childhood experiences of shoelaces

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when I was younger I simply couldn't tie my shoelaces.

I'm 24 now and have been able to do this for a long time.

when I was younger though I had no idea.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 17:04 (seventeen years ago) link

And Brian next door had to wear velcro shoes!!!

we called that 'doing a Brian'!!

― 526 (526), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 17:05 (seventeen years ago) link

i was a child when i learned how to tie mine

― and what (ooo), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 17:07 (seventeen years ago) link

My dad taught me the "make one big loop and one small loop, go over and pull" method when I was about seven.

― Stuck in ILX Limbo (Roz), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 17:11 (seventeen years ago) link

you didn't have to tie the velcro ones did you? you'd attach the strap to the velcro.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 17:11 (seventeen years ago) link

i've always wondered how velcro works. i guess it's just one of those mysteries that nobody knows

― and what (ooo), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 17:12 (seventeen years ago) link

it's amazing how we all learn in the end.

although i still can't do a bow tie. sometimes i fear i never will ;__;

― unfished business (Scourage), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 17:12 (seventeen years ago) link

how does the song go?

over and under and in and out
that is what tying shoelaces is all about

i think that's how it goes but not sure?

― resumo impetus (blueski), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 17:36 (seventeen years ago) link

doesn't scan to good

― DavidM (DavidM), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 17:38 (seventeen years ago) link

too well

― Frogm@n henry (Frogm@n henry), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 17:57 (seventeen years ago) link

I've never learned to tie my shoelaces whilst standing up. I always have to sit down. For some reason some people find this funny.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 18:00 (seventeen years ago) link

My shoelaces are always coming undone.

― Maria :D (Maria :D), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 18:01 (seventeen years ago) link

monkstraps to thread

― a bulldog fed a cookie shaped like a kitten (austin), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 18:01 (seventeen years ago) link

I taught my sister's godmother's son to tie his laces because he wasn't getting it with the conventional way. I showed him the make-two-loops-tie-them-in-a-knot method and hey presto!

― Madchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 18:02 (seventeen years ago) link

What you need to do is to tie a double knot on each shoe, then they won't come undone.

― DavidM (DavidM), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 18:03 (seventeen years ago) link

I am learning this knot because my new shoes have long laces that keep on coming undone.

― ledge (ledge), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 18:05 (seventeen years ago) link

TRUE STORY:

Once I was playing in the rain and my feet sank in the mud and I couldn't move and I cried and cried and my dad came and pulled me out of my boots by cutting the laces with scissors and carried me home - thanks daddy! - and I never saw those boots again.

― nklshs (nklshs), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:00 (seventeen years ago) link

That happened when I was a kid, btw.

― nklshs (nklshs), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:00 (seventeen years ago) link

I can remember being at school and being incapable of zipping up my anorak.

― Teh HoBBx (HoBB), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:04 (seventeen years ago) link

Your dad could have gotten your boots out of the mud with his superior strength, but he chose not to because the next time that they trapped you in the mud he might not have been around to help! He saved you from the boots of death!

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:11 (seventeen years ago) link

I remember standing at the top of the stairs. It is very dark here, not night-black, but dim, with dark wood walls looming over a brackish green marble floor. To my left, an elevator with a black, wrought-iron grate for a door. It shakes and groans miserably when they make me ride it, but the large, black Bakelite buttons with deeply incised gold numbers are so wonderful that I almost don't mind. Almost.

I face the door of my parents' apartment, which hangs open a bit, admitting a faint, dusty afternoon light. Through it I can see the large potted plants, the Turkish rugs, the thousand shades of brass and brown that I call home. I believe I have been placed here to demonstrate for my father, just home from work, that I can tie my own shoes.

Looking down, I see that I am wearing gray woolen shorts that fall just below my knees, white socks, and a very shiny pair of black dress shoes. This is just as it should be. I have within me a small sense of accomplishment that is all but drowned out in confused anxiety. Can I tie my shoes? I can tie my shoes. But can I tie my shoes?

