Here's the thing, Many people have been curious about why I wear Chucks, soley chucks (ha, pun) Let me explain. I have difficult feet. I always did. I have a heal of a time finding shoes that don't make me want to cry. My foot is wide, my arches high and I pretty much shattered my left ankle several years ago in a car accident. All three of these things make it difficult for me to find a shoe that fits and feels comfy enough to wear for longer than five minutes. No stilettos for this girl. But then again, at five feet eight and a half inches I am tall enough. That's not to say that in my younger days a sweet pair of pumps did not show off my sexy, sexy gams. But I digress.
A few years ago I was still wearing those clunky, horrible (for me), heavy, Nike-esque running shoe/sneaker things with the thick rubber soles. I pretty much hated them but like I said, my feet don't cooperate. Then one day I saw them, my first pair of Chuck Taylor All-Stars. You can doubt this if you like but it was a rainy, gray day. I was standing in the store, a DSW about to give up on ever finding a comfortable pair of shoes, thinking I had no choice but to move to Tahiti where I could go barefoot all the time when a ray of light, a yellow sunbeam of sneaker magic burst through the store front window and illuminated a pair of green Chucks, a rainbow had formed in the water droplets on the glass. I took a breath and tried them on. Ahhhh, relief, the feeling was delightful. They were wide enough and accommodated my arches just fine and for the first time since ankle-breakage, my dogs did not bark, I toe-tally loved my feet again. Now of course I was a little concerned about the fashion statement I was making so I asked six other women in the store their opinion and they all said the same thing—"you look so cute." Cute is usually what I go for. And so, on that day, you might say a Star, A Chuck Taylor All-Star was born.
It was shortly after that when I started to notice them everywhere, and not just in green or black but in wonderful bright, life-sustaining, Technicolor, my little artistic, free-spirited heart went pity-pat. Blue and purple, yellow and orange, pink and gray. Oh my. I was in a sneaker heaven. I loved the colors and whenever I could foot the bill, I purchased another hue.
But then something funny began to happen, people started to notice my Chucks and like them. They liked them. They really liked them. I wore Chucks exclusively, no matter the occasion. No matter the outfit. I wore Chucks. They've become my Trademark, my signature, my logo, my toe-go. As my friend and teenage student, Phoebe said, "nobody rocks Chucks like you." And I even had a couple of folks compare me to the red-Chucked Garrison Keillor and that's just mine by me.
And now that this whole Queen of Quirk moniker has taken charge of most things in my life, the Chucks are a nice fit. And I am happy to say that I can now wear my Chucks in all their glorious colorations wherever I go, with whatever I wear all year long. It's the toe-tal package now.
So what about you? Have you embraced your inner-Chuckness.? Let's talk. Send pix. Leave a foot-related, pun-filled comment and I'll send you a prize.
