Nu shooz

Thanks to me and the wife’s large tax return, I can afford some new shoes. Which is good, because I have two pairs that I wear: a pair of Goodwill-found Steve Maddens for work, and a pair of slightly irregular, half-price wingtip Dr. Martens. The Docs are starting to split at the sole, and since I got them as “irregulars”, they’ve got the “non-returnable” stamp.

Granted, I got the things eight years ago, and they only cost me 70 bucks. I’ve gotten more than my money’s worth out of them. Still, it hurts to take $100 and put it towards a pair of shoes. Even if they are Docs and the exact same thing I have right now.

I’m a big fan of Dr. Martens. Once upon a time, I was working on a Dr. Seuss knockoff / parody entitled “Socks With Docs.” It was all about a big burly skin harassing someone for wearing socks with their Docs. The only lines I can remember are these:

“I must wear socks with Docs, skin.
These are not shoes you put bare feet in.”

Thank you. I was listening to a lot of Dropkick Murphys and Business at the time, and was all sorts of “working class pride”, “blue collar”, “oi oi oi”, “up the punx” in my mindset. I think it’s for the best that the parody never worked out.

Still, I do think Dr. Martens make some nice shoes. they might not be as popular as they once were, but the damn things are comfortable, wel-priced, and longer lasting than anything I’ve ever purchased. Consider this an unpaid shill… and, hey, it’s not like thousands of skinheads ould buy shitty shoes just ’cause of fashion, would they?

the Bruisers – “These Two Boots of Mine
Slaughter & the Dogs – “Where Have All the Bootboys Gone?

Mohican Tunes has a great page of punk / streetpunk / oi mp3s for those of you interested in a quick and dirty bootboy music sampler. Interestingly, they have a couple Anti-Flag tunes, which is a band that most of the skins I’ve known HATED.