Tenny runners...

[Jonathan Lighter]

A "gumshoe" is at least as likely to be a "P.I." as it is to be a "police detective."

  I never actually heard the word applied to shoes. My grandparents, both born in Manhattan in the 1880s, always said "sneakers" (never "sneaks").  I doubt that they said "gym shoes,' but am not certain.

  They may have adopted the word only as adults, but I have no reason to think so. When did sneakers become a familiar article of clothing?

  BTW, the "rubber sole" superstition also applied to wearing rubbers all day, as some kids like me tried to do in class on rainy days

  Still Freudian. "Rubbers." Get it ? Get it ?  Feet, genitalia, too primitive !

  JL



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