Generational

When we were young, a
lifetime ago, our parents
hauled us off to shoe stores
looking for sturdy footwear
impervious to the heavy duty
stress young limbs in motion
inflicted upon them. In service
to the solemn occasions
experienced older salesmen,
family men themselves, knew
the routine well that we so
loathed as much as the product
bringing forward nastily
rugged stock at the stated
upper-price limit. When our
own children were young that
drill had seen slight options.
The parents whose wallets
were strained had children
whose earning fortunes far
outstripped their own. Their
offspring, however, had academic
opportunities never dreamed of
by their parents. Now, in their
grandchildren's time there are
no shoe shops, only the grand
shopping emporiums of 
"super stores" and "big box stores"
large and complex enough to
threaten directional confusion,
and the hordes of those servicing
clients in the "sport"-obsessed
community are the hip young,
zealously serving the needs of
shoppers, themselves academic-
adverse, no employment available
but salary-lean and obligingly
and regretfully service-oriented.