I suppose it all started with saddle oxfords. In the early 1950’s, these black and white shoes took America by storm. Coinciding with dancing and the Jitterbug, saddle oxfords drew attention to fast moving feet. They were supremely popular with Boomers guys and gals. Then came suede shoes, immortalized by Elvis Presley’s version of Blue Suede Shoes released in 1956. With suede shoes in vogue, somebody came up with the idea of white suede, or white buck shoes. When Pat Boone began wearing them on American Bandstand while crooning April Love, it was all over but the shouting. White buck shoes were soon in every closet of every young male Boomer in the country. A few of the girls wore them as well.
White buck shoes were terrific, until you actually wore them. Then, unless you walked on air, they picked up every scuffmark possible. Pristine, white buck shoes were one thing, but dirty, scuffed up shoes that were supposed to be white were something else.
I believe I got my first pair of white bucks for Easter in 1955. It snowed that Easter and I looked rather silly in white shoes with a blue seersucker suit, but I tried to no avail to avoid stepping in the melted snow puddles. By that afternoon, my white shoes were more brown than white.
Mother had warned me of the perils of white shoes when I begged for a pair and she now became the enforcer to keep them clean. In front of the TV on Saturday night watching Walt Disney, I sat down with a pencil, a rag, some vinegar and a white, liquid shoe polish.
The pencil eraser eliminated many, but not all of the scuffs. Out came the vinegar and rag, and with a little scrubbing, most of the dirt disappeared. Finally, the white shoe polish was applied, and when dried, it was buffed out to keep the nap in tact. Then, the next time the shoes were worn, the cleaning process was repeated.
Naturally, the white buck fad passed quickly – too labor intensive. Many switched to a newer style, dirty buck (tan suede) shoes, and that helped, but they also scuffed easily.
Fortunately, a shoe called the Bass Weejun was on the way, a comfy loafer that was much easier to keep clean. By 1962, it became a world of Weejuns and the clean-cut, All American white buck shoes were a thing of the past.