Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2021SYR08
Purchase Details
11x17-inches, printed on heavy weight (100-pound) Hammermill cover paper. We package each print with a piece of chipboard in a clear plastic sleeve.
You also receive…
An information page with photos of the artist and poet, and hand-written comments from each.
Medium- and large-format posters are available by custom order. Contact us for details.
Poem Inspiration Location
New Back-to-school Shoes
poster information
Description
New back-to-school shoes
Park—Brannock's merry-go-round
Measure up your feet!
My haiku this year was inspired by the new special 20th anniversary category, “Syracuse — past or Future.” It combines nostalgic fond childhood memories with important Syracuse history.
A visit to Park-Brannock shoe store was exciting for my sister and me. We would have our feet measured, select new shoes and THEN climb on our “favorite” horse on the store's merry-go-round and start pedaling — as it was “kid-powered.” What fun!
Native Syracusan, Charles Brannock invented and patented the device that measures feet to determine correct shoe size in 1926. It is used worldwide and is still manufactured locally in Liverpool, New York.
When I read Marcia Hanlon's haiku, I could almost feel those metal sliders from the Brannock's device cupping my feet. As a child I was fascinated by having my feet measured, and back to school shopping was a favorite bookend to summer vacation. As I thought about how to illustrate the poem, my mind drifted to a photo my friend Stephanie had shared with me of herself as a baby girl, decked out in yellow and white frills, with a purse, looking every bit the sophisticated shopper. With her permission, I labored to enhance the grainy photo with colored pencils and tried to summon a likeness, old feelings, and memories.