Brian Atwood Meeting, submitted by Heather Holt, NY

I’m about to share something so mortifying, so embarrassing, so humiliating, I just wanted to have the sales assistant shoot me in the face! Ok that is a little dramatic, but anyone who knows me knows that’s my style. Let me paint you a picture: I have been waiting for months for the Brian Atwood shoe boutique to open off of Madison Ave. Finally the day has arrived, after weeks, of Mr. Atwood Tweeting, Facebooking, and posting photos on Instagram of his Shoe Haven….he’s also announcing that he will be there. (I’m amazed some of my friends let me go, knowing I would be in the presence of Mr. Atwood himself, and knowing how shoe struck I would be!) So I wake up on this chilly Friday morning in October to be there at least 15 minutes early. I grab myself my polka dot Maniac pumps, and out the door I go towering 5 inches higher now.

As I’m waiting for the doors to open I can see inside and I think my head might pop off from excitement. Finally the doors open and the air is intoxicating, I think I might pass out from the smell of all the Atwood shoes. Mr. Atwood is standing there, not only is he wearing fabulous dark blue smoking slippers, he’s greeting everyone as they walk in,  he is the nicest, most charming man ever. He shopped with a girl who was buying shoes for her wedding, helped her pick them out, I mean talk about a dream! So I pick my two pairs of shoes, they’re special edition with gold plates on the arch that has 655 Madison Ave on them, and not only that he signs them! AHHHAAAAHHHHHAAAA. This is THE BEST DAY EVER…until I hand over my Amex that I haven’t used in 10 months. But in my defense I did call to make sure I had plenty left on my limit and I did. 8,500 to be exact.

So the sales assistant comes back and very politely tells me my card has been DECLINED, the blood drained from my face. I immediately call Amex…they agree they know I have plenty on my card, and tell me to have them run the card again. Mr. Atwood is about two feet away from me with my very expensive shoes signed and ready to be walked out the door. I’m still on the phone as the sales assistant is running my card…DECLINED. She’s being very nice saying it’s a problem with the machine, it’s the second transaction of the day, they’ve been having problems all day…ok I know it’s not your machine, I KNOW it’s my card. Mr. Atwood can hear every word of this.  So I’m still on the phone and Amex just does a force authorization…finally it goes through! Mr. Atwood is nothing but nice takes photos with me gives me a hug, you’d think I would be over the moon. No I just want to be SHOT IN THE FACE….fine punch me in the throat whatever, it was completely mortifying, I just wanted to die. Not even the shoes I bought could lift me from my embarrassment.
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Let us walk in the white snow
In a soundless space;
With footsteps quiet and slow,
At a tranquil pace,
Under veils of white lace.

I shall go shod in silk,
And you in wool,
White as white cow’s milk,
More beautiful
Than the breast of a gull.

We shall walk through the still town
In a windless peace;
We shall step upon white down,
Upon silver fleece,
Upon softer than these.

We shall walk in velvet shoes:
Wherever we go
Silence will fall like dews
On white silence below.
We shall walk in the snow.

© 2012, notesonsole.com.

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First Heels, submitted by Joan Coady

I was 14 years old and getting ready for my first year of High School. We had a strict dress code at my school and I was very concerned with finding a black skirt that would satisfy the requirement for our school uniforms. Shoes were the furthest thing from my mind.

My Mom, however, must have been thinking about them because just one day before school was to start I came home from being out with some of my friends to find a shoe box sitting on my bed. I tentatively opened the box and much to my surprise there sat a pair of shiny black shoes with a small bow on the front and a 1 1/2′ heel. Well, imagine my delight—my first pair of “high” heels!  I couldn’t wait to try them on—they fit perfectly and I felt like a queen as I strutted around the house. Needless to say I couldn’t wait for school to open that year so I could show off my new shoes. I was no longer worried about having to wear the uniform. I had brand new high heel shoes that were sure to make me stand out from the crowd. I was certain I would be the envy of all my classmates. Of course I had to carry them in my back pack and put them on at school because it just wouldn’t do to walk over a mile to school in my new “heels”.

