Date:    Sun, 2 Mar 1997 11:05:26 -0600
<br>From:    Thomas Creswell  creswell[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CROWN.NET 
<br>Subject: Re: Zori redux [long]
<br>
<br>I first encountered _zori_ in about 1950 when a friend of mind,
<br>returning from Japan, made me a present of a pair of , I believe,
<br>authentic woven straw  _zoris_ (pl), as he and I both referred to them,
<br>along with a pair of _tabis_, a sock- or spat-like garment to be worn
<br>with the zoris on more formal occasions.  The tabis had a pocket for the
<br>big toe and  a separate pocket for the remaining four, so that they
<br>could be worn while wearing zoris.
<br>
<br>For many years thereafter, my Chicago friends and family wore zoris,
<br>locally available in the Chicago area, and with plastic or rubber soles,
<br>to the beach, around the house, and even doing local shopping.
<br>
<br>So, if _zori_ is actually a California regionalism, I and my friends and
<br>family represent a Middlewestern anomaly.  I am not sure, but I believe
<br>the footwear was sometimes advertised in the Chicago area as zoris, or
<br>ar least so identified on signage in the stores, such as Walgreen
<br>drugstores, where they were mass-marketed in the early fifties.
<br>
<br>If there were ads, as I think there were, or references to zoris in
<br>print at that time,, they were  pre-Nexis and would not show up in your
<br>searches.
<br>