Some Thing(s) I Love(d)
[before reading on, you must know that this entry has been inspired by joe.my.god's recent "things i don't hate" entries (BTW - they are very worth looking at and provide an excellent entry point to a truly talented writer's POV.) Although i doubt i will ever be in joe's caliber of blogspertise, i have been admiring what he does for quite some time. And hell ... imitation is the highest form of flattery, right?]
In no particular order:
Thing #1: L.A. Gear sneakers. Growing up in a small, upstate, adirondack town (now internationally famous for it's proximity to the "boating disaster" on Lake George)the closest thing to high fashion was a small store in the center of town run by transplants from NYC. The items in the store were no doubt knock-offs that had been bought off of the back of a truck while the proprieters were visiting "family" in one of the five bouroughs (I'll let you decide which one).
Each September, Mom would take my sister and I to see what the latest [fresh off of the back of a truck in] NYC style was. I will never forget the first time I layed eyes upon the hightop sneakers with >gasp< two, differently colored pairs of laces -- IN EACH SHOE!. I dropped to my knees and pledged alliegece to Mr. Gear, the man who would no doubt be responsible for my extreme popularity.
After brief counsel from Mom, I was talked out of the purple/green laces and into the blue/yellow beauties - surely they would draw more attention because of their homage to our school colors.
I wore, with pride, my school spirit-filled kicks. The nuscience of tieing enough laces for four ordinary pair of shoes was but a small price to pay for having the best dressed feet in all of third grade.
I still get weepy when I think of the day that they went missing. I had removed them in order to participate in the torturous P.E. snowshoeing requirement (something that every child in the Adirondacks must be subjected to). And I still get angry when I think of Brian Carpenter showing up a week later in sneakers that eerily resembled my L.A. Gears save the colors of the laces: his were black and white.
Although I soon learned to love my Converse Hypercolor Hightops, nothing will ever replace the first in a long line of shoes that I loved.
In no particular order:
Thing #1: L.A. Gear sneakers. Growing up in a small, upstate, adirondack town (now internationally famous for it's proximity to the "boating disaster" on Lake George)the closest thing to high fashion was a small store in the center of town run by transplants from NYC. The items in the store were no doubt knock-offs that had been bought off of the back of a truck while the proprieters were visiting "family" in one of the five bouroughs (I'll let you decide which one).
Each September, Mom would take my sister and I to see what the latest [fresh off of the back of a truck in] NYC style was. I will never forget the first time I layed eyes upon the hightop sneakers with >gasp< two, differently colored pairs of laces -- IN EACH SHOE!. I dropped to my knees and pledged alliegece to Mr. Gear, the man who would no doubt be responsible for my extreme popularity.
After brief counsel from Mom, I was talked out of the purple/green laces and into the blue/yellow beauties - surely they would draw more attention because of their homage to our school colors.
I wore, with pride, my school spirit-filled kicks. The nuscience of tieing enough laces for four ordinary pair of shoes was but a small price to pay for having the best dressed feet in all of third grade.
I still get weepy when I think of the day that they went missing. I had removed them in order to participate in the torturous P.E. snowshoeing requirement (something that every child in the Adirondacks must be subjected to). And I still get angry when I think of Brian Carpenter showing up a week later in sneakers that eerily resembled my L.A. Gears save the colors of the laces: his were black and white. Although I soon learned to love my Converse Hypercolor Hightops, nothing will ever replace the first in a long line of shoes that I loved.
posted by brian. at 12:45 PM
