My fake Wallabees, good for winter wear

These are the fake Wallabees that got me through college despite the sole holes. My Freshman year they were new, and in good condition.

 

By the winter of my sophomore year, they had holes, not as big as now, but big enough to let plenty of snow in. I got used to that, after a while, but was always careful not to step in a puddle of cold water.

 

By spring I was OK, the holes had grown some but I didn't care. By the following fall, though, I really wasn't looking forward to another winter with snowy feet. And a story (true) I think I put up here before.

 

I found that the janitor in the dorm collected old shoes people left behind and put them in a box in a storage closet, for those of us (I wasn''t the only one, I knew a guy who stuffed newspaper every day into his dress shoes to cover the hole.) who were too broke to buy new shoes when the old ones gave out. Most of them were too big for me. (I did start wearing a pair of Chucks, I think size 10 or so to gym class for a while, the first Chucks I ever owned, but went back to my holy imitation Keds because the really big Chucks were too loose.)

 

But there were some smaller children's shoes also. I found out that there was a program there where they housed families while one of the family took short courses, and sometimes the kids outgrew their shoes and the parents bought new ones (or dug second hand ones out of that box). They would add the "too small" ones into the box for someone else. Kind of like a thrift shop but free.

 

Among the shoes were a pair of nice leather boots, size, I recall 4 1/2. Now I wore a 7 or so, but I wondered if I could get them on, as that would solve my winter shoe problem

 

So I took them back to my room, and, with a little tugging, got them on. The toe box was pretty big, and my bent toes fit inside, as though I had hammer toes. But they were jammed pretty hard into the front of the boots. Well at first, they were OK, I walked around, got lunch, but by then the pain was starting. My bent, jammed in toes weren't happy.

 

I had to go to class then my campus job, which was being a part time janitor, sweeping aand such. So I went to take them off and put the wallabees back on. But for all the tugging, I couldn't get them off, they were stuck to my legs and feet.

 

So with no more time I wore my new, horribly painful boots as I limped to class. By the time the class was over and I had to go to work, the pain had subsided a little, and I survived the afternoon.

 

Back in my room I tried to get them off, without success. I went to dinner, the pain had subsided to some degree, but I thought my toes were numb. I tried several more times that evening, but my feet had probably swollen, as the boots wouldn't budge. So I wore the boots to bed that night. (I had a single room, so no one else knew.)

 

At least most of the pain was gone then,as long as I was off my feet. And the next day I wore them all day. The pain would come, particularly when I had to walk some distance or stand, but then go when I was sitting in class. But I had learned to live with it, and no one knew.

 

Back in the dorm, I had to do something. I couldn't wear the boots forever, and the next day I had gym, where I had to wear my decrepit sneakers. What to do. All the yanking, pulling, did nothing, it was like they were glued to my feet.

 

Then I had a thought. Leather usually stretches when it geys wet. So I took a shower, boots and all. (I was glad no one else saw me! and I went back to my room in my soggy, squishy boots and yanked. They finally came off, without too much yanking.

 

Now you think I'd have put the boots back in the box, deciding that they were just too small, but being stubborn I tried again. And now they weren't as painful and they had stretched enough that I could actually get them off in my room. Well, I kept wearing them for a few hours a day, and within a couple of weeks, I could wear them all day without too much discomfort, doubled up toes and all. My toes got used to being squeezed like that.

 

So I ended up wearing them all that winter, the following winter (actually sometimes in the rest of the year, as they looked much more presentable than the really holy wallabees. I'm pretty sure I wore them to my job interviews as a senior. And I wore them from time to time after graduation for a year or two, sometimes to work, before finally buying another pair of boots, size 6 as I recall. By then the soles had holes like my wallabees and I ended up throwing them out.

 

But after the first few weeks, I could wear the boots all day, even running to class, without even thinking about my bent toes. No pain, my feet were happy. And the leather had stretched enough so I could get them on and off without a struggle.

 

It was remembering that experience, years later that got me into wearing small shoes again. And most of the time, size 4 1/2 is just fine.

 

Now back to the wallabees, pictured here. I never through them out (in fact I wish I had kept the boots after I got rid of them). I still wore them from time to time, including often to class in graduate school. Then some years later I was between jobs one whole summer and fall, but had some part time work in the city.

 

The place had a bunch of musicians, many of whom wore old, decrepit sneakers or boots there, so I started wearing the wallabees there every other day, alternating with the now broken clogs which even then had worn down heels and one broke in half one day during the time I worked there.

 

I often wondered what people thought when they saw me on the subway with the wallabees and my toes sticking out, or the worn down clogs one cracked in half. I thought they might think I was homeless, but then there were many musicians artists and students who wore worn out footwear (and clothing). I might have gotten a few stares, but never a comment or question. And my footwear fit in perfectly with the place I was working.

 

t was that summer where the wallabees wore to pretty much their current condition. The heel burst, the holes grew to their current state, including the holes all the way across both shoes,.

 

Some of the glue failed holding the soles to the upper, in fact the front part of the right shoe came completely loose a couple of times when I was wearing them in the city, leaving me with bare toes until I got some tape to make a temporary repair. When I got home, I'd attempt to glue it back together, with varying success.

 

In fact I recall wearing them a few times with the front of the shoe left at home because the glue I had tried wasn't holding, and my bare toes walking all over town on the pavement. My shoes looked just like those of a couple of the musicians at that point, so no one at work cared.

 

I considered leaving the front of the right shoe off for good, but decided to try a different glue. The new glue held the long side of tha front piece to the upper OK, but not the short tab you can see in some of the photos. I found that for the short term, it usually stuck to the remains of the sole on that side as long as I didn't bend my toes. Then it would pop loose.

 

I think I finally got it to stay put with a hot glue stick, but it has come loose again. But I don't wear these too often, and not to work now. I save that for the black Reeboks, the grey Cappezios and some of the size 3 sneakers.

Done