Shoe fetishes are common among women, and even some men are crazy for women's shoes. Some years ago when I worked in the television industry and spent all my salary on clothes, I had at least 50 pair of shoes, all neat in their boxes. I would buy shoes to match every outfit and like a child, have to wear the new pair out of the store.

Actually as a child, I never got to wear new shoes out of the store, never even got to go to the store. My sister, brother and I would usually get about two pair of shoes a year, one new pair when school started and a pair of Sunday shoes before Easter in the Spring. We went barefoot in the summer.

About two weeks before school, Mama would cut a brown paper sack to lie flat on the floor. Each of us children would stand with our bare right foot on the paper sack while she traced the outline of our foot onto it with a soft pencil or crayon. She said the right foot was always biggest. Then she and dad would take the cut-out 'paper feet' to the shoe store and come back with a surprise pair of shoes. I got brown lace up high top oxfords until I was about nine. My dream shoes were black patent Mary Janes or grey suede loafers.

We were lucky to get those new shoes; some children in my class didn't. There were four or five boys who always came to school barefoot until the first frost. These were the same boys whose hands were stained brown in the fall from hulling walnuts and red in the spring from picking strawberries. They may have harvested other crops that didn't leave visible stains. I know they were sometimes absent to cut hay.

No wonder I went shoe crazy when I could buy my own shoes. My first job was for Genesco in Nashville, (General Shoe Corp). For $1 I could buy sample shoes from the warehouse. Even a bookkeeping clerk could afford shoes at that price. I wore size 4, which were sample shoes during that era, and sometimes they were one of a kind designs.

When I worked in television in Birmingham, I modeled shoes for a local retail outlet. Sometimes they took still shots from the knees down (as above) and sometimes I walked on an elevated ramp in my mini shirt, so that only bare legs showed on camera.

The store gave me a discount on shoes, so my closet was filled with exotic styles and colors. all the spectator pumps, strappy sandals and suede shoes you could ever want. The high heels made me look taller and helped me strut my stuff.

My first shoe purchases when I moved to the Lone Star State was a pair of Tony Lama sea turtle western boots from Stelzig's in Houston. I wore those beauties until the toes were down to metal and they had two resoles. I think one of them is still in a closet ssomewhere.

Now my shoes are picked for comfort and support. They don't have to strut, or dance, just get me where I'm going and back again without disaster.