ABSTRACT
I was born in 1916 in South Shields, County Durham. Most working class children went to school and played in their bare feet, or in sixpenny rope slippers made in Japan. In extreme cases some children would be lucky enough to have what we called ‘police boots’. According to the circumstances of the family (widows etc.), children would be allowed to go to the police station and be fitted with boots. Both boots would be punctured at the top with three holes to stop parents pawning the children’s boots.
