A Girl and Her Shoes

When I was a little girl, Mama would take me to Newsome’s Shoe Store just off the square in Decatur twice a year - in the fall to buy my winter shoes, and in the spring to buy my Easter shoes. The spring that I was four years old was no different - we walked from our house on Winnona Drive to downtown Decatur to shop for new shoes. I had outgrown my dark winter shoes, and I was excited about buying a bright new pair of summer ones.

When we entered Newsome’s, a saleslady greeted us and ushered us to a line of chairs, with the accompanying little stool where she would sit and fit me with my new shoes. She measured my foot and asked me what kind of shoes I wanted. A pair of Sunday School shoes was what I asked for, and my mother nodded in agreement and suggested white ones. The saleslady disappeared behind a curtain and soon returned with two shoe boxes. She slipped the first pair of white patent leather shoes onto my little feet, Cinderella-style, and instructed me to stand up while she checked to make sure I had plenty of growing room in the toes. I then walked across the carpeted store, admired my feet in the little mirror close to the floor and returned to my seat, asking to see the second pair, which was similar but had a diffent type of bow on the toe. After the same procedure was repeated, I asked her if she had any more shoes to show me. Back she went behind the curtain to the back room, and soon returned carrying four boxes this time. After trying on all these shoes and walking in them to see how they felt on my feet, Mama’s patience must have been growing thin, and she asked me if I hadn’t seen a pair I liked.

“Oh yes,” I replied and pointed to the first pair I had tried on. The saleslady looked at me and asked me why I wanted to try on so many pairs of shoes if I wanted that pair. My simple answer to her was, “I want to be like a big high lady.”

I am now a not-so-big high lady, and I still love trying on and buying shoes. I’ve discovered Designer Shoe Warehouse, which to me is the ultimate Shoe Heaven. Whenever I enter DSW, I am awestruck with the aisles and aisles of shoes on display for me to look at. My only problem is that there are so many to choose from, and the little girl who wanted to try on all of the shoes in the shoe store emerges, and I find myself overwhelmed by the selection. But I love the store, and I know that I can always find just what I am looking for.

And more.

A girl can’t have too many pairs of shoes.