Random Picture Wednesday: Man, I Need Vans...

So Andy and I went to THE MALL on Sunday. I needed to "gear up" for Dad's day and maybe, if they were on sale and had my size...more to the point: and had my size on sale, a new pair of Vans would be mine.

Yey! New Vans (on my feet being broken in) meeting my old reliables...can you see how "chewed" up the inside heel area of my oldies are. No, I NEVER tie the laces, I'm a big geek that way, yeah I get rid of the original white laces faster than you can say Jack Robinson, cuz again, I'm a big geek that way too.

Yes, I wear vans. I've worn Vans^TM since I convinced my mom that the brand name shoes were INFINITELY more comfortable than the Payless version. What was I, 8? 9? I'm not lying here, I am a Payless girl too. I got MARRIED wearing $4 Payless shoes. I'm more than happy to fork over a few bucks IF the shoe fits. Andy can attest to my trying for the economical shoe source, we have gone on many shoe-finding expeditions, 99% failures, lemme tell ya; $4 or $400, it takes a special shoe to be my friend. Payless sneakers were never my friends.

My feet are as wide as they are long. They didn't have "wide width" back when I was a kid. Sometimes I wonder how people like me turn up. We must be rare cuz NOTHING EVER FITS. If it did? Well, then the rest of the world would wear my size and I wouldn't have to battle to find a bra that fits or socks that didn't bind. Details, details.

Vans fit. Before last Summer I'd have said ALL Vans fit ME. Such is no longer the case. For some reason known only to the powers that be, they've been making vans NARROWER. Either that or maybe my feet are getting wider. Could happen I suppose. Except I just spent WAY TOO MUCH MONEY on work and interview shoes and they were not double-extra-wide or anything. in fact they are a smaller size that I thought I was. So maybe the powers are trying to save a buck by using less material in the width department. Kinda like the candy bars they sell today, don't they seem much smaller than what we used to buy when we were in high school? Whatever.

If Vans keep being on sale in my size I will probably keep buying them until I'm well past my mom's current age, if I live that long. And that was the vision that popped into my head as Andy and I walked out of the Vans store at the mall. Me, 75, 80 yrs young making some kid, some whipper snapper :), go find me a mens 6.5 in the wide-toed-fat-tongued-sale-du-jour pair of the week. This is a rather vivid picture in my head because my mom, at 70+, goes into places like Foot Action/Locker/etc., with the music blasting and the young people giving her sideways glances, instead of heading for Geriatric-land or wherever older people buy their shoes, to get her sneakers. Damn right she still wears sneakers! What else would she be wearing to chase after the grandkids?

Where do older folk buy their shoes? I suppose department stores, or, ah yes, Payless.