For more info https://www.citymuseum.org/ , or Google "St. Louis City Museum" for more images.
A little (8 yr old!) girl: "Why are you wearing girl's shoes?"
Back story:
I have very few pairs of shoes. To make a long story a little longer, I was born with an oddly clubbed foot (as opposed to 'normally clubbed'! ) My foot didn't point out laterally or inward - medially, as 'normal' clubbed feet do, but, instead, my foot pointed straight up in front of me, in the shape of a safety pin. I have a surgically reconstructed foot that - before it was all said and done - had an accidental maggot infestation. My foot has been put through the ringer. Shoes are made for people with predictable feet. At least one of my feet will not be appearing in anybody's crystal ball any time soon. My man-made ankle does not reside in the same space as a normal ankle. Mine is a little closer to the floor, and a bit more forward on the foot. Thusly, nearly any and all shoes will rub the wrong way, and depending on the resilience of the shoe's material, I will have a bloody blister on my ankle (the side of my foot that is medial - closest to the center of the body) within seconds, minutes or hours. When I wear dress shoes to funerals, etc, I have to wear 3 - 4 socks on one foot AND several Band-Aids on my ankle so I won't be limping in pain before I get out of the house, and to avoid bloody blisters that seep through my socks.
Anywho.... For that reason, it is difficult for me to find a pair of shoes that I find 'friend' instead of 'foe'. I wear toed socks that I hand-knit year-round with sandals, with the exception of during the few deeper winter snows that the St. Louis region may or may not get. Even so, I usually wait them out, refusing to leave the house even to go just a few feet to the mailbox until the snow has melted off all sidewalks, roads and parking lots.
If I absolutely must get out of the house before the snow has adequately melted, I have a pair of Zoe thick-soled Doc Marten shoes that I can wear if we have only a couple of inches of snow on the ground. If the snow is deeper, I do have a pair of snow boots, but in the 12 years that I have owned those boots, I can count the times on one hand that I have worn them.
I also have a pair of shoes that I wear when I ride my bicycle, and when I explore the City Museum (wearing sandals to that attraction would mean definite foot suicide!)
These shoes were purchased from a mall store - the "Journey" shoe store. They are MEN'S All-Star Converse tennis shoes.
Please note the available 'Men's' sizing:
Yes, they are Hot Raspberry pink glittered men's shoe.
(Those of you that know me on a personal level will readily admit that if I wanted to wear a pair of 8" stiletto platform Lady Gaga-inspired pumps to a local mall at 3:00 PM in the afternoon to do some shopping, I'd do just that very thing with no hesitation.)
Years before I knew the most famous drag queen on the entire damned planet - RuPaul - I used her mantra:
"What other people think of me is none of my damned business."
(Translated: What they think is a problem in their head, and in their own self-imposed prison. It has nothing to do with me or my head.)
I asked this little girl - sporting a very safe / tame Page Boy haircut, "Why do you think that my shoes are 'Girl's shoes'?
Her answer, "Because they're pink!"
(Mind you, her parents were standing immediately behind her during this entire exchange.)
I asked her, "Then what color are boy's shoes?"
Her answer "Blue!"
My response, "Then, pink is for girls, and blue is for boys?"
Her response (with such an authoritative, "I'm smarter than you" look on her face that definitely would make you want to pop her upside her head!) : "Yep! Those are girl's shoes!"
(About that time, her parents knew she was going to lose a battle against someone old enough to be her grandfather, and they said to her, "Oh, honey! I love those shoes! Men are wearing pink these days!")
I looked at the little girl (who, thankfully, was wearing a blue top!), "Then, if that were true, do you know that you're wearing a boy's shirt?"
Girl: "NUH UH!" (Translated: "No, I'm not!")
Me: "It's blue, isn't it? You said yourself that pink is for girls and blue is for boys. You're wearing a boy's shirt!"
At that point, I decided that she was already filled up to the top by her starchy parents, and that it would take more power than I had and more energy than I ever wanted to devote to her cause to make her more malleable, and to enjoy the world as-is, rather than try to run it from her own little corner of Ladue, MO. (We were in downtown St. Louis, but - you will have to trust me on this one - I KNOW THOSE PEOPLE LIVE IN LADUE!"
My final statement to her was:
"You're much to young to have already collected the number of double standards that already you possess! But - in your short years, you have really worked hard. You've already changed yourself from a free, malleable and creative mind to a controlling, self-imposed prison!"
I then looked up at her parents and said,
"Congratulations! When she grows up, she'll fit right in with the rest of the Republicans!"
Then - I went on about my way, exploring the fantastical St. Louis City Museum, freeing my mind and my body then more than I did before.
- Michael
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