― as in 'powdered feet' (pye poudre), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:20 (seventeen years ago) link

The day after I first successfully tied my shoes, instead of having my stepmother do it, I was making my way to the school bus very early in the morning, quite proud that I'd tied them again. I had to walk down a very early morning path bordered by the ominously drooping boughs of fir trees, an hazy, eery mist coming off the South Fork of the Merced River whose spring rumbling drowned out most other sounds, before crossing a dark, Vermont style covered bridge. My pride turned to panic as I looked down to see one of my shoes untied. Kneeling awkwardly to tie it, a towheaded little kid who would have made an excellent snack for a coyote or a mountain lion, I feared, I managed to retie it and pull the knot tight before setting off again, convinced that my only salvation against the vague but sinister threats of the early morning was to keep moving. Once the shoe was retied, however, I felt relatively certain that I would survive.

― Michael White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:37 (seventeen years ago) link

One of my shoelaces came undone while I was walking to work this morning.

― It's Expected I'm Maud Gonne (Modal Fugue), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:41 (seventeen years ago) link

they dont make la lights in my size anymore sometimes when I wear them my feet really hurt but they shine
look how they shine for you
and all the things you do

― Juan Carlos (CuriousG), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 22:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Spongebob Learns to Tie His Shoes (song ["Loop de Loop"] by Ween)

― nklshs (nklshs), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 02:33 (seventeen years ago) link

i distinctly remember being fed up that several of my friends (in nursery school? pre-kindergarten?) could tie their shoes but i could not, so though intimidated, i resolved to learn. i remember asking my mother to teach me, and told her that this would be the first in a series of eight shoe-tieing lessons. i have no idea how i settled on eight, but it seemed like serious business, so devoted practice seemed necessary.

when i picked it up after five minutes of her showing me how to do it i felt a certain pride of accomplishment quickly overwhelmed by a wtf why did i wait so long realization.

― trainwrecked (sanskrit), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 02:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Mike, that kind of earnestness is so winning. It's like my brother who, on his 7th birthday, brought my mother the baby blanket that he slept with and said she should keep it, because he was too big now and wouldn't be needing it anymore.

I still have my fuzzy blankets; two, just alike.

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 02:56 (seventeen years ago) link

I only know the "make two loops and tie them in a knot" method. ;-(

― StanM (StanM), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 05:50 (seventeen years ago) link

When they came out with those elastic things you could fit into your shoes to make every sneaker a slipon I was like noyce but they turned out to not be socially acceptable at my elementary school so I was not liberated from having to deal with the rabbit through the hutch method that always gave me trouble and made me look stupid. I know a couple of people who still do the baby bunnyear tying as well

― A B C (sparklecock), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 06:13 (seventeen years ago) link

I only know the "make two loops and tie them in a knot" method. ;-(

I didn't even know there was some other method! What's wrong with this one?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 07:40 (seventeen years ago) link

It's the little kid-method, apparently.

― StanM (StanM), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 08:12 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/

Us kids, Belgians and Fins do the two loop ("Bunny Ears") knot, but adults and everyone else use the standard ("Around the tree") knot.

― StanM (StanM), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 08:22 (seventeen years ago) link

*** Granny Knot Warning! ***

Kids find it easier to learn this "Two Loop Shoelace Knot" because it's really the same as tying the Starting Knot except that the ends are formed into loops. However, if the loops are tied into a bow in exactly the same way as the loose ends were tied into a starting knot, the result will be an un-balanced "Granny Knot", which comes undone more easily.

In other words, if you tie your starting knot by wrapping the left end over the right end and through, then tie this finishing bow by also wrapping the left loop over the right loop and through, you'll invariably find that your shoelaces keep coming undone. Please see my Slipping Shoelace Knots page that discusses this in detail. ( http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/twoloopknot.htm )

― StanM (StanM), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 08:24 (seventeen years ago) link

I see no discernible difference in the end results in those two instructions.

(x-post)

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 08:25 (seventeen years ago) link

No, that's right, the results of the Standard knot, the Two Loop knot and "Ian's Secure Knot" are the same (it says so next to the picture of the result).

