started coming up in increasing numbers. She warned us that it would take some time to re-stretch the tissues (especially Madeline's), but she wrote-down a series of exercises and guidelines for us that proved to be brilliant! I have long since lost my original bit of paper, but I'll try and reiterate them from memory for Cheryl and everyone. However, in case this instalment gets electronically 'axed' for being over-long, I'll now close this Instalment 23, and post the remedies on Instalment 24.

Love, Lucy

Spikes Fan

Lucy's Story (24)
Posted by Lucy on August 27, 2003, 23:40:53

Hi Everyone! Following-on from my Instalment No. 23, here is No 24 in which I comtinue to try and help Cheryl and anyone else interested in the high-heel-wearers' calf/tendon shortening problem:
From my memory, The lady health specialist at the health farm wrote-down the following exercises and guidelines more or less as follows:

1. Until you have successfully reversed the situation sufficiently to be able to stand and walk comfortable in bare feet, either abandon high heels completely, or only wear them for a smallish part of each day.

2. Early each morning soften your tissues with ten minutes' heat treatment - the health farm's steam room or sauna, or at your home a hot bath (or these days, a jaccusi!).

3. If available, immediately afterwards further soften the tissues with a massage but only from a good professional masseur.

4. Lean forwards with your hands bra


2. Further

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Lucy's Story (24a)
Posted by Lucy on August 28, 2003, 2:00:41

Cont. ... Sorry everyone! I must have inadvertantly hit the 'Post' half-way through Instalment 24, so let's just carry it on as Instalment 24a:
4. In bare feet, lean slightly forwards, bracing your hands against a wall, post, mantlepiece etc. Place the left foot forwards with the knee bent, and place the other foot slightly behind you with the knee straight, and lowering that heel to the ground (or as near as you can get!) with your weight on it. Then flexing the front knee further forward, allow your body-weight to stretch to calf/tendon of the rear leg. Then change legs and repeat, and so on, gradually moving the rear foot further back from the wall or post, increasing the stretch on the tendon. Do this slowly and steadily. Do not bounce your body-weight up down as you stretch the tendon as this could damage or tear the tendon in the process. Do this session (of at least ten minutes) at least once, but preferably several times a day.

5. When standing, if you find it impossible or extremely painful to lower your own heels down into the horizontal position to stand flat on the floor, put on the very LOWEST heels you can tolerate, and do the daily exercises in those.

6. Also, if you cannot walk at all without heels, put on the lowest you can tolerate, and not only use them for the exercise in item 5, but also wear them all the time, not going any higher unless having to wear higher heels for the odd special occasion.

7. In week 2, choose (or buy) heels ideally 1/4", but no more than 1/2" lower and repeat the exercises and daily living in those heels. Then, when you can stand it (usually between a week and a month), go down yet again in heel-height by a similar amount, and so on until you CAN again stand and walk barefooted on flat floors.

8. If, having 'gone completely flat', you feel that it is still a strain, optionally you can consolidate the stretching by temporarily going into "negative heels". These are special flat shoes where the your heels can sink further into the sole of the shoe than your toes - ie the reverse of high heels! This should not be overdone, but can help with just that last bit of tendon-stretching.

9. When you can tolerate walking barefoot or in flat shoes around the house again without any great discomfort (this took me about four months, but took Madeline over twice as long), start going for outside walks in flat shoes as frequently as possible, gradually increasing the walk from say, one to five or more miles. Then join an aerobic class and REALLY exercise those feet!

10. Still in flat shoes, start walking UP hilly streets, but ensuring that the back of each shoe returns flat-down on to the pavement with every stride. Or, in bare feet and the seaside, run UP the sides of sand-dunes with your whole foot contacting the slope. Those are very beneficial exercises.

11. To further consolidate having returned to again being able to "Go flat", stand with your toes on a firm step (the bottom tread on your staircase is as good as anything) and the backs of your heels in mid-air. With your hands holding-on to anything suitable, smoothly lower your feet from tip-toe to having your own heels lower than the stair you are standing on. Again do this for ten minutes several times a day, each week trying to go lower below step-level.

