New Shoes

Shoes seem to be the most important article of clothing. Those things you wear everyday, just like your underwear, have become a ‘fashion statement’. And the old Buster Browns have gotten expensive.

It seems the fine tooling of leather and laces have gone across the waters and now those mammoth container ships bring boxes and boxes of rubber bottomed shoes that slip on or lace up with minimum expertise and maximum price tag.

Well let me tell you about shoes. I’ve done a lot of walking in my years and I’ve worn out a bunch of different styles and sizes and know a thing or two about shoes.

When I say ‘walking’ I mean while the rest of you were learning and the relying on driving to deliver you from place to place, I was hoofing it. Yes, I tried the mobile machines but that didn’t work out for me.

Luckily I lived within the boundaries of a neighborhood that had sidewalks and was open all night. I walked to school. I walked to work. I walked my dates and always had a distance requirement. Miles and miles and miles of pounding cement without a thought of my poor little feet, but it was the way to wander.

After the motor vehicle fiasco, I turned to the two-wheel transportation to rest my toes. I had learned that walking five miles barefoot on summer sidewalks was not good for the feet, so I had to wear shoes.

Shoes went from every style of army boots, penny loafers, Beatle boots, tennis shoes, earth shoes, slippers and dress polished shoes. Whatever the style of tie or suit coat or trouser changed with the fads, the shoes were just what were available.

Where they comfortable for long walks? Not exactly but I did find some of the soles that worked for walking long distances as apposed to playing basketball or walking on a sailboat or dancing.

And as the story goes, I went out today to buy new shoes.

Now I must admit I am not much of a shopper but I walked in and started to look at the styles and the soles and the sizes. Most of all the sizes mattered.

It seems my footsies have grown bigger than I had remembered. That means I used to stuff my feet into smaller shoes because I thought that was the size I was suppose to wear. Ouch! Yeah, but you get use to it.

Ask any woman who wears heels.

So getting back to the story of searching for new shoes, I wandered into that 2 for 1 shoe places but tried to stay with the ‘famous’ brands and checked the soles and also the arch support. Remember to check the arch support.

Find some right sizes, check the weight (summer is coming) and hopefully the soles will last at least through the summer I walked to the counter and presented my choices.

The shoe lady opened the boxes and checked to see that both shoes were the same size and there was a left shoe and a right shoe. Who knew?

No I didn’t try them on before purchase (Miller & Rhoades nightmares) and I waited for the guy to get off the phone while standing in front of what I was looking at (just like the grocery store) and worried about the old dude who was just wandering around (just like the grocery store) yet I walked out with my big cardboard boxes of rubber soled freshness for my tootsies.

Now to throw away old worn out friends and fill the recycle can.