Gregg Shoes

    The topics of our conversation this morning ran from SM Residences to Shoemart of our yesteryears and then to Gregg shoes. Everyone wore them in elementary and high school. Specifically, boys shoes from Gregg's. And when I say everybody, that included even the maarteng colegialas from our convent school.

     I had to wear them every year until in my sophmore year in high school when  I decided I had had enough of them. How I envied some of my classmates who wore girl shoes. And so I pleaded with my mother to get me those kind when we had the annual trooping to the shoe stores before classes opened in June.

     How proud and happy I was with my black patent mary janes!  Theye made me feel so feminine. But alas, after wearing them out only after 2 months or so, I realized the folly of my desire. What a waste of my parents' hard-earned money, I thought.  I also realized how wise and practical my mom (and other moms of my generation) was for choosing to make us wear Gregg (also Ang Tibay) shoes over flimsy girl shoes. It's a lesson that has stuck in my mind through the years such that I find it very difficult even now to buy whimsical shoes. They always have to be something that I can use often and will last me a while or should in a neutral color that will easily match any outfit.

     But only recently has it dawned upon me that there was something else I should have seen in that experience. That my usually frugal mother let me get my way even if it she probably knew that it was not a practical thing to do must mean something. Maybe it was a reward for the child who never asked for much? Or maybe it was an acknowledgement of her trust in my ability to make mature choices? Or maybe just to teach me a lesson on the whys and wherefores of practical shoe-buying and possible pitfalls you get into when you don't believe what your mother says? I don't know.

     Just now,  I realized that that incident must have shaped my way of dealing with persistent demands from my children to do something I am particularly against. In sheer exasperation, sometimes I give in even if I can already predict the sad ending.They have had their share of mary janes in their lives. But always, I believe these lessons have made them into courageous persons who will not be afraid to venture into the untrodden. If they get lost or fail, they will get up and dust themselves off. And then they will write blog entries extolling the virtues of their mother who allowed them to make mistakes so that they would know why they shouldn't make them again. (Hehehe!)

Do they still sell Gregg shoes?