Docs with roses...

Dr Marten’s, the most recent ‘must haves’ of my daughter Holly. Funny how some things remain constant, always a fashion statement, iconic. And these Doc’s are excellent boots, truly magnificent boots, made from leather, cotton-stitch embroidered with swathes of red, ruby, roses, all AirWair soles, with zip-sides and laced fronted high tops, the most perfect boots a teenage girl could wish for and well deserved - her reward for working so hard to paint the cottage back in the summer. Let’s hope she wears them until she’s forty, they cost a fortune.

A constant just like my own Doc Marten shoes that the teenage I wore back in those seventies so long ago, when I was a ribbon. Fashion statement, iconic and practical, I wore my Docs everywhere, year after year, replacing the steel toe and heel protectors that I bought from Woolworths for two bob a time and nailed on using my Dad’s big hammer. Almost a ritual, the hammering of new steelies - I must have replaced them at least a half a dozen times over double the years, protecting the soles and protecting the smooth, supple, leather with an almost daily Cherry Blossom Boot Black and a weekly Tana Dubbin Polish, the most looked after shoes I’ve ever possessed, no need for my Dad to tell me to ‘polish my shoes’, not with my Docs – it was my pleasure and duty.

My Doc Marten shoes, my trusty Docs, at first my badge and later just sensible footwear, I still owned them into my thirties until one day, like so many things, they weren’t there any more and I with no idea where they’d gone. Where had they gone with their thick rubber bottoms and bold stitched edging?

I still miss them, and seeing Holly trying on her new boots made me miss them even more as you may have guessed - perhaps it’s time to buy myself another pair.