Back in the days before iTunes and Pandora and nearly every song you can think of being available on YouTube, the only place you could turn to find music you haven't heard before was your AM radio. Or if you were lucky enough to have a decently programmed one in your town, your local FM station. Where I grew up, most of kids punched around among the handful AM Top 40 outlets we could pick up where we lived. Yeah, there were some things you could listen to on FM. But they were mostly beautiful music stations. And who had anything but AM in their cars anyway? I was an avid music junkie though. And in between the occasional digression from the format on the local AM station (I fondly remember one night when the DJ played nearly a full side from the album length Jethro Tull opus "Thick as a Brick") and whatever new acts might surface on The Midnight Special or Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, I was hard put to score. But somewhere along the way I acquired a portable radio with both an FM dial and an antenna. Which meant that with a little luck and the kindness of the ionosphere, I could pick up FM stations from cities that would have considered me well outside of their broadcast area. And for me, the experience was akin to the stories I've read of British kids tuning into those pirate radio stations that beamed in rock and roll from offshore. It was a peek into another, more delightful, more alluring world. A chance to sample something that might not normally come my way. An opportunity to glimpse a new reality. And through that keyhole I was peering through, I came to know a number of bands I love 'til this day. For, of course, when I liked what I heard, I'd go out and buy the album. But occasionally, there would be a song that made me very happy, but not so happy that I was willing to shell out $5.98 to take it home. I'd learned early on that one good tune does not a good album make, and I had necessarily become frugal with my allowance.
As I got older, those solo faves receded into the past. Even with an adult's income, it just didn't seem worth it to by an entire record or CD for just one track. But then Steve Jobs came along and reinvented how we not only listened to music, but how we acquired it, too. It was like the doors of a record shop had been thrown open, and I could go in and help myself to just what I wanted. And that's how the first $500.00 or so I spent on mp3s got spent. I was able to get reacquainted with songs I hadn't really paid much attention to since high school. I was able to reminisce and get nostalgic in ways I never expected I'd be able to. How cool is that? As a hardcore music fan I'm still reeling in the delight and wonder of it all. And I'm sure you know the feeling of reconnecting with the past yourself. While my passion for "The Colorado Song" by The Ozark Mountain Daredevils or "I Am the Mercury" by Jimmie Spheeris or "Road Song" by Wes Montgomery or "Montana Song" by David Ackles or "I Love the Lord, He Heard My Cry" by Donny Hathaway remains intensely subjective and impossible to share specifically (I expect the bulk of these titles will leave you scratching your head), the sensation of reconnecting with a lost era and the part of yourself that inhabited it is so exquisite.
It's with that feeling in mind that I so vigilantly scour the web for the shoe styles that will likewise make a certain time and place come rushing back to me. Unfortunately, there's no iTunes for clogs. But while I sift through the footwear that shows up on the web each week, I live in hope that someday I'll be reunited with some long abandoned style from the past that now lives in my memory as totem of perfection.
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Kenneth Cole clogs, size 8, available through Etsy seller REBOOTVINTAGE
Unknown maker clogs, possibly size 8, available through Etsy seller GirlLeastLikely
Chilis clogs, size 10, available through Etsy seller persnicketyvintage
Bongo clogs, size 8, available through Etsy seller theVintageSideShow
Tommy Hilfiger clogs, size 8, available through Etsy seller oklaragbottomtraders
Sven clogs, size 35, available through Etsy seller wolferina
Lace clogs, size 7, available through Etsy seller soulofmysuitvintage
Zodiac glitter clogs, size 9, available through Etsy seller jamesrowlandshop
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[On my feet as I blog: OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! You have to ask? OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!]
You excite me!!! Great photo!
Posted by: cydb | 11/12/2011 at 12:37 AM
Lindsey, what an astonishing post; I too am a music lover and marvel at the advances in recording and listening technologies we have lived through.From my small pink Bakelite transistor radio and the 8-tracks in my boyfriend's Ford Fairlane to the houseful of CDs and the 60,000 songs on five external hard drives, I can safely say I have loved music more than shoes. Praise the DOC that I am lucky enough to have the space and the paycheck to not have to choose!
I'll add my own obscure favorites: Step It Up and Go from Blind Boy Fuller; Rhythm Saved the World from Louis Armstrong; Fields of Gold as sung by Eva Cassidy; Blue Tarp Blues from Sonny Landreth; Midnight In a Perfect World from DJ Shadow.
Posted by: Melissa Krebs | 11/12/2011 at 01:20 PM
What a great post! I'm a big music fan, have been all my life. My tastes are very eclectic -- classical, opera, Swing Era, 50s Rockabilly, Doo-Wop, classic rock, R&B, Motown.
I grew up listening to DJ legend Cousin Brucie on NY's 770 WABC-AM, and then when he moved to rival 660 WNBC-AM. The kids today have no idea of what Top 40 AM radio was like back then. No car had an FM radio in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Heck, it wasn't until the mid-60s that portable transistor radios became popular. And who can forget those 8-track tape cassettes?
