Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Flap-Jacks and White Bucks

SHOES & the 50's Man

Flap Jacks
Rollover for real Flap-Jacks

Blogger  gunnypink  said...

    Hi, kids, my name's Buster Brown, I live in a shoe, this is my dog Tige, he lives there too. OK Froggy, twang your magic twanger. Couldn't sell a pair of kids shoes with that today...gotta have a BB star endorse the shoe first. So, who was more ignernt?

While the commercial for Buster Brown shoes had a sort of cult following, my gang wouldn't be caught dead wearing them.  Not that that we always had a choice.  I remember three "must have" shoes while I was growing up in Chicago.

Because we wore uniforms (khaki trousers, white shirt and brown tie), shoes were the only way to have an identity, and were extremely important in determining your position on the social pecking order.  My first "must have" shoes were what I remember as "Flap-Jacks," which memory tells me were from Thom McCan?  I spent two hours trying to find them.

    * Flap-Jacks - nothing.  Snap-Jacks - nothing.
    * "Flap opening vintage shoes" - nothing.
    * A dozen other variations got me - nothing.

 I recreated them above. (Just before going to press the real ones popped up in a search for "white bucks"   The description said "with Nu-Lock Front."  Maybe in the sticks.  I can still hear the commercial for Flap-Jacks.

Anyway, I wanted those flap-jacks desperately, but mother fended me off with "they'll break;"  "they look stupid;" "you'll look like a a hood"  Hood was pronounced "hewd," as in hoodlum.  The real reason was that they cost more than what she wanted to spend. She finally relented however, and I was able to maintain my gravitas at St. Francis.


Engineer Boots  BLACK ENGINEER BIKER BOOTS STEEL TOE
OMG OMG OMG - these absolute "must haves" met with the greatest resistance. "You'll look like a a hood" I wanted these more than I wanted Flap-Jacks. I wanted them with  cleats.

I really don't remember what it was that turned her; maybe my incessant Eric Cartman whine ,"but mommmm."  I do remember getting into the car and driving to a shoe store on Harlem Ave (and that when we left the store, it was nearly dark out). The boots pictured here (from E-bay) are the EXACT boots I got.  Hell, they might even be mine?

At the checkout,  I asked if they could put cleats on them, and before the clerk could respond my mom said, "Absolutely not!  You'll already look like a hood, and I don't want my floors ruined."   The next day at recess I rode my bike to a shoe repair store,  and for 75¢ had the biggest, baddest cleats they had put on.  I made sure to walk on my toes around her, but she soon heard me outside on the sidewalk, and blew a fuse.  Took a screwdriver and ripped 'em off.   I settled for putting a lot of thumb tacks in the heels.

WHITE BUCKS were next.  The stylish young man was then wearing gunmetal gray trousers, with pink stitching down the leg, a pink shirt, and black knit tie with two horizontal pink stripes.  And white buck shoes.  Mom was fine with the pink (duh), so it became a matter of whether Robert Hall (Easter Clothes store)  carried them.  They did, except for the pink shirt and stitched trousers.  She took care of that by dying one of my school shirts pink, and stitching some trousers down the pants leg. They were not gunmetal, and the stitching was .........., and not - - - - - - -.  To complete the disaster, she substituted these faux-bucksfaux buks embarrassment for the realwhite bucks. Nothing about being a hood, just too expensive.  Did you notice the look of pain on my face in the "stylish" roll over?  It was tempered, somewhat, because my best pal Tim Hill's (left) mother made him wear that abortion..  Still, it's a wonder I didn't grow up to be a serial killer.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

After my mom passed I was raised by grandparents and then in a foster home. The crap I had to wear was unbelievable. Good
Will or, if I was lucky, JC Penney. Some adults have a knack for determining the exact opposite of 'cool' and wrapping you up in it.
Tim

Anonymous said...

Thanks Rodge for the memories! My husband sported a pair of these "Flap-Jacks" when we started dating...and yes, I thought they made him look cool. He wore those things every day for the next two years, and eventually the poor things split in two at the toe crease! Yep, good old Thom McAn and Robert Hall..."When the values go up, up, up...and the prices go down, down down..."
Ad rem....

Anonymous said...

Tassled Wee-Juns = Cool.
My Mom bought me a pair of Bellbottom jeans when I was in the 10th grade.
They would have been way cool 'cept they had pictures of all our past Presidents on them.
I quit wearing after my 3rd fistfight.

poletax

Anonymous said...

I wanted those hewd boots desperately, I finally bought a pair at a garage sale........mom threw 'em out. I can still hear her telling me, "you'll look like a hoodlum." Glencoe in the 60's, I was a hoodlum, with or without the boots.
jr
III

Rodger the Real King of France said...

Going forward, were tasseled Weejuns, "white Hummers" (tennis shoes), shell cordovans, and ultimately Sperry Top-Sider boat shoes. Plus about 50 pair of wing tips.

TimO said...

I had those exact boots back in the '80s and DID use them to ride my motorcycle. Loved 'em.

Anonymous said...

Had a pair of the "Flap Jacks" back in 1958, when I was 8 years old. We called them "Mousetraps". They were a tan/buff suede.

Jeeze, Roger, you always dig deep into my memories.

MAJ Mike

Anonymous said...

I still have a pair of those boots , and I love them dearly : ) smibsid

JMcD said...

" BLACK ENGINEER BIKER BOOTS STEEL TOE"

Spent the summer of 1954 in California working on a turkey farm...Made pretty good dough for a kid so I bought myself a pair of these...Best footwear I ever owned...Lasted three years with almost constant use and one heel repair.

JMcD said...

My favorite shoe of all time was the British Walker's, cordovan leather, cap toe or Chukka Boots.
These were the best made shoe and best looking I ever saw.....(and at the time, the most expensive.)
I finally afforded a pair when I had mustering out pay.

The Old Man said...

Still have a pair of the boots - bought 'em when I worked in the iron foundry because you could pop them off real freakin' quick if a molten BB went down your leg AND they reeked of bad-ass. Still use 'em 25 years later...

Anonymous said...

The Old Man,

That's lesson #1 when working with slag -- trousers OVER boots, but never tucked in! And no cuffs, either!

I learned that lesson the hard way while welding. Damned sock was smoldering, and I didn't notice 'till it caught fire. Things got real exciting as I began dancing the "MIG Welder's Boogie." Everybody at the shop had a good laugh.
I still have the scar on my ankle.
--Jack

tom said...

At my St Francis Xavier in La Grange, the thing to have was galoshes. The kind that had wrapover clasps of some sort that HAD to be left undone when worn, so you sort of clashed when you walked.
With so many sibs, there was no chance for me to get 'em.

tomw

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