Saturday, June 19, 2010
2:55 AM
Penny Loafers
It's not just a shoe. It's a work of art.
For as long as I can remember, penny loafers have been my all-time favorite shoe. I have no idea why this one style of shoe is so appealing to me but it always has been. Even when I was really little, I was head-over-heels in love with these shoes and every time I saw a pair, whether in person, or in a catalog, I used to stare longingly at them and beg my mom to get them for me. I asked for them for Christmas, for my birthday, and for every day in between. One day, when I was a preschooler, I found a pair at Ray's that I just had to have but much to my dismay, my mom refused to buy them. (Bless her heart. She couldn't say yes all of the time!) As a rule, I was not much of a fit-throwing child. I would tear up sometimes or beg a little too much if I saw something I wanted in a store that my mom wouldn't buy but I was never one to just have a conniption and create a scene over such matters. However, this one particular day, for reasons still unclear to me, I had my heart set on that pair of penny loafers and when my mom refused to buy them for me, I absolutely lost it. It wasn't a kicking and screaming kind of a lost it but when we got into the car, (and all the way home, and for an hour or two after we got home, lol) I cried my eyes out over those shoes. It's not as though I had never been told no before so I don't know why that particular shoe disappointment was such a big deal to me but it really was. I loved those shoes and I was desperate to have them. I ended up crying myself to sleep that afternoon. My dad, who was a traveling salesman who was regularly gone for a week or two at a time, came home from the road and woke me up to say hello. Even though I had been asleep for quite awhile, he could tell that I had been crying so he asked my mom about it and she told him that I had cried myself to sleep because she refused to buy a pair of shoes that I wanted. By this time, and really, understandably so, my mom was furious with me because I had ruined her whole day whining about those shoes and I'm sure that the main reason she didn't buy them was because she was just trying to watch the budget and not spend frivolously. My dad made good money back then but we also had a lot of bills and I'm sure my mom had some reason for worrying about spending that I was too young and myopic to understand at such a young age. Also, they really didn't have the size I needed. The ones I had tried on, and begged to be allowed to purchase, were actually a little big. Given the fact that my mom thought shoes didn't fit properly unless your toes were protruding out of the end of them, I'm sure that they were way, way too big as far as she was concerned. lol
Nonetheless, I was sad all over again once I woke up and realized I still didn't have my shoes and my dad, having been gone for several days, naturally felt sorry for me (and probably also a little guilty for being absent so often) so he sort of jokingly scolded my mom and told her to take me back to the store to get those shoes immediately, as it was late Friday afternoon by then, and they were about to close. Back to the store we went, and I got the coveted penny loafers. They were indeed too big, just as my mom had said, and I had a hard time wearing them because of that but I wore them just the same. lol On the bright, slightly redemptive side of things, having to wear a pair of shoes that were about a size too big taught me a valuable lesson and I never asked for ill-fitting shoes again, no matter how much I loved them. lol
Over the years, I've owned more penny loafers than I can begin to count or remember. I have two or three pairs in my closet right now and I still get that happy feeling inside when I see or wear them. I just don't wear the cheap kind from Ray's or the Dollar Store anymore. I stopped wearing those when I was in jr. high. Cheap, faux leather loafers give me the willies. I can't stand to look at them. But for as long as I'm alive, wherever quality leather, name-brand shoes are sold, I'll be there eagerly looking for my size, and willing to sacrifice all of my disposable cash on another beautiful addition to my lifelong collection of penny loafer dreams.