12. With bare legs and feet, do plenty of early morning exercises which benefit the problem: Standing with both feet together and flat on the ground, and with straight knees, bend over and touch your toes ten or twently times. Then, sitting or lying down, do plenty of ankle-flexing exercises, depressing each foot downwards as far as it will go, and then (very importantly) upwards as far as it can go. Do this thirty or forty times!

13. Another danger if becoming 'permanently high-heeled' is that your toes can become permanently stuck up at right-angles to your foot. Mummy's old Aunt Edna had this problem having worn high heels throughout her entire business career working in accounts for Vavasseur's, a silk firm in Cheapside near the St. Paul's area of London from about 1915 to the mid 1950s. The television newsreader Kenneth Kendell (now retired) was a descendant of the management. Although thick (before stilettos came in), great-aunt Edna's heels were always surprisingly high for the times (at least 4") because she was tiny (only about 4' 10") and wanted all the extra height that she could get. As she approached retirement, she succeeeded in gradually 'coming down' flat, but her toes stayed sticking up towards the ceiling and then became stuck that way with arthritis. She had the misfortune of ending up walking around in ugly surgical boots, especially-made with bulging toe-caps to accommodate her vertical toes for years, right up to her death aged 96. This can be avoided by plenty of flattie or barefoot walking each day, and when at rest sitting down or in bed, exercising the toes by curling them under the foot and plenty of general wiggling.

14. Remember, warm-up and soften the tissues with heat-treatment (and maybe a massage) before doing any of these activities, and whilst doing them keep your legs and feet warm with tracksuits, socks etc. Drink plenty of water during and after all exercises.

15. After reversing the calf, tendon and toe problems, think very carefully about how great a portion (if any!) of each day you dare risk in high heels, especially if they are ultra-high. Perhaps it varies from person to person. Some people seem to have much more supple and rubbery bodies than others. In my case, having successfully followed those guidelines and curing my comparatively mild problem, I have found ever since that as long as, on average, I spend AT LEAST 30% (but preferable 40% to 50%) barefoot or in flatties each day, and I do my exercises each day, then the problem does not seem to recur.

There! that, I think, covers all the main points. However, on a personal note can I say to Cheryl how much I hope these tips and experiences help her, and Cheryl in the meantime, to help prevent you from sinking into the mud, can I suggest that boots with high WEDGES would present a much bigger and more coninuous sole-area to the mud than any heeled boot.

To the ladies in general, of course if you prefer to choose to be a permanently high-heeled lady, simply ignore all the above tips and carry on wearing ultra-high heels morning, noon and night. However, if your fear a predicament like Cheryls, or wish to retain the daily THRILL of going from utterly flat up to stepping into 5" heels or therabouts (my main reason for looking after my tendons), or simply feel that you wish to retain the full use of your un-heeled feet as nature intended you to do, then good luck in keeping your high-and-low options fully open as girls like me and Laurie do.

And finally, to conclude this instalment, note that Firefox, as a prelude to his own wonderful collection of high heels, includes a picture of a pair of flatties as "The single most important pair of shoes in everyone's collection!".

Love, Lucy

Spikes Fan

Lucy's Story (24b)
Posted by Lucy on September 11, 2003, 7:57:40

Hi Everyone! My special thanks to those who responded to my last two instalments - Puffer, Stu, SpikesFan, Erica and Julie, and to the indomitable Firefox for continuing to moderate this Forum of Jenny's and to Spikesfan for continuing to copy-across my instalments on to MegaForums.
Before I continue with my high heel adventures in London, I promised to add to the foot-care advice that I gave in Instalment 24a, so I am calling this Instalment 24b:

Many girls (and maybe even some guys?) are put-off wearing high heels because of resultant foot or tendon problems. However, my experience is that virtually all of these problems are preventable and/or reversible, given a little basic foot-care knowledge. It is so sad that many feel denied the thrill of wearing high heels when a little more understanding might re-open that pleasure to them. As my unfolding story relates, I have worn very high heels all my life(well, from 13 to 59 and counting) with no present problems, but only by taking very great care of my feet and tendons:

TENDONS/CALVES These can shorten unless a decent part of every day is spent in flatties/barefeet, and if tendon-stretching excercises are not carried out daily. I have dealt with this thoroughly in Instalments 24 and 24a.

