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10 Things: Shoes
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 12:00PM Name the first 10 Things that come to you when I say the word “Shoes.” Then scroll down to see what I came up with. Go! Run! Shoe!
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1. My stepfather’s boots.
2. My Teva sandals and my running shoes. I’m usually barefoot. These are the most likely shoes to find on my feet.
3. My $3 black heels from Savers in Albuquerque. The only comfortable pair of heels I’ve ever had. I’ve worn them twice.
4. Screaming shoes, a.k.a. any shoe for Sonar X7 up to a pair of red Keane’s last fall. Child hated shoes for most of his life. Not just that he didn’t want to wear them. They caused him to melt into a screaming mess as if they were burning his feet.
5. Brand new white soccer cleats. I guess these make me a soccer mom again? Reminds me of an Everclear song. Except I drive a VW, not a Volvo. Also no experience in adult media. *cough* Never mind.
6. I do not comprehend the fascination of some people with designer shoes. They look like torture. Maybe @shaydenFL gets them? If not he can add them to his list of #shitidontget
7. In middle school I really wanted a pair of huarache sandals. I got them eventually. I never ever wanted a pair of jellies though. Or crocs.
8. Baby shoes are completely pointless. Ditto baby socks unless it’s cold. Just one more (small, easily losable) thing to keep up with.
9. When my brother (five years younger) grew to have the same size feet as me. I was in eight or ninth grade. We shared my huarache sandals for an afternoon.
10. White canvas Keds. This was my go-to shoe for many years. Cheap and easy. In high school they were my marching band shoes. We slathered white shoe polish right on the canvas to cover stains. When they were too raunchy for marching band, I’d scribble all over them.
Bonus: “SHOES” by Kelly. Betch.
Comments:
This list was strangely difficult for me. I got sort of stuck on details for number one. A snapshot of the details…
My step-father grew up in New York State, where he started his career as a police officer. I don’t know what kind of shoes he wore there. Some sort of standard issue glossy black dress shoes, I suppose. But when he moved to Albuquerque he always wore black cowboy boots with his uniform. They probably took twice as long to polish as dress shoes. He had a boot jack to pull them off of his hot feet at night. When he went to plain-clothes work, he still wore boots. Usually brown. Still took forever to keep polished. He wore his service weapon in a holster on his belt or under a sport coat. He loved cowboy boots because he could keep a small gun in a clip holster inside the top of his left boot. Just in case. Cowboy boots as secret weapon cache.
What were your 10 Shoes? What kind of shoes do you wear to work? Do you have any shoes with a story?
10 Things, Inspiration, Writing in Words 
Reader Comments (7)
1. There was an old lady who lived in a shoe
2. Imelda Marcos
3. I am old for thinking of that as one of the first things
4. I need new running ones
5. I got a great pair of Steve Madden’s at Ross for 40 bucks
6. Why do strippers wear such tall ones?
7. Shoo fly don’t bother me
8. wow, I am stumped at #8
9. I feel bad when I notice people have weird toes when they wear sandals
10. I hated to wear shoes when I was a kid (still do, actually – must be the hobbit blood)
1. holes in my shoes
2. cowboy boots
3. laces, and how i hate tying them
4. teaching Josiah to tie his shoes
5. the beautiful feeling of taking off my shoes after a long day's work
6. sport-specific shoes, namely soccer boots and cycling shoes
7. the age-old question of whether or not one should be wearing socks with a given pair of shoes
8. how i'd kind of like to try on a pair of those shoes that are shaped like an actual foot--toes and all.
9. having to take off your shoes at the airport before going through the metal detector (thanks a lot, shoe bomber--that's especially annoying when wearing a new pair of cowboy boots).
10. being in the unfortunate position in the security line at the airport, behind someone who has made the unwise decision not to wear socks with that pair of shoes, and therefore sweats into that pair of shoes, resulting in a rather malodorous olfactory experience those of us in line behind you.
1. Kelly's music video "Shoes."
2. When I went shoe-shopping with my friend Ang. She was performing her brother's wedding ceremony and needed something besides flip-flops to wear.
3. The gray ballet flats I just bought, but will probably return. They each have a gray ball balanced on the top.
4. The box of shoes that I have packed, sitting in the front room by the big window.
5. My cowboy (cowgirl?) boots that I hope I can take to Ukraine.
6. Mocassins.
7. The maroon Doc Martens that are now too small, but I can't bear to throw out.
8. The fact that I only have a few pairs of heels. Flats ftw!
9. I think my feet got larger until grade 8, then have shrunk a little each year since.
10. Shoes smell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCF3ywukQYA
1 through 10. Birkenstocks, 'nuff said.
Okay, I'll say more. Any other shoes just serve the purpose of keeping your feet covered when you can't wear your Birks. There are many varieties, but I gotta have the plain, two wide straps across my feet, no heel strap style (if that is an appropriate term for Birks).
It's funny, b/c growing up in hip and happenin' Northern California, when I got to HS all the cool kids were wearing Birks. I begged my parents to get some for me; it was one of my few attempts at emulating the cool crowd. Then we promptly moved to NM, where HS fashion from the coast hadn't quite caught on. So wearing my Birks (plus my long hair) led people to think, and ask me, if I were a hippy. Anywho, even though acquiring my first pair of Birks was a fashion related accident, I discovered that they are, in fact, the most comfortable and most perfect shoes ever invented. So I wore them almost all the time. With socks if it was too cold. I marched in them. I ran around and did teenager things in them. They gave me interesting tan lines on my feet. The only thing I didn't do was wear them in the water, so I got some Tevas for that purpose. The combined foot tan of Birks and Tevas was even more interesting. I'm a very easy going guy, but about the only place I draw the line is if someone else wanted to try on my Birks. I'd rather you just punch me in the face, thank you very much.
I had that first pair for probably 8-9 years, until one unfortunate time I inadvertently left them in the back of my car. In the summer. In Las Cruces. For at least a week. The rubber sole (rubber soul is perhaps more appropriate) completely shrunk, curling up and pulling in from the edges of the shoes by at least 1/2 inch all around. I was devastated. Even though they were beat up, had cracks and holes under the balls of my feet, and the right heel was worn down from the floor of the car as I drove in them, they were the best shoes ever. I'm tearing up a little...
After some amount of time, and probably because I was so grumpy and miserable, my then-girlfriend gave me a new pair. She, bless her heart, even took my old ones to a repair shop first to see if they could be salvaged. I don't know for sure, but I'd guess the repair guy looked at them and just laughed. It took me a long time to warm up to the new ones. On the order of years, actually. But I've now had my current (2nd) pair of Birks for something like 13 or so years. They're good, and comfortable, I love them and wear them a lot, but there's just something about them. They're just not the same as my first pair. I guess it's true what they say, you can't go home again.
So that's my shoe story. I love my Birks and can't imagine living without them. I wear "sensible brown shoes" for work most of the time, when I walk the dog in the woods I wear something a little sturdier, and it's always a little sad when the weather gets too chilly to wear them all the time. My zebra-stripe foot tan usually lasts all the way through the winter. But the heart of my feet will always be lovingly cradled by those ugly-as-sin, brown strapped with metal buckles, cork and rubber soled beauties from Germany (size 46 if you please).
Oh Cab, That's beautiful. You made me love your Birks too. *sniff*
Anna, "I'm going to get what I want." Though for me, it's not shoes. lol