Incoherent Scribblings

Sucker for Sandals

I like shoes, but I LOVE sandals!

When I first graduated from undergraduate school, in addition to waiting tables three nights a week I had a temp job in an office in downtown Des Moines. Almost every day I spent at least half of my lunch break shopping at Younkers and it was in that department store that I discovered a weakness I never knew I had: Sandals.

Unlike some girls, I had never really been that into shoes. Of course, I had more than one pair of shoes: I usually had a least one pair of tennis shoes, a pair or two of boots, a pair of loafers, a pair of the little white Keds, a pair of black and a pair of white dress shoes, and maybe a couple pairs of sandals or flip flops (which I always called “thongs”) and that was it.

But in 1996, I had money and that summer’s style was chunky high-heeled sandals. Early in the spring I found such a pair in black. They only had a heel of an inch or so, but when I saw them in the mirror with my pretty little red-polished toes peeking out, I was in love. Soon I had sandals in every color and coupled with a short skirt or pair of shorts, they made my legs look a mile long.

Before when I had tried heels I always felt clumsy and unbalanced, but with the chunky heels I didn’t even wobble! As my confidence grew, so did the heels on my sandals until I finally “invested” in one particular pair that made my above-average height of 5′7″ tower close to 6′!

Alas, though such sandals were sexy, they weren’t extremely practical. I found that I could wear them as long as I didn’t have to walk too far or for too long. They made my legs tired when I tried to dance the night away and gave me blisters if I tried to wear them when I went for a walk. Luckily, that summer I did a great deal of sitting around so I didn’t suffer in my sexy sandals too often.

As the years passed, I got rid of the high-heeled sandals of 1996 and replaced them with more practical and comfortable models, but I am still a sucker for sandals.

I have one pair in particular that I am quite fond of; they are flat, casual, and very comfortable. Unfortunately, I realized last summer that they are also nearly worn out. I spent all last summer looking for a similar pair and while I found many other adorable sandals that were nearly as impractical as the ones I bought in 1996, I found nothing that fit my summer walking needs. Finally, I resorted to getting yet another pair of Birkenstocks.

But today, while not even looking for sandals, I stumbled upon a cute, practical pair. Is it the only pair I will buy or am I just warming up for another frenzied sandal-buying summer? I guess we will have to wait and see…