An Orthotic Experience

   Unhappy feet make for an unhappy person.  I am sure it is why senior citizens bark orders like "get off the lawn" when youngster walk across their well-manicured lawns in bare feet.  It's not the potential damage the little feet could do to the landscaping, it's that the oldsters feet hurt constantly and would hurt worse if mimicking the kids behavior.  Eventually, the old and not-so-old figure out that help is needed. We save up boat-loads of money to get orthopedic inserts made by high tech methods and then go in search of shoes "that work".
    This used to mean the dreaded Drew shoes.  Shoes so ugly, so medieval, so my-great-great-great-grandmother-with-only-one-club-foot-wouldn't-wear-them  looking that they gave 'functional' a bad name. Those cobblers castoffs redefined "walk of shame."  It is with this sense of dread that I walked into Kumpfs [whose shoes are rumored to be made out of kangaroo hide] with my own orthotics.
    In the small store are four other female shoppers: two old women, one of whom has a lifelong hearing disability (as evidenced by her speech pattern) and the other who bears a strong resemblance to actress Margaret Rutherford's  Miss Marple.  I can just imagine this broad marching through her morning constitutional in her pants hemmed way too high- doubtless to avoid the morning dew. A slender, middle-aged woman in baggy, autumnal-colored clothing and carrying a dog tote who would look more at home at a health food store wearing Birkenstocks.  The fourth, younger woman-dressed from socks to hat in retro 70's vintage chic- clearly is aware of her style.  And absolutely all of us are eager NOT to look like WWII pensioners from the ankles down.
   The mildly deaf woman must also have selective vision. She was trying on brown, snakeskin shoes which may have come up to her ankle 
bones...if you could find them. Her feet are now decidedly fashion forward.  The Stentorian covered her own cankles with a surprisingly delicate looking walking shoe which laced up with ribbons.  Our Macrobiotic Eater had a huge collection of shoes to try on- all of which strayed from sober with detailing in stitching and velcro fasteners. 
Tres Chic had the wildest taste in shoes, defying the Drew in the strongest possible way.   Two-toned and multicolored ,  metal-studded, up to the knee, slouched to the ankle, lace-up, velcro, pull-ups and every one of them with a high heel. Who knew any company made orthotic-friendly high heels? Tres Chic didn't deny the fact that she had orthotics and readily admitted that ortho-friendly shoes were expensive.  She decisively and unapologetically picked out a multi-colored suede pair of high heeled shoes with her eye on a pair of studded fashion boots for another visit.

    So what did I pick out?  After trying on several rather kicky (but always black) shoes, I found the 'nurses' shoe to be the most comfortable.  Plain, but not staid. Streamlined, but not chunky, so they will match both pant and skirt.  Functional but not kicking down Death's door. And not made of kangaroo (so few styles are.) I'll start saving now for a second pair for the warm season.  Red leather with peek-a-boo detailing and a velcro strap.
   And just maybe a heel.