A pair of shoes

I am now down to one pair of shoes that I can wear. Not that I don't have other shoes - there is a row of shoes in my closet. But the truth is, only one pair is comfortable now and I haven't gotten around to buying more. It brings to mind the dilemma we faced as children, growing up in the depression. Back in those bleak days, we got only one pair a year, and it posed a fair amount of problems. We got them in the fall, to wear to school when it opened. Since it was an undisputed fact that our feet were going to grow, we started out with shoes that were a couple of sizes too large. Having gone without shoes all summer, our feet were tender and we all developed blisters on our heels and toes. Thus wearing shoes was an uncomfortable ordeal we all had to endure for the first few weeks until we grew into them and our feet toughened up. Then as we grew, the shoes fit for a while and then became too small. One of my cousins had to walk on the back of her shoes for a few weeks in the spring until school was out and she could once again go barefoot.
Going barefoot posed other problems, mainly stepping on sharp objects and suffering cuts and bruises. Since there were no antibiotics or tetanus shots it's a wonder we survived at all. Stubbed toes, scraped knees and shins and sprained ankles were minor mishaps we simply lived with.
Remembering the depression, it is with amazement that I consider how frugally we lived. The typical girl's wardrobe would consist of one or two dresses, made of flour sacks, one pair of long-legged underwear, a slip and long cotton stockings. A boy would be outfitted with a couple of denim overalls and a set of underwear and a pair or two of socks. Sometimes a boy's shirt would be made of flour sacks as well. There simply was no money to spend on clothes for children.
Today is not in the kind of depression I remember. In those desperate times there were no food stamps, no free food giveaways, no homeless shelters. I hope that things do not get again as they were then. The book "The Grapes of Wrath" pretty much describes the plight of a family caught up in the desperate state the country was in. I look to the future with hope that things will get better.