flights of fancy

[wickedflea]

I can remember being probably seven or eight, sitting at my dad's desk chair in his study, leaning back so my head hung off the back of the seat, and looking around at the room so everything was upside-down. I always thought that it would be so goddamn cool if you could walk around on the ceiling. I tried to imagine some sort of track deal with shoes that would hook into it--maybe on wheels so you could roll around in style.

Many times over the years since then, I've tried to figure out exactly what I found so appealing about the notion of walking on the ceiling. Maybe it had something to do with my Spider-Man fascination.

Another memory on the gravity-defying tip: I remember a television commercial for some kind of sneakers that showed a kid putting on the shoes and being able to jump really high. Naturally I figured that if I got the shoes, I would be able to jump if not tall buildings, then at least sizable hedges with a single bound. When I told my mom that I had to have a pair, she patiently explained that the shoes wouldn't make me jump any higher. "Foolish woman," I thought. "She doesn't know what the fuck she's talking about. They showed it right there on TV!" But sure enough, when I finally did get a pair, I still couldn't jump worth a damn. My mom was wise, yo.

I can't remember what kind of sneakers they were, though. I'm thinking they were Zips, but I'm not sure. Does anyone remember those? I just looked around on the Web for Zips sneakers, and the little info I found seemed to date them from the early '80s. But I'm thinking it was late '70s, like maybe '77 or '78. I'm pretty sure it was when the whole family still lived on Maple Drive, and that was only til about that time. Maybe it was Kid Power sneakers--I know those were around back then, but I can hardly imagine the eminently respectable Kid Power engaging in such misleading advertising.

Do you have dreams where you can fly? I guess most people do from time to time. I don't often dream that I can soar through the air like Superman, but I dream all the time that I can sort of lift myself off the floor and float around several feet off the ground. I just sort of scrunch my shoulders up and hunch my back, and pretty soon I'm near the ceiling. And I'm aware that not everyone can do it, so I do it just show off and generally annoy the shit out of people. But it's a little hard to control where I'm going, so it's not the most practical thing in the world.

Oh, I almost forgot what brought all this on. Check this out--I might be walking on the ceiling before long! Man, I could have some serious fun with that stuff in the room I work in. I could bum rush people from great heights and all directions.

Comments

"Your mama shops at Kmart!"

[motherevol.livejournal.com]

Do you remember Traxx sneakers from Kmart?

Man, if you got caught wearing a pair at my school when you were little, you'd get ridiculed and your name slandered for the next five years.

Boy, what I wouldn't do for a pair of those cheap, plastic sneakers now.

Re: "Your mama shops at Kmart!"

[wickedflea.livejournal.com]

Haha, yeah, I remember those! We only had a Wal-Mart in my town, though, so Pro-Wings were more common there. And even worse than school was the baseball field. It was all about what kind of cleats you had. Pony and Adidas were the big brands then, and dog help you if you had some Pro-Wings. And that was before the big sneaker boom that Air Jordans brought on! No telling what happens to kids with cheap shoes these days!