Price check

I'm a second-hand shopper. I enjoy thrift stores and used goods shops. Part of what I like about them is the prices (although I will admit I've gotten too cheap to shop at Goodwill anymore); partly I think it's a test of a garment's durability to have it go through an owner or two first; partly because there are fewer it-looked-great-until-I-washed-it issues; and partly it means that the odds of someone wearing the same shirt as me to church is pretty slim. (The last two times I shopped retail last year somebody had BOTH items on in a two week span!) Not that I never shop retail but my motto is that someone else can be at the top of that particular food chain.

So, one of my favorite pairs of shoes came from a Salvation Army store in Saskatoon about three years ago. I'd flown in, I didn't account properly for the weather and needed a back up pair. Found just the right ones, too. Brown leather, basic cut, not-too-shiny finish that could go either dressy or casual, strong stitching and a nice 1 1/2" height that I could spend the day in. Perfect.

I've worn these shoes many, many times. Many times.

I've kicked them off at friends' houses, worn them to interviews, paced classrooms in them and generally have them handy as a default pair of shoes. Easy on, easy off when shoe shopping, easy on, easy off when I just need a short break, easy on, easy off when going through airport security, easy on, easy off when getting out the door in the morning.

So I was in a staff room yesterday on the last day of my residency at an elementary school. I had about 5 minutes before my last session, so dropped into a chair with one leg tucked up under the other. In this position, you realize, the sole of my shoe would be directly visible to anyone sitting to my right. Which there was.

When I got up to head out of the staff room, my shoe slipped off and flipped over as I adjusted my footing. And there was the testament to my cheap-skatedness written on the dark soles of my shoes in permanent, shiny, silver Sharpie marker that has apparently been there since the day I bought them...

$2.99