wow, … I was suckered. I never looked at the date.
Ha, same here.
When I was born one foot was twisted slightly in towards the other. It didn’t require surgery, but at the point I began to walk my shoe had a strap attached to it that wound around my leg, gradually pulling the foot into it’s proper direction as I grew. I have the vague memory of being put to bed and it coming off, but I’m not sure if it’s a real memory or something I “remember” because I was told about it. Easter of 1958, when I was a little over three years old, there’s a picture of me dressed for church wearing the shoe and strap.
I didn’t see this was a zombie, and that I’d already posted the same story!
It’s still a good thread.
What’s the opposite of being pigeon-toed? I’d say duck-footed, but that implies being flat-footed. If I try really hard, I can walk with my feet pointed straight ahead, but otherwise, my feet open at about a 45 degree angle from where my heels touch. If I stand in ballet position 1 - feet in a straight line, touching at the heels - I can turn my toes further out until my feet are at about a 195 degree angle.
Although it’s been many, many, many years since I’ve worn the corrective shoes, they somehow made a deep impression on me and I feel I’m just getting out of them, finally. Each little story I hear from others, helps me let go of the trauma of being physically restrained at such a tender age.
P.S. Thank you all for posting…
Another pigeon-toed kid here and I had to wear corrective shoes until I was about, maybe six? All I remember is that they were these big clunky things and that they were butt ugly and I hated them.
I don’t know if they did all that much good, since I still walk a wee-pigeon toed, but perhaps it was a lot worse when I was little. I don’t really remember. (I DO remember getting my first pair of slip-on shoes and being so happy)
Wow, this thread is so old I feel like I’m posting as another person now. Glad you found it helpful though!
Scarlett, I was also born with congenital hip dysplasia. The ball and socket joint on my right hip were only partially formed when I was a baby. I had a surgery when I was 3 months old and put in a Spica cast, with a skate bar across both feet. My mother was lucky, the cast had a hole for the diapering. I learned how to get from point A to point B by dragging myself everywhere by my arms…anything that stood still was fair game…wore out the knees and the bottom of the cast, because if I was sitting up, I bounced my way across the floor on my backside. (My mother said she was glad we had tile floor in the kitchen because she could keep track of my whereabouts.)
I learned to walk at 2.5 years old, and had another hip surgery not long after. I remember being in the hospital and some family friends coming to visit me…they brought me flash cards of the alphabet…strange memory…I still walk with a limp to this day because I never had the final surgery to correct. My right ball and socket joint are now half formed, and my right leg is an inch and a half shorter than my left, so I can change my height!!
“Suckered”? That’s an interesting word choice. Do you feel violated or cheated somehow? Or is there a fine you have to pay because you didn’t make a (tired and unnecessary) zombie joke? Will you be socially ostracized? Or is the need for orthopedic correction a phenomenon so long of the past that it has been eliminated by modern medicine–like polio?
We were both born in 1969, and my husband and I both wore corrective shoes (plus braces for me.) Now that we have our own little pigeon-toed daughter, our moms are losing their minds because she isn’t wearing the shoes/braces/etc., and my husband is buying into their hype. (I have older kids. I’ve learned to ignore this particular bee in my mom’s bonnet.) But current medical advice is different from what our parents were told. And unless it’s medically necessary, I’m sure as hell not planning to make my kid wear those damned hurty shoes!
I may have to club a few well-meaning folks to make them listen when I tell them that doctors don’t routinely advise those shoes any more, though! I actually made Tony take the baby for her last checkup, because he kept questioning whether I was telling him the doctor’s exact advice. Yes, dear: 2 pediatricians and both of their nurse practioners say the very same thing. But I try to be patient, recalling how neurotic I was with my first, and how naggy my own mom has been about this issue. (And my oldest will be 21 in a few weeks. You’d think that Ma would have shut up about it by now… and you’d be wrong!)
There was a kid in our school that had this treatment. When we had church service, we could always hear him squeak as he walked. He was elementary school during this happyfuntime for him.
I wasn’t actually responding to carnut’s post, but his word choice didn’t bother me. I assume he was jokingly noting that he read some or all of the thread before realizing it was a zombie, as I did. No big deal.
Mercifully, I didn’t inherit the severe issues my parents (born in the 50s) had! My dad wore braces on his lower legs for years as a young child to correct bow legs and pigeon-toed feet, then he spent 6 years in headgear and braces for his teeth when he was older. My mom was in a gigantic cage of a back brace ages 11 to 18 to correct severe scoliosis.
I had braces on my teeth, and I have one leg shorter than the other that I should really wear a lift for, but I don’t.
Like matt_mcl I have amblyopia but my eye doesn’t drift, so it wasn’t caught until 3rd grade when I failed an eye exam - and I guess they don’t do the eyepatch thing with older kids. My right eye, which has very good vision, does most of the work unless I wear my glasses.
Zombie threads don’t leave me feeling suckered. Amused, yes.
And at least one has in fact died… 
Inserts in my shoes, also was night casted as a kid until fourth grade (89)
I had to wear horrribly uncomfortable shoes for years. According to my mother, flat feet were unacceptable. So, as one who had flat feet, I suffered, wearing those awful orthopedic shoes that were supposed to correct flat feet.
After I walked hundreds of miles in my sneakers (I liked to walk), Mother was willing to concede that maybe flat feet weren’t so bad.
Why were flat feet bad? I never had a problem with them, and I still wonder.
I know this post is very old I just came across it and it brought back memories of me wear those Buster Brown hip cable brace the so called corrective shoes and the Stride Rite white shoes with the bar. A couple years back I found a article that a man or doctor from New Jersey invented these braces but it didn’t work and he just got rich. This was the thing in the 60’s and the 70’s when parents was concerned about children being pigeon toe and knock kneed. If I find the article again I will post it is anybody still around because this is a old post and I had to wipe the Cobb webs off my phone 
I’m here to add my experience in the grand year of 2025 LOL
I’ve come to realize how much trauma stemmed from my experience with those damned shoes with the bar. I talked to my mom last night and she said that her and my dad had me wear those shoes from a year and a half to two years old, so a few months? I somehow remember one of those times, and how actually traumatic it was to not be able to understand what was going on and having my feet uncomfortably pushed outwards. That didn’t fix my pigeon-toedness and just gave me childhood trauma instead. I even remember my dad mentioning during early high school to point my feet out several times. My childhood memories are so spotty and I’m certain that that traumatic experience with those shoes has caused my DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder). I now know better why I had such a follower kind of personality growing up, as I’m pretty sure it was more so dissociation. I didn’t really have my own identity until the last half of high school when I started realizing I’m transgender. I mostly just went by whatever my parents gave me and didn’t think much for myself (besides when my ADHD would affect school and all that I guess?). Which could’ve been a product of my DID, now that I think about it, but I feel most myself being a woman! This is all to say those damned shoes are really horrible and I’m very happy that they don’t seem to exist much anymore (at least, not that I’ve heard).