– Time For A Tiara: Column by Ginna Young – - Do you know your shoes don’t match?

– Time For A Tiara: Column by Ginna Young –

The last basketball game I was at, I sat with one of the player’s grandma and we were getting a chuckle over a senior’s shoes. One shoe was bright green, while the other was bright red-pink; I called them watermelon shoes.

That grandma mentioned that her grandson on another team wears one bright blue shoe and one bright turquoise shoe. We sat and tried to figure out if it meant something, like some sort of signal or emulation of a famous athlete.

We finally agreed the kids wear them mismatched, because they think it looks cool and because they can. Apparently, it is in fact, a trend. But, more on that later.

Our next pondering was if the kids can buy the shoes that way or if they have to purchase two separate pairs, in order to achieve their mismatched look. In doing a little digging online, I discovered that you can actually buy them in sets like that – but it’s gonna cost you.

I didn’t see any “regular” shoes on the sites I looked on, either. The ones offered for sale are more for models or bored socialites, rather than those of us who work and play like actual people.

So, I guess the kids are buying two pairs of shoes, after all.

Growing up, if you wore two different colored shoes, it meant two things: 1. Your mom let you dress yourself or 2. One of the pairs had a hole in it.

If you were lucky to own two whole pairs of shoes, congratulations! We didn’t have the money to buy more than one pair at a time and had to wear those out almost completely, before we got any others.

When I was in high school, the athletes didn’t wear bright shoes. It was mostly white, a few black ones and even some gray. Then, red started to trickle in. (I liked that!) After that, it seemed like blue and green made an appearance, then yellow (yuck!), purple, pink and orange.

Different colored laces also made an appearance, because matching ones are no fun. Every time I see bright pink athletic shoes, I smile, because I used to sport bright pink hair, at the same time one of the local boys wore bright pink shoes.

When I was at the games, a few people from out of town would ask me if I was his mother, because they thought he was paying tribute to me, by wearing that color!

So, on to the trend. Some, like our local boys, go bold, with bright, eye-catching colors, while others keep it understated, like a pair of neutral pumps, with a splash of sequins across the toe of one. I’m not against the trend, as long as you don’t break the bank to achieve it.

All this reminded me of one of my favorite children’s books, which I haven’t read in quite a few years, but prompted me to pull off the shelf. Bunny’s New Shoes. See, it’s about Maxine, an adorable white rabbit, who has outgrown her shoes.

Her mother takes her shoe shopping and Maxine knows just what she wants: one red shoe and one blue shoe, just like Spunky Spaniel, the star of her favorite TV show. However, Mr. Muskrat, the owner of the shoe store, isn’t having any of that.

Shoes come in pairs. Poor Maxine. She was forced to choose between the red or the blue shoes. While she was trying to make up her mind, in walked her friend, Arthur, and his mother, for new shoes. Arthur, like Maxine, wanted one red shoe and one blue shoe.

Maxine sadly explained that shoes come in pairs. Then, she had an idea and asked Arthur to get his feet measured. Size 6, just like Maxine’s! Now one of them could buy a pair of blue shoes and the other could buy the red, then they could swap one shoe.

It was a perfect solution – until Mr. Muskrat pointed out something they forgot. That rabbit size is very different from alligator Size 6, which is what Arthur wears.

The two deflated and picked out their shoes, red for Maxine and blue for Arthur. The two left with their matching laces, still wishing they could be like Spunky Spaniel, when Maxine had one last idea. Switch laces, of course. It was the perfect solution and the two danced home, as spunky as spunky could be!

I probably won’t join in the current trend happening, except for the different colored laces, but you never know about me. I may surprise you yet and show up to something, with two different shoes on.

If I do, it’s probably because I was tired and didn’t notice they weren’t the same color.