Object:
The «golden» shoes
The exposition of the Museum of Resistance presents "golden" shoes that were worn only once at an underground party in Kherson.
The mood is yellow-blue
This story is about how Elvis Presley's blue suede shoes turned blue-yellow in Kherson.
Anton and Valeriya from Kherson loved he song "Blue suede shoes" performed by the king of rock and roll Elvis Presley since they were students. Now he is a programmer, she is a philologist and a translator. Overall, they are a very cheerful couple; six years of marriage and a small child have not changed this. But war and occupation caused some changes. However, even in conditions of stress, uncertainty, pressure of Russian propaganda, shortage of products and essential goods, the couple tried not to lose hope.
At the beginning of February 2022, Anton came up with a gift party for his beloved on their wedding anniversary. The anniversary is in April, but Anton was preparing in advance. He wanted to gather their friends somewhere in a club, they wanted to listen to Elvis’s songs, and when "Blue suede shoes" would start, Anton would bring out a cake with candles and flowers. Anton came up with a dress code for the guests: blue or light blue shoes, just like in the song. And he bought himself "royal golden" shoes.
As for the military-style children's boots, which Anton bought along with the golden shoes, his child never went for a walk wearing them. The parents were afraid that on the street the Russian military, who were feeling very nervous, could get triggered by any little thing – even the children's shoes of the "wrong color". The child grew out of these boots without ever wearing them.
Anton says:
"I looked at the sale of children's shoes and bought some soft military-style boots. And then I saw this golden miracle – and couldn't resist. These shoes were cheap, because who would wear such a thing? The seller said that only one man was looking to buy them, said that he was a theater actor and could use them in a performance, but the size did not match.
Since March 2022, Kherson was under occupation. The shoes were lying in the box, all thoughts were about something else. And yet, Anton and Valeria decided to gather friends to support each other, to prevent the invaders from taking away their moments of happiness. The party had to be held in the morning, because everyone tried to be at home by 1:00 p.m. (maximum by 3:00 p.m.).
Friends drew a poster for the party, on which Elvis was holding the Ukrainian flag. The music was turned on very quietly, so that it could not be heard through the walls and outside the apartment. When it came to the song about shoes, Valeria suddenly froze and said: “It should sound different. Not blue suede shoes, but blue yellow shoes. Kherson is Ukraine, and that's the most important thing now!".
Well, you can knock me down, step in my face
Slander my name all over the place…
You can burn my house, steal my car
Drink my liquor from an old fruit-jar…
You can do anything but
Lay off of my blue-yellow shoes.
