It was in the mid 70s when I saw these wooden Dutch shoes. My older siblings had taken me to the Folk Fair in downtown Milwaukee, a kind of ethnic bazaar that continues today. Of course I had to have them. They came unfinished, so my brother Tom added the colorful designs. The heydayof maxi dresses, I remember wearing them to a cousin's wedding with a long cream dress. I wore them to school too, loving the sound they made when jumping rope on the cracked asphalt playground at St. John's. Preferring to look different from everyone else even back then, I don't believe I ever saw another kid wearing such footwear. Now my girls traipse around in them and fill them with little toys. Maybe when they're older, they'll want to wear them out in public too. If so, I'll happily let them.


Jens Mortensen
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