To give fresh heart to those fearful of becoming a "permanent high-heeled woman" and terrified by gloom-mongers and biased podetricians, many of us have found that tendon-shortening is NOT inevitable and can be kept at bay. Laurieheels in her Training Diaries, (MegaForums 'Fetish Subjects')recounts still being able to go from 5" and 5 1/2" heels "In 0 to 5 seconds"! Erica posts that she daily wears 4" to 5" heels to work, and has no tendon-shortening problems. Barbara Windsor, one of Britain's most notable mega-high-heel-wearing figureheads for years ever since the old "Carry On" films, appeared this year in a newspaper photograph walking along the street in absolutely flat trainers! Maybe, for all I know, there may be some girls for whom any high heel wearing would cause irrevocable tendon-shortening, but all I am saying is that from my own experience, and judging by the other ultra high heel wearers quoted, due care and attention can enable us girls to enjoy the highest heels without becoming trapped into them!

CALF-CRAMPS I am sure we've all been gripped by the sudden spasm of a knotted-calf-cramp, particularly when in bed. Worse still is if it happens in the street when it can be caused by going into heels which are of unaccustomed height, too suddenly for too long. Your calves are subjected to being too tight for too long, and suddenly go into an agonising camp. Disaster! The only relief would be to relax the calves by removing the shoes and yet you are stranded on a busy pavement wearing your only pair of shoes! This can be prevented by only going into higher heels in gradual stages and taking shorter walks to start with. I also recommend the precaution of folding a flimsy pair of flatties into your handbag for emergencies! Given time, your legs, calves etc. re-adjust to coping with higher heels and you should be OK.

BUNIONS A bunion (Hallux Vulgus) is one of the commonest afflictions of high heel wearers. The main joint of the big toe becomes inflamed and swollen. The first symptom is usually a redness of the inner side of the foot at this joint and then some swelling. Then a callus can develop over the bunion, and internally a loss of mobility
of the joint and big toes can occur, together with an increase in pain. If untreated, this can further deteriorate into toe distortion, arthritis, bone stress-fractures and surface tissue ulceration!

Bunions are caused mainly by shoes (whether flat or heeled) being too narrow or too tight overall causing pressure on the toe-joint. A high heel exascerbates the problem by forcing more weight and pressure down on to the toe joints, but I have found that high heels alone are OK as long as my shoes are wide enough across the toe-joints.

Preventing bunions: Choose only wide-fitting shoes. If still to narrow across the toes, immediately get them professionally stretched, or if you have many such pairs, buy a shoe-stretcher NOW and stretch them yourself. The best range of stretchers that I have found on the Net is George's:

http://www.emocs.com/stretcher.htm

They supply shoe stretchers not only for the width, but also for the length, for the toe-height, for cowboy boots and for BUNIONS! They also do stretching-tongs for bunions.

Curing Bunions: Wear on wide-fitting shoes. Cool it for a while regarding very high heels (or all heels), or if you can't bring yourself to do that, at least change to flatties THE MOMENT your bunion starts hurting. Consult your doctor regarding medications to eliminate the inflammation and swelling. It is with it in the long run! When returning to stunning heels, do it with care!

CORNS Never let corny skin build up, especially outside your little toes. Remove it INSTANTLY and if necessary, daily with a blade-guarded corn scalpel. Also promptly stretch your shoes wider, as above!

Happy heeling! Love Lucy

Spikes Fan

Lucy's Story (24c)
Posted by Lucy on September 12, 2003, 0:27:21

Hi Everyone!
I am writing this on 12th September '03. Before I move on with my main story, I've just though of a few more tips on footcare that I ought to include:

STRETCHING SHOES Having warned of the dangers of tight, pinching shoes, in the Instalment 24b I recommended getting a shoe-stretcher. I should have added that the stretching applies to leather (not various synthetic) shoes, and that the leather needs to be softened before the stretcher is used. Softening can be done by:

1) The traditional cobblers' trick that I used in the 1960s. They would fill all or part of the shoe with new, moist potato peelings, and leave for a while until the leather is moist and pliable.

or 2) Simply moisten the leather by inserting a wet sponge instead of the potato peelings.

or 3) These days most shoe shops sell a spray canister of stretching fluid. Whether this is any better than potato peelings or a wet sponge I don't know.

You can stop either 1), 2) or 3) from evaporating and re-drying too quickly by wrapping the whole moistening shoe in a waterproof polythene bag until the leather is fully soft and ready for stretching.

