What size shoe do you wear, sir?
I found this curious bit about my possible multi-great grandfather William Newman in the history of Stamford, Conn., I've referred to in the last couple of posts: "In 1659, complaints having been made to the court in New Haven respecting the 'sizes of shoes,' the court hearing that William Newman had an instrument which he had brought from England which 'was thought to be right to determine this question, did that the said instrument should be procured and sent to New Haven, to be made a 'Standard' which shall be the rule between buyer and sell, to which it required that all sizes be conformed." We've all been there at some point. We needed shoes but our feet had grown and we needed to know what size to get. If you're old enough, you may remember a device that looked like a ruler that had a fixed block at one end where you put your heel. The other end had a block that slid down to your big toe. Then you'd take your foot out and read the siz