In an age-defying act, pulled the high! heels out of the back of the closet, put them on and out the door, hitting the sidewalk with a clip! A clip, clip clip,- the sound of a horse shoe on cobblestones. Too close to appointment time to turn back and change. For the next 2 hours, go about my business and at last am on my way home. As I clip clip [not clip-clop thank goodness] down the sidewalk, I become aware of someone, about knee high, matching my pace. No one could match the volume. Looking down I see this precious girl child, dressed in pink from the sandals to the headband, matching my gait. ‘Pretty noisy, huh”, I say to her with a smile. Her mother turns around and says ” Nice! makes a confident, here-I-come-sound”. That wasn’t what I was thinking, but I loved the take. Back to my knee-mate. She looks up and says “I like high heels!” The multitude of thoughts that went through my mind! The conditioning, the sense of what it does for a woman vs. a vs men, the ‘picture’ we all buy into. But I let all of that float away and looking at her sweet brown eyes, said “Me too. I just wish they were a bit more quiet.” As I announced my progress, still looking down at her, she pulls back the shoulder of her pink sweater, and shows me a ‘pin’ on her pink dress. I pushed up my sunglasses to have a closer look. Without my reading glasses, it looked like a gold circle – about the size of a penny with a red blob with black spots in the middle. I can’t do any better than that, so I ask, “What is that?” “It is against people – this child could not have been more than 4 – 5 at the outside – who smoke and then drop it on the ground and step on it.” “Oh girl'” I said’ “I am totally with you! I think that is so awful. Just awful!” [Little did she know that is my pet peeve: outside the door of my apartment, from the restaurant-goers who leave the outside tables to smoke.] By this time her ‘Granddi’ was walking just ahead, and she points to her and says “My Granddi never smoked’. “Oh”I said, “What a good Granddi, and you never will either!” That she confirmed with a shake of the head, as they peel off to the left to enter the playground. I clicked my way on home.
Two things. One: fix the heels. Two: I can feel already that I am going to pay for that little excursion in muscle pain.