It runs in the family... Whilst driving to the shops just before Christmas with my mother, we started to discuss high heels and how we got into wearing them.
Her story amused me since my obsession with high heels obviously runs in the family.
When she was 14, my grandmother bought my mother her first pair of high heels and told her firmly that since she was soon to be a woman, it was imperative that she learn to wear heels.
My mother cried and protested since she was sure that she would do herself an injury since she had never worn a shoe that had so much as a hint of a heel before.
Her protests were in vain though as my grandmother scolded her for whining and made her put on the shoes. They were pretty, baby blue sandals with 3.5" slender heels.
Once strapped in, my grandmother took her by the arm and led her out of the house and forced her to walk in her new shoes all the way to the centre of the nearby town and back. This must've been a good mile or so and certainly a challenge for somebody who had never worn heels before.
My mother recounted that she was in tears, her feet were burning and blistered. She felt humiliated that her own mother had put her through such torture.
Again my grandmother took no notice of her protests and told her that the blisters would be gone by the following week and that the afternoon's heeled excursion was to be repeated then.
Indeed it did, and continued to become a little ritual for the following two months until my mother could walk perfectly in her new shoes.
My mother fondly exclaimed once she'd finished her story that this was the best thing her mother ever did for her!!
Fortunately, I never had to endure the same little ritual, as my mother started teasing me for my obsession with wearing her shoe collection when I was a toddler and that I was wearing high heels before they even fitted me hehe.
The moral of the story? Far too many and sterotypical to name ;) |