a story about shoes

both of my parents are cheap. they are both cheap for different reasons. growing up my mom took me clothes shopping at wal-mart and shoe shopping at payless shoesource. i remember going to these 2 places annually in elementary school and middle school for back to school shopping.
i'm pretty sure it wasn't until i was in middle school that i actually went inside of a mall. i didn't even know what banana republic was, all i knew was that all the cool kids wore their t-shirts and i didn't have one. ...like what my friend emily is wearing here.
it was in middle school that i really learned about "brand names". one of which was keds. everyone had fancy white keds with the blue "keds" branded on the back of the shoes. i wanted a pair of keds. my mom said no. so on our trip to payless i saw, and tried on the cheap version of the white canvas shoes at payless. after trying them on and looking at the back hoping that the all important blue "keds" would show up on the back and seeing that it didn't i decided to go ask the sales lady at the front of the store. and in all honesty i had no idea what i was doing.
i went up to her and asked "do have kids?"
she replied "kids?"
i said "the shoes."
she said "oh the shoes? you mean keds."
me "yes, keds, sure whatever. do you have those?"
"no we don't carry those here."

i didn't even know how to say the word keds and so i walked away devastated and embarrassed.

mom and i walked out of the store with the plain white canvas shoes a.k.a. the fake keds. my solution to this problem? simple. take a blue pen and write "keds" on the back of my shoes. yes, i did this. i remember feeling so cool the next day walking to the bus stop, and then the cool 8th grader making fun of me for it. she asked "did you write keds on the back of your shoes?" my once brilliant idea of coolness and owning a pair of "keds" turned into everyone at the bus stop laughing at me.
i don't remember what happened after that moment, but i do still remember this happening like it was yesterday. of course i can laugh about it now but i was heart broken when it happened.

a few years later i did own an actual pair of keds. i can still remember trying them on and thinking "wow this is what it feels like to try a pair of shoes on that have an actual arch." because those shoes at payless, they were flat. no support whatsoever, but at that time i didn't know any better.

in fact, last summer i bought a pair of gray keds. i bought them because i could and because i don't buy my shoes at payless, and because i wanted those blue letters on the back of my shoes without me having to put them there! they are my go to casual/weekend shoe!

50/50 60min