Women of a certain age can stop walking on tiptoes, trying to avoid the shards of all those mirrors thrown at them.
In their sensible shoes, they can walk on eggshells, crush them to a fine powder, and tell the world the bare-faced truth.
They can finally learn to please their own soles.
Women of a certain age are certain about this: new shoes can change your life.
I know, for I have walked a mile or more in my mother’s shoes, and my feet ache. So now, I’ll walk a while in my father’s shoes.
It’s okay.
I’m of a certain age.
( Tiptoes from here.)
year-struck 
Amen, sister!
Please open to page 382.
Most children’s feet are too small to fill either their mother’s or their father’s shoes. I am so thankful that my mother bought me my own shoes, although as a child it was fun to tiptoe around in Mom’s high heels (until my feet ached)! I am finding, now that I am reaching a certain age, that the shoes that I choose look more and more like my mother’s.
My mother loved heels when she was younger, then she wore flats. But I never saw her wear tennis shoes or sports shoes of any kind. She also did wear “old lady shoes.” I’ve never been that crazy about heels, so I don’t have the bunions she had.
Brava! Yes, I followed my own bliss as early as allowed, and worked my way through little heels to dead-flat ballerinas to spike heels to those 3″ pillar-like heels (caught one on a stair edge and went head-first down a few stairs) to high wedgies to…blessedly I always had my Keds and then my Birkenstocks to retreat to when I actually had to walk somewhere….and now, one pair of “sensible” ties, several pair of walking sandals, some Birks still, a pair of Keds, and a couple of pair of clogs. One pair of dressy flats. Aaaaahhhhh. I do not crave Manolo Blahniks, and I left off toe shoes when I stopped taking ballet lessons.
I am just like you, RAB, except I do have a couple of pairs of shoes with a 2 inch heel that I force myself to wear to weddings and such.
I am very sensible when it comes to my feet. I go barefoot as much as possible, allowing my flat wide webbed feet to experience the joy of the earth. 🙂
I imagine it’s hard shopping for goose-sized shoes. 🙂
Very nice.
I followed the link…I don’t know why but my eye was drawn to the pink patent leather doc martin boot….can ladies over a certain age wear those? These seem pretty darn sensible to me.
Women of a certain age can wear whatever their hearts desire. It feels very nice to stop trying to please everyone.
That photo says it all! Imagine coming from a tribe somewhere … one which goes barefoot or wears banana leaves tied to their feet … and seeing shoes like this for the first time.
A sensible tribal would assume those things are an instrument of torture. Which they are!
Absolutely. It’s the same way we feel about foot-binding in China. It seems barbaric to us, and yet it was the height of fashion.
I am a diehard fan of ballet flats so I have never mastered the *art* of walking in heels. But looking at the lovely pair in the image – I am tempted to try!
You are braver than I am. I can’t imagine tippy-toeing around in those. I think I would fall flat on my face.
I think it’s Shoe Week in the blogosphere! I’ve had a request to post pics of my sneaker collection. I wouldn’t dare post my hubby’s – it would be a post a day, with detailed histories of the make and model and when he had it or wanted it as a teen. Yawn! I just like my funky ones 🙂 and rarely a heel to be seen! That’s following in my mom’s shoes for sure – sensible low heels or flip flops or just plain ol barefoot. Ahh.
Your husband has quite the sneaker collection. Does he ever throw any away?
No, and he still grumbles about the ones his mother threw away when he wasn’t looking.
I am of an age who notices the tortured shoes my granddaughters are wearing. My feet quit years ago and I’m much nicer now that my feet don’t hurt.
Women do the strangest things in the name of fashion. You don’t see men doing things like that, do you?
Neckties! And…that why isn’t it over yet fad of wearing your pants down around your knees with your boxers on display. But, they aren’t nearly as painful to wear as to look at!
I’m still shaking my head at that photo. I believe those mirror shards might be embedded in her soles, or perhaps in her soul, because no one needs to be that uncomfortable. Really.
I went through a phase of platform shoes; being short and small for my age, I liked to pretend I was the same as everyone else. I wasn’t. I didn’t even manage to fool myself, much less anyone around me. I did, however, fall flat on my face a few times. Ouch.
These days it’s about the bare minimum necessary to cover the soles of my feet, on those rare occasions when shoes are a requirement. Otherwise, it’s naked feet against the cold ceramic tile, or the rough concrete, or the faded carpet, or the spiky green grass. In my world of my own making, shoes are optional attire, even though I have been known to walk in someone else’s shoes for a bit of time. Just to see how they fit. Or how they don’t.
Unfortunately women have mirrors thrown at them all of the time, and the mirrors are the kind that make you feel like your body is just not good enough.
The discomfort to the back and the feet that high heels cause doesn’t seem like much when you’re young, but the damage can be permanent.
I’m with 99 above. Just looking at that picture make (1) my feet hurt; (2) vertigo sets in; and (3) I will call ahead for the ambulance I will surely need if I try to walk in those.
Sneakers, flats, sandals, Yes. Flip Flops and Stilettos, no. Never. Ever.
I’m with you, Elyse.
I am all for comfort and if that means not so stylish shoes so be it. If feet were really meant to wear shoes they wouldn’t be so funny shaped with all the lumps and bumps and stuff they would be something less complicated.
Shoes that are good for our feet are rarely stylish. But if everyone started wearing them, they would suddenly become stylish. Remember when the young girls wore combat boots?
Guys are so lucky (and weak). We could never pull it off. I congratulate you for doing exactly that. There are perks to that come with being of a certain age.
I read an article online that some men’s shoes now have the narrow pointed tips that create hammertoes and bunions. Beware.
Duly noted. Appreciate the heads-up ;-D
Sometimes we women of certain age can just go barefoot if we feel like it as well. How’s that for the naked truth!
There are advantages, and that’s one of them.
Being of that certain age, we can all do exactly as we please, wear whatever we like and not care one whit about fashion, sense or even comfort if we wish. But I go for the comfort.
Me, too. Men have been doing that for years, so why not us.
I used to have a collection of really pretty but highly uncomfortable shoes. It wasn’t so hard to wear them for a while once upon a time, but now…. Now I have a fabulous collection of imminently comfortable, but otherwise fairly ugly shoes. And I love wearing them when it’s cooler out, and even when it’s warmer to keep out of the poison ivy i have to dig out of my yard (otherwise, I’m with Natalie, barefoot’s the way to go).
I like the look of high-heeled shoes. Partly, I’m sure, because I’ve been trained by the culture to find them attractive; partly because they often have a great design. But at this point, I think of them more as knick-knacks. 🙂
I’ve been of a ‘certain age’ ever since I learned to walk, I guess. I’ve always thought that if men can wear comfortable shoes all the time, then women can too!
Good thinking.