Friday 11 April 2014

plastic, blue memories...

They were blue like the Greek summer sky. They were made of plastic, both the soles and the upper part, the inside I bet it was plastic as well but I cannot remember after all these years... I do remember though that feeling of guilty pleasure every time I would put them on along with that of the pavement in my grand mother's back yard through the flimsy soles... and that they were gorgeous!

I was about six years old. And I had flat feet. Or, at least, that's what they told me to explain why I would have to wear those hideous, black or brown laced booties (replaced by equally hideous wooden orthopaedic sandals in the summer... during spring, when it was still chilly, I had to wear socks with those, slippery, nylon socks that made me loose my sandals when running in the school yard...) and not cute little girls shoes like everyone else...

My grandma bought me the blue ballet flats... I loved them nearly as munch as I loved her! Oh, my feet looked so pretty in those! So delicate! So feminine! But I had to wear them only when I was at her place, secretly from my mother who would not allow it... And I doubt I will ever forget the day I got caught with them on, run and hid under the bed and heard my grandma trying to protect me, calm her down so that I don't get a beating...

I still remember the afternoon sun getting in the room from the half closed blinds, the tiny silver flakes of dust dancing around me in the breeze, annoyed by my presence under the bed, I remember my ice cream that should be melting on the kitchen table, my fear of being punished for not following the rules and the excruciating pain of looking at my beautiful, cheap, blue, little girl's shoes that seamed like I would never put on again... I was right... they were confiscated... But my blue memories never were!!! And they are better than shoes ;)

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