Tenny Runners (tennis shoes) (1965)

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:01 PM -0400 9/22/06, Wilson Gray wrote:
>US Keds were the gym shoe (I'd forgotten that that term was also used
>in St. Louis, but only among working-class kids; the middle class wint
>with tinnis shoes) of choice among black St. Louisans in my day, too.
>But we who wore B. F. Goodrich / Hood Posture-Foundation Flyers did so
>only because our parents wouldn't spring for the more-expensive Keds
>and not because we wanted to.

Am I right in remembering (if somewhat vaguely) that "Keds" was used
as a quasi-generic in those years (the 50's, I guess we're talking
about) for sneakers, extending to other brands on occasion, a la
"xerox", "Coke"?  Clearly that would have ceased when the competitors
caught up and eventually took over, but for a while I seem to recall
they were all Keds.

LH

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