I love shoes. I love to buy shoes. My shoe collection, while not yet rivaling that of Imelda Marcos, is larger than it’s ever been. But, I haven’t always been able to find shoes. When I was growing up, my shoe wardrobe consisted of white Spalding Oxfords for school, Navy Keds for play, and black flats for church (white from Easter until Labor Day), because I have big feet and shoes in my size were scarce. I now wear a size 11 (I take after my Dad who wore a size 14). When I turned ten, my foot also grew to a size ten and the availability of shoes for me was limited to Spaldings and Keds. My older brother declared that I would soon have to start wearing shoe boxes because there certainly wouldn’t be any shoes for me at that size. You can imagine my mother’s horror when my foot continued to grow to size 11 by Junior High School and not only was my foot long, it was narrow. I wore a 5A width shoe, so narrow that it was impossible for me to find any shoes that came close to fitting my feet. By now, my oh so sensitive and empathetic brother declared my feet to be like skis. Thinking back on those remarks, I’m glad I stuck him in an eggshell (Click here to see the post ‘Yes, But Is It Art’).
Luckily for me, when I was 13, my mother discovered a specialty shoe store in San Francisco that carried women’s shoes only in sizes 9 and up. And the shoes they carried were fabulous. Twice a year we’d drive to San Francisco and I got to buy shoes; beautiful shoes, stylish shoes, shoes like I never thought I’d be able to own. Sadly for me, that shoe store has long been out of business but in recent years, shoes in my size are readily available at high end retailers like Nordstrom (and subsequently often discounted at Nordstrom Rack) and occasionally, even the big discount chains carry a few pairs in my size. Today’s challenge topic is “a recent purchase.” It should be no surprise that my featured recent purchase is a new pair of shoes. I was thrilled to find a pair of platform, rope covered multi-colored wedge sandals to go with a new retro ’70’s outfit. But the best part is that I found these shoes, size 11, narrow enough to stay on my foot, relatively comfortable, AND matching the new outfit, on the clearance rack at DSW for $8.99. At that price, even if I wear them only once, I’ll have gotten my money’s worth. Oh, and one more thing, I took this photo using another recent purchase, my Nikon SB 910 Speed Light.
Focal Length 35mm
ISO 200
f/2.2
1/200
WB Daylight
Flash
SOOC