© 2012, notesonsole.com.

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Lost shoes, submitted by Bridget Hanrahan

Growing up poor in a large family meant that it was very unexpected for my siblings and I to get anything new. We were used to hand me downs and even borrowed things for special occasions.  This is why I could hardly believe it when, at six years old, I got a new pair of shoes. They were the most beautiful pair of shoes I had ever seen.  My new shoes were a pretty blue leopard print with a small black heel and a strap that buttoned to the side. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I wore them all over the house that evening and I couldn’t wait to wear them outside, but I knew I was not allowed.

The next day I told my friends about my new shoes and, of course, they wanted to see these beautiful shoes that I could not stop talking about.  When I told them that I couldn’t wear my new shoes outside they argued that I did not really have them.  The teasing was all the encouragement I needed.  I marched back to my house and waited for the right moment when I could throw the shoes out my bedroom window. From there I walked over the hill to meet my friends and prove to them that I did indeed have new shoes. My friends soon lost interest in my shoes and decided to go to the beach where we used to swim and frolic in the salt water.

 It didn’t take long for me to get sidetracked as well and start having fun at the beach. When the time came to get my shoes and go home I could not find them. I searched and cried and searched and cried until suddenly I saw my precious new shoes floating out to sea. I did not realize the tide had been rising while we were playing. I was devastated. I went back to the beach everyday for a week in the hope that the tide had washed them in but, no such luck. I did not tell a soul about the fact that I lost my shoes until a week later.  A week was not long enough however, because I will never forget how angry my mother was when she realized I lost my shoes.  Fifty –seven years later I still remember watching my pretty blue shoes float away.

© 2012, notesonsole.com.

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Give a girl the right pair of shoes, and she can conquer the world.

~Marilyn Monroe

© 2012, notesonsole.com.

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Christian Louboutin recently designed a modern day glass slipper in honor of Walt Disney’s release of “Cinderella” on Blu-ray disc. The real-life version of the glass slipper is made from lace and Swarovski crystals and has a five inch heel; a perfect shoe for today’s Cinderella.

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It was June of 1985 and school was letting out for the summer.  My mother had just brought home another box of clothes that my older cousin could not fit into any longer.  I have a lot of cousins and it was customary for us to hand clothes down to one another. I tore open the box with fervor.  For the most part I enjoyed rifling through a box of my older cousins clothes because I thought it was cool to wear something that someone three years older than me was wearing.  However, I was not prepared for what I would see next.

Sitting on top of a neatly folded pile of sweaters was a pair of the ugliest dark brown, lace-up shoes I have ever seen.  Before I could hide the shoes beneath the sweaters my Mom leaned in over me and plucked the shoes out of the box.  “Look at these great shoes”, she proclaimed.  My stomach churned. Was she serious?  “These will be great for school and they are just your size”, she said.  I imagined all of my classmates lining up the next day for recess.  All of the other little girls would be wearing shiny new black or white dress shoes to match their summer dresses and I would be wearing shoes that my grandfather could have worn.  I was horrified.

So, the next day I went off to school hoping that no one would notice my footwear.  I was sure my shoes were protruding off my feet like Ronald McDonald’s big red shoes.  I had almost made it through first and second period when one little boy pointed at my feet and stated “hey, my older brother has shoes just like those”.  I sank into my chair as the whole class laughed.  Thankfully the bell rang for recess and right on cue everyone lined up to go outside.  As usual all the kids raced to the playground to grab a place on the swing set and normally, I was never fast enough to grab one.  But today was different.  All the other girls couldn’t run as fast in their dress shoes and with my sturdy brown lace-ups I was able to beat them all to the swings.  I could even run faster than the boys!  I may not have been wearing pretty dress shoes, but I had a seat on the swings.

I hit a growth spurt over the summer and by the time school opened again for the fall I had grown out of my brown shoes…much to my relief.

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