Wool-gathering on a Friday morning

 I miss shoe stores.

When I was a little kid, we would buy shoes twice a year- before school in September and as Summer approached. We had two pair of shoes: school shoes and play shoes. In summer we got sneakers and sandals.  Do you remember looking at the shoes, having the clerk measure your feet with the Brannock Device and then sliding the shoe, ever so carefully, on your foot? it was.. magical.  I have a friend who said her daughter called going to the shoe store her Cinderella Day.  I guess it was.

I miss Payless Shoes.  You could go in and look over racks and racks of shoes, try them on and walk out. My feet don't always conform with the size so I need to "try before I buy" -getting shoes online is a pain in the patoot!  I also suspect that like most women's wear, shoe sizing is not true to anything and more like a vanity size than the real thing ( ooohh I wear a size SIX)

When I was a teen, I shopped endlessly in Malls.  My mom would sit down with me at the start of the school year to see what I needed and what my budget was.  Because I knew our finances were tight, I gave her the closest estimate I could.  She let me keep whatever I didn't spend BUT I had to buy everything on my list.  I was usually pretty close.

I am getting to a certain vintage.  I am not yet at the cane-waving GET OFF MY LAWN phase of life, for starters I don't HAVE a lawn- but  I miss things from my childhood. . I miss the slower pace.  Today everything seems so sped up ( do you find yourself YELLING at the microwave to "hurry up I don't have all minute"  ???) I miss Thrifty ice cream counters   The ice cream man coming down the street. Playing baseball in the street ( yelling CAR when one came slowly down the street I lived on a small street and everyone who lived there knew we might be playing in the street.  I live in a small apartment building now and I have made an effort to know my neighbors.  When I was married the first time, we lived in a house and barely knew our next-door neighbor but as kids in the 60's we were in and out of each other's houses all the freaking time.

I miss that.

What do you miss?