Saturday, July 23, 2011

DESIGN BY LEPRECHAUN



Last month went out to purchase a pair of shoes to wear for everyday. I wanted something in black, no design, nothing fancy, a round toe, the soles had to be flat, no intricate design to them, in other words, a basic shoe.

Going into a shoe store I had visited years ago, I found that they didn’t carry anything remotely like what I wanted, which was what I was wearing. Not only that, there is no one that will help you when you want them to. However, if I were just trying to get out of the heat on a very hot day, they would be over me like sweat on a racehorse.

I traipsed through the outlet mall in Riverhead, from one store to another, not finding anything. Finally a salesman comes over to help me.

“I want a black shoe, nothing fancy, no design, no stitching on the toe, no nothing. Just a round toe black shoe that I can wear with my jeans.”

“Hokay” he begins the process of annoying me to no end, showing me shoes with stitching on the toes.

“NOOO, I want something plain!”

He gets me more choices, with all kinds of designs and more stitching.

“No, no, no!” He gets me shoes designed by leprechauns, the toes, almost spiraling skyward. In fact, most of the shoes are designed that way! We leave and find one more store tucked away in a flow of stores that sell everything. I walk in and hear the sound of little brats, running around while the parents just go about looking for shoes. Some of the brats bump into you, run into you, and make a lot of noise.

Suddenly, from across the room I see them. It is love at first sight! I start to run toward them, as the sequence of events turns into a slow-motion run, my arms stretched out, the overhead music turning into some orchestrated romantic background, the birds are singing and the flowers blooming, and the shoes, although not black, are what I was originally looking for when I settled for the old black ones years ago!

I had come full cycle!

1 comment:

Jim Pantaleno said...

I went shopping today looking for plain, slip-on canvass shoes for the summer. Ten shoe stores and 150pairs of neon, day-glow sneakers with ruffled bottoms, I'm still looking.