My Mother's Backless Shoes

I've had my coffee.  Had my Pinterest.  Now to get busy.  But first.............

Have you seen all the shoe pictures on Pinterest?  I love them.  I have even pinned a couple of them over the months.  This morning a memory came back to me...........long forgotten, but a sweet little memory. 

Mom had the prettiest suede black backless shoes (were they called mules?) that she saved back for special occasions.  I don't ever remember her wearing them at all, but I am sure she must have.  With five little ones under age 8, wearing pretty high heels was probably not a priority.  When I was about 8, I discovered them.  To me they were the sexiest shoes in the world, but at 8 I had no idea what the word sexy meant.  In fact, I hadn't even heard the word.  I sure knew those shoes were beautiful.............and movie stars wore them.  I remember they were suede, I remember they were black, I remember they were backless, I remember they were kind of pointy toes.  I remember they were beautiful!  I remember trying them on, several sizes to big, but I felt so pretty in them and dreamed of one day wearing them for real.  Sadly, when I was old enough to finally wear them, they had disappeared.

Do you remember your first pair of high heels?  I do!  Mine were white, extremely high, probably 4 inch heels with pointy toes.  Pumps they were called.  I had to practice walking in them.  I was in the 9th grade and had made National Honor Society...........how that happened, I will never know. 

Over the years, I have had some very pretty shoes.  I even had the first pair of square toed shoes of anybody I knew.  I was the height of fashion.  I have had several pairs of backless shoes and have a couple of broken toes to prove it, but I have never had a pair of shoes that were even remotely beautiful as my mothers backless shoes.

I love you.

Another memory.  About the same time as I discovered mom's shoes, I was wearing little Mary Jane shoes.  I can remember thinking how "grown-up" I was when I got my first pair of black patent shoes which had a strap could be turned back to the back of the shoe.  Remember those?  Now I had a pair of grown-up shoes without a strap.  Grown woman, I was!!!! 

All I Wanted To Do...........

All I wanted to do was look for a couch.

So off we went to Hoffman's in Moore to check out the furniture.  I have got a lot of wants and a new couch is just but one of them.  Walked in the door, and the gentleman welcomed us and told us to look around and let him know if we needed any help.  Now that is the way I like my salesman.  Move on back and let me look.  Nothing appealed to me so off we went to Mathis Brothers.

We walk in, hand in hand, and the doors part like the Red Sea.  We are just a step away from the gauntlet.  Hubby grits his teeth and mumbles with non-moving lips, "Watch 'em.  They're after us."  Off to the right we see a little island with a couple of employees looking us over, but they say 'nar a word.  Nope they weren't our vultures.  Somebody else was, but who?  "Try not to make eye contact."  Keep moving.  BUT there she is, perched on a pedestal.  Out of the corner of my eye, I see her slid down.  That's her.  That's our vulture.  She was spending time in the bird cage and our number came up on her dance card.  We were her victims. 

"Welcome to Mathis Brothers.  I'm SO AND SO, and this is my kingdom.  I will lure you and convince you that you will need what I have got whether you want it or not.  It is my job to follow you around like you are going to either pull out a knife and scratch you name on the tables or jump on the couches."  Maybe she didn't actually say those actual words, but in my heart that is what I heard. 

"We are just looking; nothing particular.  We won't need any help."  We move on, then I hear click, click, click of those high heels.  Stop.  Turn around and sure enough, she is looking at me, but she stops dead in her tracks.  I am on to her.  She is going to lurch around.  Turn a corner, look up and there she is again.  "Let me know if you need any help.  We just got this couch.  It's a so and so."  I thought we had discussed this!  I move on.  Bounced on another couch or two, and gee, there she was again, lurching over there, but I catch her eye once again.  She mumbles something and I smile.  I grit my teeth, but I know she sees my lips moving as I sweetly smile.  I kind of hope she could read my lips as I mumbled "Just LEAVE me along and I will more likely buy from you.  Keep walking lady, and I will guarantee you that I won't."  Sure enough she kept on walking.  Then the game began.  I told the hubby I should ask her something about every piece of furniture in the store.  We laughed but we really didn't have time for that game.  We could; however, play the game of criss-crossing the store, weaving in and out, bouncing on couches, jumping up to admire the table across the aisle, and back to the couch.  It became a fun little sick game that I began to enjoy.  The hubby suggested we go separate ways and see who she follows.  It was me.  Guess she thinks I have the purse. 

I was checking out all the reclining chairs when another salesman called her over and whispered something about man about a man who went up stairs, and they both literally ran upstairs.  Don't know what that was about, but she dropped me like a hot potato. 

I feel kind of lonely now.  She is gone.  Told my hubby about our runaway salesman so we decided to go upstairs to see who was more important than we.  Saw her wandering around, but we thought we were off the hook so we enjoyed wandering around in the boutique sections, looking at the discard sections.  There was another young salesman wandering around talking on his phone, irritatingly loud.  We listened and the guy was definitely making personal calls.  He was really concerned about his divorce.  Very personal information that he was openly discussing.  The trouble was, he was just wandering around even more irritating.  Doesn't this guy know he needs to go to the break room for this kind of conversation?  This went on for at least 15 minutes.  Finally he hung up, whirled around as we about ready to go back down and asks, "Do you need any help?  If you do, So and So, the Hispanic lady that greeted you when you came in can help you."  That dude had been sent to dog us.  Then I realized we really were HER victims.  She had won the game. 

"Let's get out of here."  All I wanted to do was look at couches.   

I think this lady irritated me so much was because she reminded me so much, both in physical appearance and attitude, to a certain woman I had the unfortunate task of occasionally working with.  Probably should let it go!

I love you.