For years I’ve been looking for these, and the closest I could come is this video. Actually, the “Diet Helper” shoes demonstrated by this pair of sages very closely resemble what I have in mind.
My friends across the street always seemed to be the first to get really weird toys that defied our efforts to play with them. Stilts, for instance. But weirdest of all were these shoes with great big springs under them, that were supposed to help you bound around the playground like a kangaroo.
They looked like they should work exactly as expected, but no! We tried and tried, but all that ever happened was, we fell down. Maybe we weren’t heavy enough for the springs. Otherwise, the shoes sort of fit. You just couldn’t go anywhere in them, except down.
Sixty years later, I would love to give them another try. True, the pogo stick was my true art form. You shoulda seen me pogo-stick up and down the bleachers on the football field, up and down the cellar stairs. If my mother could have ever seen that, she would have taken forceful action, if she didn’t keel over in a faint first.
But spring shoes? Oh, to locomote like a human super-ball! Fond dreams of youth…
wow. I would never try something like that. I have never been that agile or graceful, or whatever. Klutz. My husband called me the ballerina because of my klutziness. haha
Don’t mind me–I’m just trying to make my second childhood as much fun as my first.
If you do find a pair of these “spring” shoes (I thought from the title of this post that you meant shoes for Easter!), will you post videos of yourself as you bounce around in them? About four years ago, I laced up in a pair of roller skates all set to make like the Kansas City Bomber. I was shocked at myself; I could barely keep my feet still and in one place while on the carpet surrounding the rink. “What am I doing?” I thought to myself. I got out on the rink and stumbled around holding on to the wall. After about a half hour of this nonsense, I gave my glasses to my son-in-law to hold, straightened up, and started looking forward refusing to look at my feet. Skating came back to me. I was still shakey but I got back my skater self back just by looking up and looking forward.
In that last sentence please ignore the second “back.”
Good for you, Marge. I absolutely lived for the roller rink as a girl. I have sometimes wondered if I could still do it. I think it would still be fun.
Strangely enough, although I could skate up and down the street just fine, I only tried the roller rink once and couldn’t keep my fanny off the floor for more than 5 seconds at a stretch. Beats me why: the doctor says I have excellent balance, and it had to be better than it is now, 40 years ago.