BUNIONS As well as ensuring that the shoe's toe-box is adequately wide, pressure on the ball of the foot can be relieved if you choose shoes that have an inbuilt cushioned insole. Further relief can be obtained by buying your own cushioned insoles and fitting them into the pair of shoes. However, check that the shoe is sufficiently roomy to allow the insole to be inserted without constricting the foot.

Also, various localised bunion-guards, braces and regulators are available on the Net from such suppliers as FootSmart: http://www.footsmart.com/ProductReco...Bunions/Toes/C...

"TOE-BURN" Virtually everyone suffers painful pressure-burn under the toes and ball of the foot in the early weeks (or even months) of first wearing high heels. Because the height of the heel throws far more than usual of your body-weight on to your tip-toes, your foot-soles in the toe-box becomes sore. Also the pressure impedes the blood circulation in the front part of your feet so that those tissues are not rejuvenated nor is the lactic acid carried away and you get gout-like pain which increases the longer you stand in the heels. Always try to walk around rather than to stand in one spot, as this helps the foot circultion.

Sadly, this toe-burn causes many first-time teenage girls to give up high heels for good withing days of starting! However, assuming that the toe-box is sufficiently wide and cushioned, it is amazing how the human body adapts itself to cope during a decent spell of regular heel-wearing. It takes for first to or three weeks of stubborn persistance in heels for the initial pressure-pains to begin to lessen, and after a number of further weeks of daily heel-wearing, the teething pains usually disappear altogether, opening the way for all-day happy heeling! One word of warning though; if you go back to heels after a few months in flatties, the pressure pain will return and will need to be worked-off once more by regular heel-wearing.

SORES AND BLISTERS Slightly loose-fitting shoes can cause WORSE sores and blisters than over-tight shoes because they slip around and rub areas of skin at every step.

Very loose-fitting shoes that slop off-and-on each foot completely are usually OK because they have little or no contact against the sides or back of the foot.

There remedy for slightly loose shoes is to fit an internal insole and/or heelgrip to make them fit snugly.

DEFORMED TOES The late 1950s ultra pointed "Winklepicker" toes were potentially ruinous to the footshape, forcing the toes inwards into a point, and the big toe joint to project, inviting a bunion. This fashion, amongst others, is with us again now.

Luckily these days, there are also many very stylish fashion shoes available with broader, rounder or squarer toe-shapes. Firstly, choose a sufficiently wide fit for your feet, if necessary widening the toebox with a shoe-stretcher. Then, if the toe is pointed, pack-in sufficient cotton wool (Arno suggests lambswool that ballet dancers use) or my later invention of papier mache to prevent the toes from sliding forward into the pointed front-end of the shoe. To ensure the preservation of parallel, straight toes, perhaps sleep each night with soft rubbery toe-spacers between each toe.

Happy high-heel-wearing, Love Lucy

Spikes Fan

Lucy's Story (25)
Posted by Lucy on September 19, 2003, 20:01:40

Hi Everyone! An astonishingly warm welcome to you all, especially to loyal responders Spikesfan, Puffer, Robert, Katie, Sinkem, Confession, Allheel, Stu, Erica and Julie! I hope the latter two found my footcare tips (instalments 24, 24a, 24b, 24c) useful for their bunions, tendons etc.! Well, with this Instalment No. 25, we return to my high heel adventures after starting my first job in London, Autumn 1963:
After a month of agony in walking all over London to visit each of our branches in my high stiletto heels, thankfully my feet had become hardened and accustomed to all the walking, and had settled down. This was great! At last I was able to move up from my lowest 4" heels to show London the REAL Lucy! My first three pairs of 'Alps' court shoes (with their thin 4 3/4" heels) had become scruffy, so I re-visited good old Regent Shoes in Wardour Street and bought myself two more pairs of 'Alps' in different colours. Just as I was turning to leave, on a sudden whim I thought 'Hang on, I got my wonderful special 5" white patent leather courts here, I wonder if they do them in "business" colours like navy blue and black'. Their special private room for "Esteemed customers" happened to be free, so almost before I realised what I was doing, I had been in there, and found and bought the most stunning pair of 5" stiletto heeled plain shiny patent leather courts with low-cut uppers and the lowest-cut toe that I had ever seen, exposing the first part of my toes - what they now call 'toe cleavage'. They were incredible! In the mirror, my legs and feet looked like those of a top Hollywood film star!

