ALL STAR!

 
So, I am now the owner and wearer of my first Converse All Stars since the 20th century. Can you believe it? On a trip to Brazil in 2000 I bought a pair of suede green leather low-top Nikes that I thought were pretty cool and more "grown-up", a better brand, or something. With that about a decade of exclusive All Stars wearing ended. I am so disinclined to purposeful or frequent athletic exertion, that those shoes lasted me until this summer.

I felt the lack of gym-style shoes nevertheless, though not with enough urgency to buy some before now. At the time I automatically felt drawn to Chuck Taylors as familiar, safe, comfortable and cheap. Imagine my surprise to find that a pair commands as much as $55 this century! When I balked at this at the mall shoe store, the 17 year old (hip) salesman said, "Oh yeah, All Stars are cool, they've been going up in price for a while". Not only that, but the first time I put on this new pair at home, even my wife (who has never seen me wearing All Stars) said, "look kids! Dad is cool!" When did this happen? When did Converse All Stars become cool?

 Maybe I'm wrong, but I started wearing them in junior high in part because they were the least expensive shoe that were still (sort-of, almost) socially acceptable. I embraced them for this reason and because my cousin, who always seemed a genius to me at making our hopelessly-not-cool into our very own anti-cool wore them (with argyle socks). And they were our thing because I don't remember anyone else really wearing them. I honestly don't remember them being cool. I thought they were the poor kids' shoes.

Nevertheless, when I saw a pair at the retail outlet store the other day (while shopping for shoes for my daughter) for $27.99, I thought I'd better not pass them up (didn't find anything for my daughter).

Classic navy-blue high-tops with bright white (soon-to-be-dingy-gray) laces and stitching. They'll do just fine.

Now, I don't wear the same size jeans in the 21st century as I did in the 20th, but I still fit into the same size All Stars. And putting them on was just like putting on...well...a comfortable pair of favorite old shoes.

I'm wearing them now. As I write this. And I feel great. But some interesting things are happening.

Suddenly I want to listen to all my pre-Y2K They Might Be Giants CD's, wear hooded sweatshirts, and cut class. (I was going to add "daydream about naked girls" but I've actually always done that).

All-Star clad foot memories come flooding back as well: push-starting my VW bug and then making quick shifts while absolutely certain I was going 20 miles per hour faster than I really was; putting them on the feet of nearly every cartoon figure I ever drew;  the unique smell my feet soon acquired; the way they wick every bit of warmth from your feet when the temperature drops anywhere below 50 degrees; trying to figure out how to lace them in such a way so I could just slip them on and off without ever having to touch the laces again; drawing designs on the white (dingy-gray) rubber parts to make time pass in class...

I'd totally forgotten how "me" these particular shoes have always been. I'm so glad to be back.

Now, if they've actually become cool as well, I suppose I can live with that. I still need all the help I can get in that area. I just hope I'll be able to afford to buy them for my kids so that they can be cool, too...

The foot powder was actually just a happy, but appropriate coincidence.