My Dad was a serious audiophile. He had these precision turntables, Fisher tuners and amplifiers, all with vacuum tubes, we would look in the back to see the tubes glowing brighter as they had to warm up. In the car, he had a record player that took 45 records. I still have stacks of 45 singles from the 60s and 70s, all scratched to hell.
Clogs aside, this brought back great memories.
Posted by: kathy ann | 11/12/2011 at 04:52 PM
PS: Love any pictures of real feet in clogs. My "signature" has been black opaque tights or pantyhose. On account of my heavy ink, they cover up everything nice.
Posted by: kathy ann | 11/13/2011 at 12:26 AM
Thank you so much! My dad was an electronics engineer so we had the Heathkit audio components all over the house. I remember the record player in his den that was powered by vacuum tubes. And back then, they were novel enough that they'd exposed so you could see 'em. What a rush to be able to buy on iTunes one of the tracks he used to play all the time: Marty Robbins' gunslinger tale, "Big Iron".
Posted by: Lindsey Cochran | 11/13/2011 at 01:28 AM
I LOVE solid black on legs. Sorry you can't always show your ink!
Posted by: Lindsey Cochran | 11/13/2011 at 01:28 AM
OMG, I remember Heathkit! A brother built a CB radio with Heathkit.
Professionally, in the medical field, visible ink is frowned upon and I do understand how it grosses certain people out. The last thing you want to do is upset some patient terrified out of her mind of her own condition.
A lot of people with tattoos are very "militant" and "in your face." I enjoy the shock value -- though that has diminished as so many people are tattooed -- but there is time and place. The boardwalk at the Jersey shore is one place, but working on a med-surg unit in a large community hospital is not.
A great inconvenience for me is that in the summer months I have to wear tights or opaque pantyhose, long sleeves, high necklines and can't tie my hair up, because if I do, all the ink on the back and sides of my neck is visible.
Honestly, I would never recommend anyone get as heavily tattooed as me, not if you have a "normal" day job. I would never do it again, not unless I was looking for a career in the circus. My fashion choices at work are severely limited and it means not being able to dress comfortably in the warm weather like everyone else at work.
Hint to the wise and anyone reading this: If you like tattoos, do it in places that are easily concealable. Don't do it all over the calves of your legs, feet, wrists, hands, fingers, neck, etc.
Posted by: kathy ann | 11/13/2011 at 06:02 PM
Wow! My daughter was an intern with a jewelry maker in Chicago, and when she worked the booth at a local street fair, I got to see the owner's "sleeves". They were oh, so sexy, with her sleeveless top. But she clearly would only be able to cover them with long sleeves, and in the summertime here, that's not always a pleasant option. My heart goes out to you.
I have to say you've got me curious now. I hope you'll show off a tat or two when you send a future clog photo!
Posted by: Lindsey Cochran | 11/13/2011 at 06:22 PM
Maybe in the future. I'm pretty private on the Net. I my post a few pics of my tatts, the bird on my shoulder and the rose on my leg.
There is very little of me that is not inked, just my arms from the elbows to the wrists.
When I was married to my first husband, there was a 6-year stretch that I did not work in the nursing field and worked as a "piercer" in a tattoo shop. Fort these 6 years, my head was shaved totally bald as my hubby then encouraged me to get my scalp tattooed, from the base of my neck all the way onto the top of my head.
There was a competition in our social circle on whom was the most heavily tattooed female. I clearly won out and hubby was on cloud 9 that he was hitched to the most heavily inked "old lsdy" in our circle. Hubby's goal was that I be tattooed with the most ink possible. I was heavily pierced then when I did not have to worry about my employer. I was, in short, a sideshow freak but loved every minute of it.
Once I went back to work in the nursing profession, I had to take all the piercings out and cover up the ink.
Second hubby, who has asked me to some day shave my hair and put all the piercings back in. He wants to see everything. I can only do that after my nursing career is over. Once I shave my head, I'm not so cerain my beautiful long hair will grow back.
Posted by: kathy ann | 11/13/2011 at 11:08 PM
Wow! From tattoo parlor to nursing! At first glance that's quite a career leap. But I guess they're both about working safely and attentively with the body. I'm just fascinated because I admired the courage of the tattoo and piercing crowd when I was running around in alternative circles, but I never got to know any of them very well. I have great admiration for those who dedicate themselves to a vision for their lives.
Posted by: Lindsey Cochran | 11/13/2011 at 11:15 PM
Actually, I was an RN first, then got involved with the biker and tattoo crowd through my first husband, a motorcycle cop. I went back into nursing shortly before we were divorced, quite awhile ago. Fortunately, second hubby finds the tatts sexy, many boyfriends were turned off or intimidated.
Posted by: kathy ann | 11/15/2011 at 12:21 AM
It takes a secure and self-aware person not to be intimidated by someone like yourself who has chosen to express her individuality so dynamically! Kudos to your husband! You sound like a couple I would love to meet someday!
Posted by: Lindsey Cochran | 11/15/2011 at 01:40 AM