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An Excerpt from A Gathering of Gifts by Paula Lawrence Wehmiller Church Publishing Inc., 2002
"I got shoes, you got shoes...
It is 1951, and summer has come to a steady, hot, quiet hum late in August. A
healthy amount of boredom in the air begins to let the summer end, making way
for anticipation of my first day of kindergarten, the beginning of school. My brand
new first-day-of school dress hangs on the mirror over my bureau. Red plaid, I
think, with a white collar. New cotton undies and slip and soft white ankle socks
are folded on the bureau. And in an open shoe box, with white tissue paper
unfolded enough to see them, are my new red school shoes. My mother had told
the salesman "something sturdy in a school shoe." I had been picturing bright red
patent leather party shoes and was crestfallen when "sturdy" signaled the salesman
to bring out brown with a tie. Mom and I must have persevered each with our own
image of what my first school shoes would be, because I ended up with oxblood
red leather with a double strap and double buckles - pretty but sturdy - "handsome"
was my father's peacemaking word for the compromise shoes. Every end of August
night before going to bed, I would carefully lift the shoes out of the crisp paper,
smell the fresh, new leather, put them on the floor next to my feet and think, "I am
going to school. I'm going to step up the big high steps onto scary Mr. Gurky's
scary big school bus where I've heard the big kids chant, "kindergarten baby stick
your head in gravy" when the little kids get on. I'm going to real school in a strange
new place. Will anybody know who I am?
All God's children got shoes. When I get to heaven, gonna put on my shoes, Gonna dance all over God's heaven...heaven...heaven Everybody talkin 'bout heaven aint goin' there! Heaven, heaven, gonna dance all over God's heaven." - Negro Spiritual
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