I was having a Cinderella moment as I slid my foot into the silver slipper, only, rather than a fancy carriage, I was in the shoe salon at Macy’s buying my first pair of what shall now be known as my hip-high heels. Actually, they are more like low high heels, but heels just the same.
Shoes have been a grim subject for me since I fractured my hip several months ago, but now that I am up and running — alright, more like walking than running — I was ready to ditch the very flat, but “safe” shoes that have been my companions as I edged from walker to cane and finally to “look mom, no hands” walking.
Only in my case, it was “look, daughter,” my slightly overattentive self-appointed nurse through my recovery. When I broke, and I use that word with caution, the news to Sara that I was ready to take the leap, another word I use with caution, to shoes that would make me smile, she was hesitant, but understanding. “Let’s go shopping, Mom.”
As I took my first steps in a pair of silver sandals with a charming little heel, I may have been a little unsteady, but it was more from excitement than lack of balance. In my mind’s ever-evolving movie machine, I saw the 13-year-old me trying on her very first pair of heels in a shoe store in Norfolk, Virginia. They were red leather kitten heels that I had admired in the store window for months imaging the day when I would be deemed old enough to wear them.
My mother treated me to them to go with a navy blue taffeta dress I would wear to a family Bar Mitzvah. The dress had belonged to my cousin Susan in Rochester, whose mom periodically sent me a box of clothes that her daughter had outgrown. Mom was able to splurge a little on the shoes since she didn’t have to buy me a dress. How I loved those shoes.
Sixty-some years later, I found myself once again checking out shoe store windows, waiting for the time I could wear high heels. This time, age wasn’t the problem. At least not being too young. I was just as excited as when I tried on those red shoes all those years ago. Maybe even more.
Email patriciabunin@sbcglobal.net. Follow her on Patriciabunin.com.