Taps

When I was a child, my mother used to take me to Stride Rite for my shoes. It was a big event to go shoe shopping. There were no "do it yourself" places, in those days. You went to the store and waited your turn, until a salesman could give you his undivided attention. He would have you stand on the metal foot measure and then press your toes down, to get the correct size. He went into the back of the store and brought out one or two choices that you mother thought would be good. He sat in front of you, on the stool with the sloped footrest and put the shoes on your feet. For some reason, he always tied them too tight, but being a good child, I never complained. He would have you stand up, and he would press the front of the shoe down, at the toe, to see if you had enough growing room. My mother never took his word for it, so she had to press down on my toe, too. Once it was decided that this was "the pair", we would go to the counter to purchase them. Then came my favorite part of the day. The salesman asked if we wanted taps put on the shoes. Taps were pieces of metal that were nailed into the shoe, to make the soles last longer. There were front taps and back taps. I usually got both! When I wore the shoes outside for the first time, there was no better feeling than hearing the new taps clink on the sidewalk. Tap, tap, tap.