In a column yesterday, I noted an old-timey sign in Ft. Worth for a business that no longer exists: Juvenile Shoe Store, “for Boys, for Girls.” Several readers wrote to say that the sign also advertised Red Goose Shoes — whose jingle went, “Half the fun of having feet is Red Goose Shoes!” Excellent line.

My item also included this: “It is my impression — and things may be different where you are — that people don’t say ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ much anymore: It’s ‘kids,’ ‘young people,’ etc.” This prompted a letter I thought would be of interest:

. . . Both my husband and I loved the fact that both of our sons’ first-grade teachers referred to their students as “boys and girls.” (Our oldest son is now in sixth grade, but the youngest is still a first-grader — for a few more weeks.) Today young children seem to be pushed into pre-teenhood as soon as they are finished with pre-school: Parents enroll them in competitive and all-consuming sports or dance programs, birthday parties often take place in elaborate venues, children’s clothing lines often feature T-shirts with sarcastic sayings, and the entertainment industry sees them as a target audience for PG and PG-13 shows. My husband and I both wanted our boys to enjoy the special innocence of young childhood and often felt that we had to swim hard against the current to give them that. When we heard their teachers refer to them and their classmates as “boys and girls,” we instinctively knew that their teachers were creating an environment where our sons could delight in the true — and ephemeral — joys of young childhood.

Is that too conservative for you? Too un-hip? Well, tough [shoe leather?].