I contacted the Boy Scouts Office here in Southeast recently and asked, since there is already a scout troop up and going in town, if there's anyway I can be of help and get involved. So they asked me to be the Committee Chair for the Cub Scout troop in town with the understanding that as I help with the paperwork and teaching and recruiting and the troop grows and meets their goals and we begin to get Boy Scout age kids, The Salvation Army Haines Corps can charter the Boy Scout troop. Its been really exciting studying up on the Cub Scouts and planning for the next year. Yesterday I went with the pack leader to look at the Scout property here in town and I decided to take my son with me.
He got excited and grabbed his shoes, a pair of nice brown ones. But, he's got an awesome pair of Buzz Lightyear shoes that light up when he walks, and I wanted him to wear those because they're awesome and say "Hey everybody, look at me I'm the bomb because I have lights in my shoes." They are much cooler than the shoes with the pumps in the tongue, much cooler.When I went to put those awesome shoes on my son, my wife told me they didn't fit him anymore. I refused to believe it. He's my little boy, and while his clothes may quickly become too small, his feet will stay the same size always. After all, his daddy has small feet, I buy my socks in the kids section of the store. Pretty cool when wearing black socks with my uniform that I have the secret knowledge that the bottom of my black socks says "McKids" on them.
So, because I refused to believe my son's feet have grown like the rest of him and his shoes will one day be useless to him, I did what any man would do. I sought out to intentionally prove my wife wrong. I sat him in his chair and used all of my manly physique and muscles, and a good helping of a butter/Crisco recipe to put his cool shoes on. Turns out they're not too small after all. Sure he may have walked a little funny, but at least he looked cool. Within a week, a day, or a month though, I'm sure they will be too small to cram his feet into. But hey, for today, I won. I told my wife though that when that fateful day comes, we'll have to replace these shoes with another pair of light up shoes, a cooler pair if that's possible.
After a quick glance at me to see if I was serious about my statement, my wife asked why it mattered so much to me that our son have lights on his shoes. I quickly thought of the "Pastor's Answer"-so that our son could be reminded and when he's old enough remind others that God's Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Pretty good answer if I do say so myself. However, that's not really the reason. I'm trying to live vicariously through my son's footwear and relive my favorite pair of shoes as a kid, a pair that I wasted.I remember when light up shoes first came out. I think it was 1992 or 1993, but as I lived in Alaska at the time we didn't hear about new things like that until a year later, so I remember first seeing other kids wearing them when I was in fourth grade. Kids at that age don't worry too much about coveting another's wife, so a more appropriately themed commandment for kids at that age to me seems like it would be don't covet another's shoes. This is my country accent coming up so make sure you read it with the proper inflections please. I saw them pretty lights on people's feet when they walked and I wanted them pretty lights on my shoes too. End of accent.
That was the last piece, the last thing I needed to be cool (even to type it out makes me laugh, because all the things I did to be cool have left me, at the end of my 26th year of living, still among the dreadfully uncool). So I subtly (is that even a word) let my parents know that I might like a pair of shoes like that if they ever happen to run across a pair. However, kid's language doesn't always get interpreted right by my parents, as all they heard was "Mom, Dad, I need a pair of those light up shoes, you have to go buy me a pair right now, it will be the end of the world as we know it if you don't." Don't criticize that too much, there have been sillier predictions about the end of the world, don't you remember December 31, 1999 and 11:59:59?
I did, however, already have my school shoes for the year and didn't normally get another pair until we left Alaska on vacation as at the time Wal-Mart had not yet invaded Wasilla Alaska making things like that affordable. So, those shoes became the top of my Christmas list, above the other 50 things on it and the 52 things on my Birthday list. As I discovered these shoes in early September that left a long three months for my parents to listen to me nag about it every day and twice on Sunday, because after all God must have wanted me to have them and so it was my duty to remind my pastor father of his duty to fulfill God's will.I did receive those shoes as a gift, though I don't remember whether it was for Christmas or Birthday as its probably not that important anyway. I loved them, I loved the way they lit up as I walked around the house wearing them that day. But, after quickly realizing what a precious gift I had been given, I quickly realized how dangerous they are.
In Palmer Alaska in the winter it is always below zero outside, meaning its always at least 32 degrees below freezing and often much colder than that. There is snow, lots of it, ice, slush, puddles where people throw ice melt on the sidewalk. I became very afraid for my new shoes. Winter had just set in, and there was three months left of it and lots of opportunities for my shoes to get ruined.What if it was so cold outside that the air tight viewing area where the lights were ruptured thus breaking my lights and letting cold air hit my feet? What if the dirt and muck around the sidewalks and streets I had to walk on (pretty much just the one street to get to the bus stop) stained my shoes so you couldn't see my awesome lights? What if the flashing lights got the attention of a grazing moose who then came after me (not to steal my shoes though, that would be silly, which of the four feet would it wear it on) following the flashing lights, and what if that moose attracted a bear or something?
My biggest fear, though, of winter with my shoes was the thought that the lights in my shoes might get wet and electrocute me, cooking my feet while I walked. I pictured quickly getting to the bus stop, sitting on the bench waiting which I never did because it was cold and I refused to wear anything more than jeans and tennis shoes outside. Getting on the bus quickly and quietly so as not to bring attention to the fact that my feet were smoking, thanking God for assigned seating because that scene from Forrest Gump where no one wants to sit next to him is not funny in real life and there was no Jenny for me to sit next to. And then, a smell starts to make itself known in the bus, similar to bacon, in fact just like bacon wrapped in cotton. Kids would start asking questions about the smell and looking for the source, following their noses towards the front of the bus, which yes is where I sat it was safer, until they saw the smoking feet of Mark Davey. Laughter would ensue, and more jokes about me. These shoes made me picture myself being called Bacon Feet for the rest of my school age life. They would write a song about me, which might have been better than the one they sang, "The Davey family started when Mark Davey farted." I did not want to be known as bacon feet. Being called Beaver Boy (buckteeth were a gift from my English heritage) and Surlaw (walrus backwards) and railroad mouth were worse enough. So, I did want any logically minded kid would do. I put the shoes away until spring when all the snow would be gone, as well as the puddles, and my risk of cooking my feet with my light up shoes would be gone.
But, when spring came, the shoes didn't fit. I had wasted them because I was afraid of them and of "Bacon Feet." However, some lucky kid I'm sure bought them from the Thrift Store we donated them to, and maybe he needed a lamp unto his feet and I liked to think I helped him. If a girl bought them, well I just feel silly. Maybe that's why I want my son's shoes to last forever, to some way make right where I went wrong. To relive that part of my childhood through him.Today, the shoes fit, with some help from me. Sure he walks a bit funny, but pain is coolness (a modified statement). Tomorrow they may not be the case, and why do I care? Because when I see these shoes they aren't just my son's first light up shoes, I see my first light up shoes and I want them to last forever. Life goes on though and at least we have good times to remember with his first pair of light ups. Plus it reminds me not to waste a single blessing. He won't be upset to lose them, just me, he'll be happy to have something new to wear.
I wonder what adventures he'll, no we'll see wearing his next pair. I hope they will have Luke Skywalker on one foot and his dad on the other, with light up lightsabers so they can fight each other. They should make those for adults too, and I can duel with my son with our shoes.BLT says......maybe I should learn to let go of my old shoes, so my son can wear a pair that actually fit. Oh and light up shoes don't cook your feet if they get wet.
No comments:
Post a Comment