When I got home that evening, Velma and Madeline gasped in delight. They both said that they had never seen anything so lovely or so sexy. That gave me a problem though, because I had really been shopping for business shoes! "Are they too sexy for wearing for my work?" I asked anxiously. "Well" said Velma, "black is the right colour for business shoes, but they might cause a riot in your firm!". Madeline said "Well, I'm wearing my higher purple 5 1/2" heels to work everyday, but I'm a sort of backroom girl whereas you are in everyone's eye all the time, and your shoes are a lot more low-cut, revealing and provocative than mine!". This gave me a dilemma, and I had a rather sleepless night worrying that I had mis-spent my hard-earned wages on inappropriate shoes. However, in the morning the sun was shining and my shoes said "WEAR ME!", so I did! But oh my goodness - I thought I was used to 5" heels from wearing my white ones at Little Canada Holiday Camp etc., but these low-cut ones were a whole new and more difficult experience. The cut of the sides and toe was so low and skimpy that there was little to hold and support my feet! The morning's usual long descent of Pepy's Hill saw me wobbling horrendously on those unstable 5" stilettos and the uneven paving slabs didn't help. I was glad to get to the station without a sprained ankle and sat down for the train journey with great relief. Many 'City gents' still commuted wearing bowler hats and carrying furled umbrellas. One spent the entire journey with his eyes rivetted to my new shoes. Just before getting off, he stammered "D-d-d-d-d'you mind awfully telling me where you got those enchanting shoes - I would give anything to buy some for my wife?". I took great pleasure in telling him about Regent Shoes, and his admiration gave me great heart in continuing to wear those wobbly but very sensuous shoes. As I entered our firm's foyer, my 5" stilettos clicking (and wobbling) across the shiny black marble floor,I sensed the receptionist staring an my heels in disapproval. By the time I got upstairs and entered our office suite I was very nervous of the reception I would receive. Ricky Everson (my boss) noticed my new heels immediately. He sprang up form his desk, and shot forward to greet me. "My, my" he exclaimed "We've been shoe-shopping, haven't we Lucy! - WOW!". His undisguised approval gave me the confidence to wear them around the building for the rest of that first day, despite further heel-tilts and wobbles. During the morning break, I overheard a group of the junior office boys saying "knockout shoes!" and as the day wore on, the eyes of most of the menfolk were following my teetering steps around the building. In fact, now that Pepy's Hill was replaced by the comfort of the office carpet, I began to positively enjoy the wobbly feel of my new low-cut 5" stilettos and even treated the guys to a phoney wobble or two for good measure. Miss Sheridan's Acadamy had taught us to display the outside of the heel, so whenever I went over to stand at a filing cabinet, I would put my weight on one foot, and would elegantly put the other foot out to the side, almost resting its 5" heel horizontally on the floor. It was hilarious to turn and see the fellas change instantly from staring like mad to assuming an air of contrived indifference! Looking back, it was naughty and teasing of me, but the power and effect of those needle-thin 5" stilletos was impossible to resist! As that first day in my new shoes wore on, I suddenly remembered the good old "Catwalk Flip" and put it into effect along the corridors. O000oooh, the sensation of doing that in those already-wobbly shoes was indescribable! Those heels immediately complied to my ankle-flips and rolled dramatically inwards at the end of every pace. It was so delicious! I thought I was just practicing unseen, but instinct made me look back
down the corridor and there were a whole host of fellas' heads all gazing at my every move. The following day, a pretty young secretary spoke to me in the ladies' room and sheepishly asked me where I had got my lovely shoes from. Then at lunchtime another office girl shyly asked the same question. By home-time, five of them had asked, not knowing about the others. The next day two more of the firm's girls asked the same question, including (believe it or not) the frosty seemingly disapproving receptionist who I had never seen wearing anything over 3". My new low-cut toe-cleavage black patent leather 5" stiletto courts had not only been accepted, but had been a fantastic hit with the management, but also Velma was right, they had been a sensation (albeit a wobbly sensation) with the entire head office!

More soon! Love, Lucy