Those wonderful daughters of mine are going about their business working and living….and shopping. They shop more often than I did at their age. And I must say, they are far savvier than I ever was. They always manage to find the most beautiful, aidel, and fashionable items. They never seem to mind the constant changes in styles that happen around them, like the fact that it’s virtually impossible these days to find a decent pair of shoes.
I’ve spent the
last two years unsuccessfully looking for Shabbos shoes. I used to shop at this
wonderful place that had rows and rows of lovely shoes. It was a discount store
that sold quality, well-made shoes in all sizes. I used to go there at least
twice a year and never had difficulty finding something just right. I often
felt like the proverbial kid in a candy store happily coming home with my large
shopping bag filled with enough goodies to last me for the season. But with
each passing year, the styles changed, and I couldn’t wear the shoes they were
selling, even if I liked them, which I didn’t.
Don’t tell anyone,
but I started wearing the same shoes every year – oh, mercy. It was
slim pickings to find anything suitable. Somehow, I occasionally managed to
find a nice weekday shoe, if I was lucky, but Shabbos shoes – no way! I would
comb the aisles more than once hoping to see something I missed but, more often
than not, would come home empty-handed.
Long before my
shoe closet started thinning out, my girls began shopping online for their
shoes. I scoffed at the very idea since I have the type of feet that need
special attention. No, I don’t need orthopedic shoes (yet) but I’m just not
made to fit most shoes that come out of a box. I’d always dreamed of having my
shoes custom made by an old Italian shoemaker. I envisioned visiting his dusty
little shop and having my beautiful shoes tailor made – or cobbler made,
in this case –
to fit me perfectly, shoes that wouldn’t pinch the toes on my left foot or
cause my heel to slip out on my right.
My daughters claim
that online shoes are great and can be ordered and returned for free if they
aren’t. The new shtick these days is
ballet flats, which all the younger generations are clamoring for. These little
shoes, which are made from tiny scraps of leather, come with a $200 price tag.
I just couldn’t get my head around that one, no matter how many pairs of shoes
I saw on my children and daughters-in-law and couldn’t imagine why anyone would
want them or, more to the point, how someone in their right mind could pay that
kind of money for a slipper! Of course, at my age I immediately thought of the
comfort factor and checked inside for a cushioned sole, of which, of course,
there wasn’t one.
So, there I was
with my old Shabbos shoes that I didn’t even like but bought because I needed
to wear something. I was beginning to get fed up, and somewhere along the way
the idea started to worm its way into my mind that maybe, just maybe, it was
time to think about considering buying those ridiculously expensive shoes. Then
I had this brilliant idea of going back to my favorite haunt and looking in the
designer section for a pair of these flats. I reasoned that they were sure to
be less expensive than the $200 ones my children buy, and it would be better to
be able to try them on rather than take the chance of buying something online
that didn’t fit. Besides, I had more time than my children did to go to a
brick-and-mortar store and didn’t relish the hassle of ordering and returning
shoes even if it didn’t cost anything to do it.
Well, sure enough,
I perused the designer section of my favorite shoe store and saw a pair of
flats in my size that were expensive in my eyes but cheaper than the quoted
$200, a definite bargain in my mind. Not only that, but they fit, not perfectly
but good enough, so I bought them. Now, I’m not one who knows the names of
these expensive footwear brands, but I do know these new shoes of mine are from
some famous designer with a name like a tree. It could be Branch or Birch or
something like that.
I have a good
friend from New York who used to tell me about this brand, and she said that
everyone knew about them. I couldn’t wait to tell her that I’m now one of those
fancy people who have them. Who knows, maybe they are already passé by now, and
that’s why this shoe was in the discount store in the first place. Well, that’s
okay. I can depend on my girls to keep me up-to-date on what’s the latest and
greatest, even if I don’t buy anything until I’m desperate enough and the style
is two years too late!
Zahava Hochberg created the weekly column Musings
Through a Bifocal Lens for the Monsey
Mevaser newspaper. She also created a section for the paper called “The
Silver Slant.” Zahava can be reached at zahava.hochberg17@gmail.com.