― StanM (StanM), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 08:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Right. Hands up who's untying his/her shoes right now to try out some of those fancy knots from Ian's Shoelace Site?

http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/IanKnot16.gif

― StanM (StanM), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 08:28 (seventeen years ago) link

No, that's right, the results of the Standard knot, the Two Loop knot and "Ian's Secure Knot" are the same (it says so next to the picture of the result).

So what's the point then?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 08:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Good question. I don't know!

― StanM (StanM), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 09:04 (seventeen years ago) link

Image isn't everything! Speed of tying, security of knot...

― ledge (ledge), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 09:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Frankly, I don't it's that important to save 3 extra seconds in tying the knot. And if the two knots end up exactly alike, how can the other be more secure?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 09:39 (seventeen years ago) link

They are only superficially exactly alike.

― ledge (ledge), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 09:42 (seventeen years ago) link

What does that mean?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 09:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh alright then THEY ARE NOT EXACTLY ALIKE AT ALL! The end results look pretty similar is all.

― ledge (ledge), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 09:46 (seventeen years ago) link

One day Tuomas will go out into the world, and will be full of wonder at all the things around

― 526 (526), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 09:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Though i heard a rumour that he already went out into the world, sometime last year, and left a cleverly constructed bot in his place

― 526 (526), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 09:47 (seventeen years ago) link

"cleverly"

― It's Expected I'm Maud Gonne (Modal Fugue), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 09:49 (seventeen years ago) link

What you need to do is to tie a double knot on each shoe, then they won't come undone.

YEah, right, my shoelaces (of my crap Paraboot shoes) always come undone. Even when I double knit'em.

― nathalie (stevienixed), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 09:50 (seventeen years ago) link

B-b-but the website says they're "identical". It even has the same pic illustrating both.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 09:51 (seventeen years ago) link

(xx-post)

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 09:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Are you talking about the real Tuomas and the bot?

― nathalie (stevienixed), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 09:52 (seventeen years ago) link

I wouldn't be talking about bots if I were you, Mr. "526".

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 09:52 (seventeen years ago) link

No, the knots.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 09:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Alright Ian's knot is the same as the standard knot, with a different tying technique which is quicker. Ian's secure knot is a different knot which is more secure but looks pretty much the same.

Can I stop posting about shoelace knots now ;_;

― ledge (ledge), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 09:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Anyway, enough bickering! Let's focus on the childhood shoelace reminiscences!

I was one of the last children in my class to master them. We were given a badge when we were able to tie a bow. Curiously, the badge had a picture of a buckle on it.

― It's Expected I'm Maud Gonne (Modal Fugue), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 09:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Whatever happened to those shoes where you could pump the laces to make them tight? Do they still make them?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 09:58 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.msd.k12.mo.us/vocational/autobody/car%20show%202005/car%20show-ford%20robot%202.jpg

― It's Expected I'm Maud Gonne (Modal Fugue), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 10:02 (seventeen years ago) link

they look the same tuomas, but are not the same.

― temporary enrique (temporary enrique), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 12:29 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost as Shakira sings: hips don't lie.
Actually hold on where are the hips?

I don't remember when/where/from whom I learned tying my laces. *shrug* I was probably late as with most things.

― nathalie (stevienixed), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 12:54 (seventeen years ago) link

When I was little, I got sent to saturday classes for kids who can't do stuff good, since I couldn't read analogue clocks, and they taught me to tie my laces the double-loop way. Thing was, I already knew how to tie my laces normally - I suppose they just thought, here is a feckless child who can't even tell left from right, if she's managing to tie her laces it's probably just a fluke. And now every time I think about the mechanism of tying my laces i can't do it the proper way.

― cis boom bah (cis), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 13:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Shit, it took me a looong time to read the clock as well. Now I realize that, well, Iwasn't slow, it was just my mom who, as a kid (and probably adult), was so early with everything. It's crap having a highly intelligent mom.

― nathalie (stevienixed), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 13:15 (seventeen years ago) link

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