Black Patent Leather Shoes

When we were eight or nine years old, our mother gave us 6/- a week for pocket money. That is six shillings. Two shillings a week had to be deposited in our Commonwealth Bank Accounts. This happened on Fridays at school when we took our bank book and a two-shilling coin (a florin) and got a red 2/- stamp in the book. Our deposit books looked just like this, even though this one is twenty years later!

Each week two of the six shillings were spent at the Pictures on Saturday afternoon. It cost 1/9 (one and ninepence) to go to the cinema which left threepence to spend on lollies at half time. We went to the  Saturday afternoon children's matinee that showed cartoons followed by serials like Hopalong Cassidy and Zorro. Of course, there was no television then, nevermind video or DVD. Mum would drop us off at the cinema on her way to play golf, and afterwards we would walk home.

So, although we got 6/- each week, we only had 2/- for ourselves because the rest was either saved or spent keeping us out of trouble on Saturday afternoons. Still, we felt very privileged because none of our friends got pocketmoney at all, or they just got a shilling or two.

We saved most of our weekly two shillings in our lovely Commonwealth Bank money boxes.

I used to think there really was a grand bank building like that somewhere in a big Australian city. The box was fully sealed but Sue and I learned to get the money out by sliding a table knife into the slot and jiggling the box.

I was a good saver because I didn't really see things that I wanted to spend money on. Someone suggested that we might be saving up for treats at the Kingaroy Annual Show. There would be sweet treats and fairground rides. That sounded good, so before Show Day, we used a knife and got all the money out of our moneyboxes. I had a bit over £2 (two pounds) or 40 shillings. At the Show, I didn't see anything I wanted to buy. It seemed like a lot of effort to save the money and I didn't see anything that was worth all that effort. The only thing I did was to treat the family to soft-serve icecreams. I can still see the tall swirl of soft icecream!

In my heart of hearts, I was dreaming about a pair of black patent shoes. They seemed so glamorous! I don't know where I got the idea because I don't think I knew anyone with shoes like this. Maybe I saw them in the shoe shop window or read about them in children's stories. I pictured something like this. Oh my!

After the Kingaroy Show, I discovered that I had almost enough money to buy a pair of black patent leather shoes. Even the words sound lovely... black patent leather shoes. Of course, I talked with Mum about my plan.

She pointed out that the shoes would only fit me for a few months because I was growing. And she asked me to think about where I would wear them. It's true that I didn't have anywhere to wear them, except to church on Sundays. I knew I could just enjoy the smell of new leather and run my finger along the smooth glossy surface. I could wear them around the house after school.

However, I came around to agreeing with her that this wasn't really worth the money.

She pointed out that soon I would need a new pair of school shoes. So when the time came, we went to the shoe shop and I picked out a pair of school shoes with fancy cross-over laces. I paid for them with the pocket money I had saved for a year.

I wore those shoes with special pride and continued to put coins in my Commonwealth Bank money box. I didn't know what I was saving for, but I knew that next year I would let my mother buy my school shoes.