I learned shoe tying in grammar school, maybe first grade, and tied my oxfords and tennies all these years, never thinking about it. I struggled to learn how to tie my shoes and am sure my laces dangled across the school yard at Longfellow School in Emmett, Idaho. How do I recall that? My mother made me wash my shoelaces, something I haven’t done since I left home at age 18. Well, maybe I had to wash them when I was in Marine Corps OCS, I don’t really think so because my drill instructor thought there were a whole lot of things more urgent than shoelaces.
But one day, not too long ago, I did something I said I would never do. I bought a pair of shoes with Velcro fasteners, in fact I bought two pair, black and white, winter and summer versions as I was taught in high school health classes, not that anyone pays attention to that rule of etiquette anymore. What a treat! I no longer have to remember my first-grade chant, over, under, two loops, granny knot and withstand the pain of my fingers going in directions in which they were not intended.My gnarled fingers thank you.
.
When I was younger, I recall making light of people with Velcro-fastening shoes, but no longer and I’m sorry I ever criticized them. I now wonder what is next in line of things I swore I’d never do. These beautiful shoes are welcome additions to my shoe closet.Hurray for the space program where Velcro was born!
