April 23, 2013

Buying New Shoes....the Old Fashioned Way

A new pair of shoes has always been an unexpected joy for me.  Perhaps the reason is buried deep within my past experiences, but sliding my foot into a shiny new shoe recalls a delight much as a particular aroma or sight can assail one's senses.   It immediately calls to mind  previous experiences of long ago.

When I was a youngster my shoe wardrobe consisted of a pair of canvasas converse tennies and a pair of shiny patent leather Mary Jane dress shoes.  When back-to-school time rolled around every year we'd make the annual trek to the local JCPenney department store seeking suitable "school shoes".  Much to my sheer delight these were usually penny loafers - dapper leather slip-ons with slots in the top to slip in a shiny new penny.

The store's shoe department employed a real-live shoe salesman who would take the time to measure my foot with a metal slide-rule like device that indicated my exact shoe size.  

Make no mistake, there was no guess work involved in this transaction.  Once my choice was made the sales clerk would disappear into the back room where, I was sure, unfathomable stacks of shoe boxes towered on the shelves.  By the way, years later I became a shoe sales clerk in that very store and was privy to the mysteries of the back room of the shoe department. 

Returning with my selection, the clerk then slipped it on my waiting foot that was dutifully perched on a special tilted stool.  I remember feeling much as Cinderella did when her prince slid the famed glass slipper onto her waiting foot.  There was then the inevitable to probe and the command, "wiggle your toe" so as to test the fit. 

And then I'd try my new shoes out for size, smiling in delight as I pranced around the carpeted shoe department area.  And then, "sold"!   The  clerk then wrapped white string around my new shoe box  so that i could carry them home. 

The hardest part about buying my new school shoes was that I couldn't wear them anywhere until school began except to break them in.  so I would rehearse wearing my new shoes around the house until the big day arrived.

 Buying myself a new pair of shoes evokes much the same feeling of simple excitement for me.  It's hard to explain but it just does.  But shoe shopping isn't what it once was.  Now the fine art of shoe fitting is virtually non existent.  Most often shoe shopping is self-serve which saddens me a bit.  

An entire generation of consumers will never know the joy and luxury of being waited on by a shoe sales clerk. They will never experieince the feeling of individual service provided by the shoe salesman in a department store.  And they will be cheated out of the Cinderella experieince of my childhood. 

But I am happy to report that wearing a new pair of shoes around the house to break them in is still an unexplained joy and such a simple pleasure.  And a brand new pair of shoes on one's  feet is utterly indescribable.  Try it sometime, and I think you will agree.  There's just something about a new pair of shoes.