Two Stories of Shoes and Planning

I wrote a little about a thing that happened to me years ago after holding on to some old shoes. I got to thinking back and I actually have two shoe stories. The first one is what I wrote a little about earlier, but I’ll elaborate on it and then tell the second one.

Nothing Last Forever

I used to hold on to all my stuff. I had a pair of shoes I know that were 15 years old and one day I decided to wear them. The were soft leather with rubber soles. I was dress kind of nice and was meeting up with some friends at a mall an hour away. The reason I was going was because one of the guys working with me was getting married at city hall. No coats or ties, just dress nice and casual and meet at the mall and go to city hall. So I drive there and when I start to get out of my car I see little pieces of rubber on the floor around the gas pedal and brake. I look at the bottom of my shoes and the rubber obviously had dry rotted and is falling apart in front of my eyes.

The only thing I could do was walk into the mall and find a shoe store. From my car to the shoe store was a path of footsteps of rubber bits and pieces. By the time I got to the shoe store, I had little to no soles left on the shoes. I go to the clerk and ask if he has this type shoe in size 13. He says, “I don’t know you’ll just have to look”. I think OK, if you want to be that way fine. So I start walking all around the shoe store with little rubber bits still coming off. My friends are laughing their butts off and I’m starting to get upset. The clerk looks and sees me leaving little rubber foot prints all over his store and gets one of those push broom sweeper and starts getting the footprints up to the point to where I’m standing. I look at him again and ask do you have this kind of shoe in size 13. I can see he’s angry and he told me he didn’t know, but he would look and please have a seat and stop walking around. So I sit down and wait. He comes back and tells me no they don’t have it. So still keeping my cool I say OK again and I get up and walk over to the section that has my size on display. I find a pair that is a lot more than I want to pay, but you gotta have shoes. So I take off my old one and put the new ones on. I put my old ones in the box and carry it up to the clerk, place the box on the counter and pay. I start to leave and the clerk asked me if I wanted to take the old ones and box with me. I told him nope that he could chunk them. As we were leaving one of my friends in a loud voice say, “ I can’t believe you bought another pair of shoes here. You just bought those yesterday and they fell apart on you in one day.” I didn’t look back, but my friend said he saw a lot of heads popping up.

The Shoes That Weren’t There

This is more for the oldsters if you remember. When I was in high school there was a band called Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. They were coming to a city near us and my friend and I had dates to go and see them. Well I had put my good shoes in the local shoe shop to be resoled and I was going to pick them up that day. My friend and I worked all day on getting his car really clean and shinny and doing other things throughout the day. As usual we waited until the last minute to start getting ready. I had bought my clothes from home since I live a ways away from town and I was going to pick up my shoes and get ready at my friends house. We go to the shoe repair shop first and it’s closed. I start to panic. The only shoes I have on are a worn out pair of sneaker and white socks. Just wouldn’t look right because we’re all getting dressed up. It was to late to run all the way back to my house to get any other shoes, so as in any situation, I had to be creative.

I wasn’t dating anyone at that time and my date was more a good friend whose parents were more like quasi parents to me. We get ready and my friend drops me off at my dates house and goes to pick up his date. Now to the creative part. The only person in town that I knew that had shoes the size of mine was my date’s father. I walk in their house and I explain what had happened and ask my date’s father does he have a pair of shoes I can borrow. By this time, Mother, Father and date are rolling in the floor laughing. My date’s father was a really good man and once he regained his composure he said sure, it no problem. He goes and gets me a pair of his shoes and brings a pair of socks also. Couldn’t wear white sock being all dressed up. I said they were the same size, but I needed a shoehorn to get them on. I’m way passed being embarrassed, but they were really good people and put me at ease, although the giggles didn’t help.

OK now I’m fully dressed, my friend show up with his date and we go to the concert. I had a really good time at the concert, but my feet were killing me. Concerts over and we leave. I take the shoes off as soon as I get back in the car. On the way back we decide to stop at a restaurant and get something to eat. I try to put the shoes back on and can’t. My feet had swollen and I had no shoehorn. I said to heck with it and go into the restaurant with just socks on. No one said anything to us, but we were all laughing the whole time. We got back home and I gave the shoes back to my date’s father and he told me to keep the socks. I put on my old sneakers and we leave.

I can still see date’s Father and Mother laughing as we drove away. My family and my quasi family have never let me forget those shoes.

So ends the tales of shoes and planning. Lessons I learned.

If you haven’t worn it in a long time give it away or chunk it.

Never wait until the last minute, but if you do, know someone with the same sized foot as you.