https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/misstep/

DAILY PROMPT

Misstep

A Buster Brown Diary

When I was a kid maybe 7 or 8 I lost one of my saddle shoes on purpose. After getting off the school bus I kicked one shoe off onto the curb. Flung high in

to the air down it came with a resounding kerplop into the gutter. For all I cared Buster Brown’s dog Tige could eat it!

Hated those saddle shoes. Came home with one shoe. Can’t remember what I told my parents but they took me back to Buster Brown and bought me a new pair of shoes.

http://youtu.be/9C9ohRlSywQ

The Reluctant Shoe by DeBorah Ann Palmer

Running up the stairs my shoe came off and kept running until I caught up to it on the second landing. Said shoe stuck out its tongue at me in defiance but I wrestled it into a corner forcing it back onto my right foot before it developed a conspiracy with the shoe on my left foot and they both took off for parts unknown.
Thinking I had subdued the warring shoe I jauntily made my way to the Downtown 4 & 5 trains. The ride to 14th Street was uneventful. However after getting on the L train and taking my seat once again another episode of shoe wars. Of their own accord the shoes on my feet began to flail and wail giving me the appearance of one suffering from St.Vitus dance.

Fellow train riders gave me wary side glances and a wide berth which includes a degree of difficulty on a crowded rush hour train. The other passengers weren’t sure if I was about to begin an acrobatic break or pole dance so on the plus side I had my two seater all to myself. Exiting the train at Broadway Junction my shoes did their best to get the better of me by forcing me into an Elaine from Seinfeld thumbs and little kicks performance right on the platform…………and the uprising had begun.

https://dancingpalmtrees.com/2014/11/22/killer-heels-at-the-brooklyn-museum/

Menage a Trois

Buster Brown, Saddle Shoes, Black Patent Leather Mary Janes

BPLMJ – “Say Hey Saddle Shoe, Where’s your mate?”

SS – “That Saddity 8 year old pig tailed barrette wearing bitch loss mah sista.”

BPLMJ – “Lost your mate?! All she did was go to school! How can you loss one shoe at school?”

SS – “Nah! The lil heifer kicked off my sista as soon as she got off the school bus. Spoiled brat. If she wasn’t “Daddy’s Lil Girl” her Momma sho nuff would have given hur a whooping!”

BPLMJ – “What are you talking about? What do you mean she just kicked off one shoe on the way home and what does her Father have to do with this?”

SS – “Suga Plum Fairy has Daddy wrapped round her lil finger. She hated me and sis from the time we left my pimp Buster Brown. Plotting evil all the way home on how she was gonna git rid of us and git a new pair of shoes. Got home and made up some shit bout being jumped and loss the other shoe running from the other kids. Her Momma actually believed that shit and when Daddy came home both of them made plans to go back to Buster and buy mo. This time her choice. Ain’t that a crock of shit!”

BPLMJ – “You know maybe if you and your sister had not been so low class, common, plain and just down right ugly, the little girl might have taken a liking to you.”

SS – “What shit you talking bout?! What you know anyway with yo shiny, glossy, holier than thou Easter Sunday wearing selves! That brat loves you even before she git to the sto’. Prancing and primping in the mirror every year, like you and she some kinda prize or gift!”

BPLMJ – “As you so aptly pointed out we are a gift. Buster taught us how to make a little girl look feminine, cute and pretty. And girlfriend that little girl is a natural born ham. She knows how to work her Daddy’s heart and that’s why she always gets what she wants. You could take a lesson from that.”

SS – “Just shut the fuck up. Oh shit hur comes Buster with that crazy muthafucking dog. He better not let that four legged bastard chew my ass up. I ain’t got no backup! Fuck!!”

Buster Brown – Ladies. Ladies. Saddle I’ve heard about your laments and have found a home for you with a one legged orphan girl. She’ll love and treasure you. Meantime come on back to the store with me. Got a cobbler friend I want to introduce you to. We’ll let you play with our awls, spruce you up real good.

Buster Brown, Pete the Pup, Mary Jane and Saddle exit.

SAS — Not quite fashionable but very functional. Serves the purpose and provides comfort during long hours on my feet as a silent sentinel over a dystopian universe.

Crocs — the ugliest shoes in the world. Not sexy at all. More ugly than the Earth Shoes from back in the 70s. Have had and worn both. Both comfortable. Believe now what used to be called Earth Shoes have been renamed Birkenstocks.

Brooklyn Museum Funky Fresh Exhibits

Those of us in professions where you stand on your feet all day long value comfort. Ugly is relative. Comfort is paramount. Comfort is not just your feet but your back also. Being a security officer at a museum I’m on my feet for sometimes eight or more hours a day. During the 7 years I’ve worked at the museum I’ve had relationships with many shoes that advertise themselves as being comfortable. Ecco is just expensive with no really good built in arch support. Merrell has so far turned out to be the best. Good arch support, soft, flexible, slip on-slip off. Skechers MBT knock-offs, forget it. Returned them. Can’t stand that rocking and rolling motion. Plus these rocker type shoes are really made for walking not standing. My job requires me to stand. Very bad for my already poor back. No good. Reject.

Latest acquisitions – SAS work shoes. Black just like the rest. The museum mandates that we must wear black shoes with our uniforms. We do get issued black work shoes from the museum but they are like rocks, so most guards, me included buy other black work shoes, get the reimbursement to keep our feet and pockets at least somewhat happy.

Nameless, faceless, meaningless in my blue suit with gold plated brass, red tie, white shirt, black socks, black shoes. I blend into the walls taking on the form of a silent exhibit programmed to protect the art, give directions and aid to tourists, visitors, VIPs.

Shoes, specifically women’s shoes, I’ve seen them all. At the special evening events I see the young hip girls in their 20s with the sky scraper high 4, 5, now 6 inch heels many times hanging off sugar daddies who are my age. Balenciaga shoes, Christian Louboutin Shoes, Chanel, Prada, Gucci, Jimmy Choo, Fendi, Manolo Blahniks on women who are already giraffes. Shoes signifying status, youth, beauty, availability, opportunity, wealth, access. Access to a world closed to me.

If one day given the opportunity to slip into those designer shoes on my blue collar feet would a new world suddenly open? Would I be transported to another dimension where I’d find myself on the arm of a rich handsome man, cameras clicking all around us, attending premieres at movies, theatres, museums, exiting the limo striding down the red carpet, my face gracing fashion magazines worldwide. Would I be sent back in time thirty years, my destiny changed all by a pair of shoes?

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