Stockings had only just changed over to the wearing of pantyhose and high heels were what women wore to show off their legs more advantageously. Now getting the right size stocking pantyhose back then was not an exact science like it is today because the manufacturers were still coming to grips with how many sizes were actually needed to cover the majority of the women in the world.
They learnt very quickly that three sizes, that is small, medium and large, among women simply didn't exist. I think they solved a few of these problems when they came up with spandex instead of nylon because spandex like its name implies, expands.
So with wearing a short skirt and a pair of not-well-fitting stockings balanced precariously on a pair of overly high heels was a recipe for a disaster looking for a place to happen for many of us.
I found my 'place to happen' on a Sydney Harbour Ferry between Neutral Bay and Circular Quay. It was morning rush hour and everyone wanted to get off the ferry and up to the train station quickly.
It was also a wet morning and the deck stairs were slippery. Down I went and landed on my knees amid a shoving crowd. It hurt but I wouldn't show the handsome young Policeman just how much because I was so embarrassed. Besides, I may have lost one of my false eyelashes if I had cried.
I had split my stockings right across both knees and the nylon hung like dead skin down my legs. I had lost the heel off one of those stupidly high heels, split the crutch of my stockings and tried desperately to get away from that pushing Ferry crowd with some dignity intact.
One shoe was 5inches higher than the other and I was hobbled by stockings that were trying to escape my legs and a short skirt rucked up around my backside trying to help them off.
Needless to say, I simply moved onto the closest Ferry seat and returned home to Neutral Bay to ring the office and tell them I wasn't coming to work that day because I had had an accident. Thank goodness for an understanding boss but I think he actually liked us girls to wear our short skirts, stockings and ridiculously high heels around his office anyway.
