Shoes in our genes?

[James Brody]

Darwin thought his handwriting was the same as his grandfather's. Galton recorded the gentleman who - while asleep - extended his arm straight up and let it fall, striking him on the nose. Several of his daughters had the same trait.

I've taken to cautioning parents that their children are a mosaic, not a puree, and such goes for their habits and conflicts as well as their looks.

Pat recently sent me an anecdote, inspired by some material in Rebellion:

"5/8/09


"I was re-reading some of my emails & the thing about my ancestors really hit me.

"I have a beautiful photo taken in the 1880's of Timothy O'Leary (NOT the Harvard guy!) standing outside of O'Leary's Electric Shoe Store. My grandfather is a tiny urchin sitting on the sidewalk.

"Shoes!!! Shoes!!!

"When I realized I had some disposable income I figured out a way to get to Nordstrom's w/out using the expressway (actually my husband told me.) I found the part of the shoe dept where they have the Italian imports & ridiculous prices. After I bought some& nbsp;outrageous & fabulous shoes for myself, I saw some shoes that just screamed "Cathy" (my cousin, our families are related in county Cork Ire) They were incredibly naughty, pink silk & black lace & not meant to be worn outside of the house. And since her husband is incredibly rich, she was in N's shoe computer so I was able to get her size w/out asking her. Since they really were Cathy shoes, she went crazy over them.

"About a month later I was hanging out & buying shoes & just fell into the huge pool of temptation & bought some shoes that were too slutty for words. After I showed them to some trusted female friends I took them back to N's. I was telling my close friend in IN about my slut shoes & she said “My momma wears slut shoes!! She wears them to church!! Momma Helen is 87 & just beat colon cancer & I could not think of a better gift so went back to N's & they mailed these slut shoes to her in Louisville.”

"The poor woman called all over the US trying to figure out who sent the shoes & my friend Joyce was in Vegas at the time & let her twist in the wind w/ suspense but finally spilled it that I sent them. Since momma Helen is 87 she could not even remotely walk in them, so I told her to get someone to take them back to any local N's and get some shoes that she could walk in. Meanwhile, everyone in Louisville has made a pilgrimage to Momma Helen's house to visit the shoes, her preacher & his wife being the first official visitors. And subsequently Joyce visited them in person & said they were wonderful, the most gorgeous shoes she had ever seen. Since Joyce is disabled right now (falls down when she walks) I got her the flat version of the slut shoes in addition to some very amazing non-slut sandals.

"The story gets better...momma Helen was supposed to sell the shoes to a family member but just has not been able to do it. She lent them out to a relative so they went to a society party plus the Kentucky Derby. But of course they are back w/ momma Helen now.

"They have taken on a life of their own at this point. I was explaining the story of the slut shoes to the husband of a friend (over 6'5," over 300 lbs ex special forces) and he could not picture what a slut shoe would look like so I told him I would have to take him on a field trip to Nordstrom's for educational purposes.

"Meanwhile my husband has never even seen the shoes....he thinks any shoes that cost over $40 are a felony so he was not involved in this caper at all. (I do not ask what his various machines cost=2 0& he has no idea what I spend my $$ on. That may be the secret of a happy marriage....separate credit cards.)


"Gotta run.

"Will think more about Timothy & his shoe store.

"Pat"