Chapter 19: Footwear

In the fifties and the sixties, practically everyone went to school on foot. A few of the older boys cycled to school. To see a kid being sent by the parents in a car to school would be as rare as seeing the eclipse of the sun. In fact, in my school that catered for kids living around Signal Hill, I could not recall any kid being sent to school in a car.

 

Kids living around Signal Hill mostly came from poorer families. They earned their living as vegetables farmers, pig farmers, bean curd (taufu) makers, small traders and tradesmen liked painters, tailors and carpenters. Everyone wore white canvass shoes to school. The wear and tear of this type of shoes were high since we did a lot of walking. Because all the kids had to walk on dirt tracks, it was impossible to keep them clean and whitish throughout the week. Stained shoes were most evident during rainy season when we had to walk along dirt tracks with puddles of murky water.

At home, we were occasionally provided with Japanese slippers to move around. But very often, a new pair would not immediately be provided after the old pair broke. We had to go barefoot while waiting for the new pair to be purchased. Because of walking barefoot, I had at one time stepped on some wood splinters. I did not inform my parents and instead attempted to remove them all by myself. Somehow, not all the splinters were removed. Over the years, a lump started to grow at the bottom of my left foot and it grew and grew in size until it was too painful to walk on it. Finally in Primary 4, my father took me to Queen Elizabeth Hospital to have a minor operation to have it removed. After that procedure, my father sent me to school in his Raleigh bicycle and I had to move around in the school and to walk home in a crutch for a couple of days.

Since many kids in the village moved around barefoot frequently and also played a lot in the dirt field, some were infected with tapeworms. The normal treatment in those days was to eat a kind of Chinese tonic that "forced" the tapeworms to come out. Most came out in the stools whilst there were cases of the worms escaping through the mouths! The sight was indeed revolting.

In the village, many adults used Chinese wooden clogs as their footwear. This was very practical especially in moving around the kitchen floor which was just bare earth.

Owning a pair of genuine leader shoes was out of question as we just could not afford it. A fairly decent pair made of imitation leader was what I could expect and it was normally provided once a year either for the occasion of Chinese New Year or as a reward for scoring first position in the annual class exam.