The Shoe that Went Fast – In My Mind

There we are running from the back of the house up the hill in our backyard; when we reach the top we look down; not at the bottom of the hill but at our shoes, our PF Flyers. Did we or didn’t we? Did we go faster or not?

How old was I? Six? Seven? Eight? However old I was my brother Bill was two years younger, I know that much. I guess he’s always been two-years younger and I guess he’ll always be two-years younger…unless one of two things happen which we won’t dwell on right now.

Did we or didn’t we? The advertisements said we’d go faster. Well, after all, we were running up hill. Let’s run down hill and see how they work. Down we went.

Same question – did we run faster than before running in PF Flyers? Suppose we didn’t? Then we’d been had; then we’d talked our parents into getting us something that didn’t work as advertised – should we tell them? Should we share our doubts with them? Should we even talk about it to each other? Maybe Bill ran faster and I didn’t? Maybe I didn’t know how to properly use them?

Vickie got a solicitation last week that looked like it came from the US Government, it’s the kind of thing you get when you get to be a certain age. If you’re young, or old, or poor, or are in financial straits the advertising people think it’s like shooting ducks whose feet have been frozen in a pond – the young and the old and the poor and those struggling financially don’t have a chance…unless they read the small print…but of course a lot of those folk can’t read the small print…like I said…ducks whose feet are frozen – bang! Bang! Bang!

This isn’t to say that the general adult population isn’t taken for a ride every time they watch an automobile commercial; it isn’t to say that general population doesn’t swallow every weight loss gimmick and wonder food and pill on the market – the difference is that you’ve got to spend a bit more on production costs with the general population – appeal to the ego, make it sexy, make ‘em want to be like the rich and the beautiful.

As I write this I have images of Wonder Bread from my childhood, the slogan went something like helps build strong bodies twelve ways; I’m not going to dignify the slogan by looking it up to check and see what it actually was. The point is that decades later the darn slogan is in my head – I guess they got a good return on investment, though I haven’t purchased Wonder Bread for years.