My Favorite Shoes

When I was in Junior High I wanted to be different then everyone else. So I dressed badly. I thought it was cool though so I did it for 6 years. I’d wear plaids with stripes and Bright non-matching colors. Then there was the black period. I even had nail polish to match most of my outfits. But above all, I had cool shoes.

I loved Chuck Taylor’s - Converse High Tops. I had many pairs - I even have a green low top pair in the back seat of my car right now :) that mom found in my closet @ her house. I have the Christmas pair that are red and green plaid and they used to have jingle bells hanging from the back. I’ve had black pairs, and Pink pairs, I think I even had a red pair. And I always had a pair of fake black leather combat boots somewhere in my collection. In High School I started a collection of high heal shoes in various colors to match dresses I wore to dances and those shoes are still in the closet at mom’s.

I worked for Journey’s once. It was a shoe store that mostly sold Doc Martins the shoe of my dreams. I had for many years dreamed of owning my very own pair of 32 eyelet black combat boots for me to tromp around in. Journey’s employee discount was 50% off ANY shoe. Wow, that was quite the tempting offer, so I took the job, but quit before I ever got my first pay check. The manager of this store was a sexist pig. I think he only hired me because he had to. I spent every shift at that store sweeping the back room or organizing the back room or stocking the back room. So I quit. I had better things to do with my time then be there. So alas I never got my boots.

Very soon after that I got a job at ZCMI and they also sold Doc Martins in their shoe department. So guess what I spent my very first check on?? No not 32 Eyelets, but a shorter more reasonable pair of 12 eyelet combat boots. They cost me $150 but they are worth it. I love these shoes, they are so comfortable and they always gave me that extra inch and a half to my height that a 5’2” girl could use. I remember that I had a yo-yo I could only play with while wearing these shoes because the string was just that much too long, but that wasn’t a problem, because I was ALWAYS wearing these shoes.

The yellow string trimming and the hard rubber souls were awesome and I couldn’t think of stomping out camp fires or hiking in any other shoe. They were the perfect accent to everything I wore. I even wore them to church more often then not.

I took those shoes on my mission with me and wore them every p-day and when it snowed. And now they sit next to my bed for those days that I need to go back to my happy days with my shoes. I love them.