Last week I posted a picture of my 93 year old Grandma Livesay with her walking stick, wearing her rag shoes. Just about any time you see Granny she’ll be wearing these familiar shoes, unless you see her at church. She’s worn them my whole life. In fact, we all wore rag shoes. Now my little girl has a pair.

This classic oxford shoe is very old – dating back to Prince Albert in the mid-19th century. It’s not surprising to learn that fabric shoes were not subject to rationing in the 1940’s – although saddle oxfords were produced in canvas back in the 1920’s. That had to have helped increase their popularity.

I wonder if we started calling them “Rag Shoes” because they got ragged a lot faster than the leather variety? In fact, I wonder if any of you call them “Rag Shoes” – or did this peculiar term originate with my grandma?

There’s a modern style of rag shoe – but it seems to come ragged from the store, and isn’t of the oxford style. My grandma’s generation created their own rags – wearing something as long as possible, patching when necessary and wearing it a little bit longer. Things have changed, but canvas oxfords are still popular, and we’ll still call them rag shoes – especially when this child will turn them into rags in no time at all.