HOW IT WENT
     First, you wore Beta Bullets from Buster Brown.  Or, for
basketball, high top Pro-Keds.  Then, sometime around fifth grade
or so they invented running shoes. They were blue and the tread
went up in the front and back and you cried and cried until you got
a pair.  You could run faster in these, jump higher, and would mark
on the wall how high you could jump with each new pair of shoes,
ignoring the fact that you were also getting taller too.  That
would only weaken your argument when you tried to explain to your
parents that with these shoes it would be a cinch to get one of
those Presidential Physical Fitness patches; ignoring yet another
pertinent fact--that you could, even on your best day, only do
three pull-ups then, and you needed seven for the patch.
     Everything changed in seventh grade.  The rich kid across the
street had Adidas Roms, and you knew you had to get a pair.  Roms
were the coolest.  Even cooler than the more expensive Superstars. 
And equally cool as those Nike leather Cortez's or maroon Puma
Clydes, which looked great but turned all your socks purple. 
Adidas Roms, Levi's with the red tag, and you were good to go,
until you saw a kid with those green-striped Adidas Countrys, and
another with Stan Smiths.
     As for jeans, Lees were about as good as Levis and way better
than Wranglers, with that ugly zigzag stripe.  
     And it went like that, until the girls started wearing
designer jeans and your whole world changed.